Over the last year, we have shared the stories of several of our nonprofit partners who have continued to serve their communities and carry out their missions, even as federal budget cuts and policy changes have dramatically impacted the transformational work they do.
For this story, we’re focusing not on a nonprofit, but on our neighbors. We’re sharing a story about Javon*, who received support from his friends when he needed it the most.
Alex, who knew Javon and his kids from the neighborhood, learned that more recently, they had been struggling to find stable housing.
“Javon was the primary caregiver for his three school-age children and had been experiencing some financial strain while living in an apartment,” Alex explained. “But the price was unsustainable, and they ended up being evicted.”
Since then, Javon and his children had been forced to find short-term accommodations every few days, sometimes sleeping in their car. But matters really came to a head when Javon experienced a medical emergency. One of the motels where they had been staying didn’t have sufficient air conditioning, and the brutal summer heat exacerbated one of Javon’s chronic medical conditions. As he prepared to head to the hospital in an ambulance, he called Alex, who went to pick up his children. Afterward, neighbors came together to take care of the kids until Javon was released from the hospital.
But this was not a single, acute crisis that could be solved over a few days.
As Javon continued to work hard, he was also trying to recover from his medical ordeal and take care of his three sons. Soon, they had no choice but to move from motel to motel. He also found himself in a troubling predicament: because he was both recently out of work and had only just started two new jobs, Javon was unable to provide the three months of pay stubs he needed to apply for housing assistance.
“Moving every couple of days meant that he was paying the most expensive possible rate,” Alex shared. “Then he would wait until he had more cash to pay for more nights. It was just not a good situation from which to get stable. At that point, when you’re already living right on the edge, there was no safety net to catch him,”
“Until,” they added, “we realized that Asheley, Allison, a couple of other neighbors, and myself could work together.”
Asheley Tuck was another friend of Javon’s and a local realtor. Allison El Koubi was a neighbor whose son had grown close to one of Javon’s sons over the years. Together, they started pooling resources, tapping into their community, and using their unique skillsets to help their friend.
“You know, I’ve been neighbors with him for a long time,” Asheley said. “When we heard that they were staying in a car or a hotel, we reached out to let Javon know we’d heard what was going on, and that we were here for him. And he was really open to it.”
But initially, they encountered roadblocks. Javon had been advocating for himself, reaching out to organizations, and getting added to waitlists to receive aid, but the process was slow.
“It was waitlist after waitlist,” Alex remembered. “Every well-intentioned process was making it really hard for this person who was already in a very vulnerable state to catch up.”
Early on, Alex was especially concerned about how the lack of progress would impact Javon’s children.
“Javon was working so hard to keep going for himself and his kids under very difficult conditions,” they said. “The existing supports weren’t sufficient, so we provided support ourselves too, like covering some of the motel expenses, meeting with Javon to discuss his budget, and helping his kids when he asked us to. If we could just get Javon some breathing room, even for a month, that would give them a chance to get stable.”
If they could save up enough, the family would be able to cover the monthly rate for an extended-stay motel. While that would still be far from ideal, they would be paying less per day and ensuring at least some predictability.
With Asheley, they were quickly able to raise $2,000 from a generous individual donor to cover a full month at a hotel for Javon’s family while they continued to look for a longer-term solution. Javon, who was working as many hours as he could to save up money, described the amount as “a light at the end of the tunnel.”
At this point, Asheley was able to put her experience as a realtor and property manager to use for Javon.
“There’s a big, long line of people that need housing,” she said. “And we weren’t going to be able to make this happen that quickly. One month bought us some space, but the kids were getting ready to start school and you have to move out of a motel every 30 days. So we were just pushing to find a solution.”
As Asheley searched for affordable housing options, she learned about the Urban Hope model. Urban Hope is a nonprofit focused on Richmond’s East End that “places families in rental units that fit their income.”
With that approach in mind and with generous financial support from a community member and investor, Asheley worked with Javon to identify an affordable home that the investor was able to purchase for his family; a home that Javon could rent at a reasonable rate. Javon had shared how important it was for the family to stay in the same community, and the new home’s location made all of that possible.
“It just really felt like everything came together,” Asheley said. “Just the timing, the break, the house, the support, all of it was just perfect. The kids got to stay in the same school, take the same buses, same everything. It was really seamless.”
Even so, the realities of moving into a new house, especially for someone with a low-income, complicated the process.
“He ran into problems setting up utilities,” Allison said. “When you have a history of being evicted and having to move all the time, it can be difficult. So when Javon went to set up accounts with the City, he had existing balances he didn’t know about, and couldn’t get an account in his name until he paid them off.”
Meanwhile, Alex had gathered the donated furnishings Javon had requested and raised additional funds to give directly to the family; contributions that came from neighbors and members of Alex’s church.
At the same time, Javon’s friend Allison helped turn the house into a home.
“We became connected a couple of years ago,” Allison said. “Our kids go to the same schools, they’re in Scouts together, and my eldest son is best friends with Javon’s middle son.”
In fact, Allison took care of that child during Javon’s medical emergency several months prior.
Once the investor generously purchased Javon’s home, Allison wanted to make sure his kids had the opportunity to decorate their rooms and create a space they could call their own.
“I asked Javon if we could take the kids on a shopping spree,” Allison shared. “We took measurements, had the dimensions, researched the prices, and made notes. Then we took a trip to IKEA. The boys each had a budget, and we focused on storage and organizational items, and other things that hadn’t been purchased or donated, as well as some of their own personal touches.”
Now, Javon and his children are fully moved into their new home: a place where eviction is no longer a fear, where his sons can grow up surrounded by a newfound stability, and where they will have the ability to build wealth and community. Javon is a professional chef and plans to cook for his friends as a part of an upcoming housewarming party celebrating the journey that started just this past summer.
Javon’s statement was unequivocal:
“I asked God for help for me and my boys,” he shared, “and he sent his triple A team for my problem.”
Having seen their success in supporting a friend and how in awe everyone has been at Javon’s resilience, positivity, and dedication to his family, the group hopes this unique, individualized approach can be adopted by others.
“What if this became a model?” Asheley posed. “Let’s find investors, and let’s make this a thing. Let’s find out what we can do and what the needs are.”
But she was quick to point out that it would need to be organized in a different way.
“It has to come from the community,” Asheley cautioned. “It’s not the government or nonprofits that are going to be able to help everyone in this way.”
For Allison, it all comes down to the relationships you build and the neighbors you embrace.
“This is what it feels like when there’s a village around us,” she said. “Sometimes it just takes somebody making that contact, starting that relationship, and reaching out to people.”
Alex agreed, while also offering an essential takeaway about the different but complementary roles played by local government and nonprofits.
“This isn’t a binary choice,” they suggested. “They all have their own points, and together, they’re all doing fantastic work. It’s not like a nonprofit versus an individual kind of thing.”
Coming together, Javon’s friends and neighbors, Asheley, Alex, Allison, and others pooled resources, identified opportunities, engaged with local philanthropy, and used their different skillsets to help their friend and his children.
The moral of this story isn’t to inspire people to go out with the intention of finding someone in their neighborhood in need; instead, it’s about forming friendships, building trust, and strengthening community.
Allison put it this way:
“It’s all about making a commitment to get to know people at first. Once you have those relationships and you hear what the needs are, you help out because this person is my friend.”
*Individual’s name changed to maintain privacy