CJ was a hard-working father who took good care of his home and family. He lived in an apartment with his girlfriend and their son and took pride in sharing all expenses for maintaining their apartment. Then one day CJ’s girlfriend left, leaving their son in his care. CJ was forced to take time off from work, without pay, in order to find daycare for his son. Daycare issues also forced him to go from full-time to part-time work, with the accompanying loss in income. And then the bills started to come in. Because the utility bills had been in CJ’s girlfriend’s name, he had to contact the utilities to change the bills to his name. He also started payment plans to ensure that the utilities would not be shut off. But CJ worried about money all the time. Because he was now working just part-time, but had full responsibility for rent as well as the additional burden of daycare payments, the money was stretched very thin.
 
CJ talked with his supportive housing case manager every month about budgeting and how worried he was about paying his bills. Thanks to the N2N emergency utilities funding, they were able to develop a plan to pay the back bills. They also came up with a yearly payment plan to make the monthly utility payments more manageable. The plan helps CJ keep ahead in paying for his bills and has even allowed for the establishment of an emergency savings account into which CJ makes regular deposits, to assist the family with any future financial hardships.