What If You Had to Choose?
Brennon is no stranger to adversity.
At just 16 years old, he began enduring a long string of health complications and surgeries. His wife of five years, Elisabeth, has also dealt with chronic health problems. This would be enough to dishearten most people – but Brennon and Elisabeth aren’t like most!
Even through his health trials, Brennon graduated from college and found a stable job. His role as a customer service representative enables him to manage challenges while working from home. Meanwhile, resilient Elisabeth continued to pursue higher education and maintain full-time work through her difficult times, and she has now found a job she loves and thrives in.
Despite steady, full‐time employment, Brennon and Elisabeth are struggling to maintain affordable housing. Combined with ongoing medical bills, the rising rent prices have become a serious concern. “If they increase the rent, we’ll be homeless,” Brennon worries.
Brennon and Elisabeth aren’t the only ones facing this terrifying possibility. As leases expire, many tenants are discovering that their landlords are raising rents, sometimes by more than 50 percent, making it nearly impossible to find and maintain decent housing. And with increasingly expensive housing costs, it’s becoming especially difficult for individuals like Brennon and Elisabeth to decide what’s most important: their health or a home.
If you had to choose between your health and a safe place to live, which one would it be?
Fortunately, thanks to supporters like you, Brennon and Elisabeth won’t have to make that impossible decision. Starting this fall, Brennon and Elisabeth will begin building their own home alongside Knoxville Habitat for Humanity in Ellen’s Glen, giving them hope for a bright future free from concerns about stable housing. “We’ve always wanted our own home,” Elisabeth told us, “But we never thought we would be able to afford it.”
When you make affordable homeownership possible, you offer more than a safe place to live: you open doors to improved health, enhanced quality of life, and renewed hope for a bright future.
For more information on ways to support Knoxville Habitat for Humanity, visit KnoxvilleHabitat.com or call 865-523-3539.