This past May was the best, and worst, of times for Vandy Gibson.
The 44-year-old mother of four had just moved her family into a four-bedroom apartment in Dayton, Tennessee. She said they’d left a three-bedroom apartment in Dunlap, Tennessee, where the landlord had offered to paint over the mold in the ceilings and walls.
“All the kids had their own rooms” in Dayton, she said. “I slept on the couch, in the living room.”
But almost as soon as Gibson and her children moved into their new place, they were in danger of losing it. As was their place in Dunlap, the Dayton apartment is public housing, with rent based on household income.
“I’ve been diagnosed with degenerative disk disease and scoliosis, and I was just diagnosed with congestive heart failure,” she said. “I’m trying to get disability, but I can’t work. I can’t make money to pay rent.”