Evicted Swampscott Family of Five Struggles to Regain Footing

Coach Carlton Beaver, 46, is a motivator.

Yet he’s at a loss for words when answering his own kids’ questions about their plight.

His job as a case manager for Lifebridge is helping homeless people in Salem find a place to live.

Yet now he and his family go on regular pilgrimages scouring islands of one-night hotels along Route 1 seeking a place to stay.

For years he helped teens in distress find direction in their lives.

Now he and his wife and children are leaning on each other and friends and the generosity of two local churches to stand.

His wife, Hellena, 36, has worked in the medical field for 15 years. The last several years her job at North Shore Medical Center has been as a unit technician, working the overnight shift where she makes sure frail people do not fall and hurt themselves.

But her family has fallen. 

They are Carlton, Hellena, Nashayla, 9, Jaz, 7, and Mirrell (also known as ‘The Boss’), 3, and Decosta, a teenager, who won a scholarship to a prep school and is living there. 

The kids are football players and cheerleaders, students and singers, friends and siblings who like to have fun.

They are a family that found a place where the grass is greener — Swampscott.

Spend 30 minutes with them by Phillips Park and you would see the connections they have built.

The children run in the grass with friends and toss and kick a football.

Drivers stuck in end-of-day traffic on Humphrey Street Thursday holler over with warmth to Carlton, “Hey Coach.” He hollers back with equal warmth.

He has coached youth football in town since moving here.

He has a rapport with people.

Two teenagers roaming the park stop by and say hi to coach.

One of the boys asks him what position he will be playing this year.

Coach tells him, “Get your hands ready,” meaning he will be playing wide receiver.

Carlton's words both sound inspirational and inspire thought. He didn’t say you’ll be playing end. He said, ‘Get your hands ready.”

When he motivates players to dig down and practice harder he repeats the words “Fourth Quarter,” “Fourth Quarter.”

That means practice like the game is on the line. Play each play in the game as if the game was on the line.

Now pretty much the Beavers' whole life together is on the line.

All they own is packed into the back of their Chevrolet mini-van in plastic bags, cases and baskets.

They are a family on the move.

They continue to work, struggling with medical issues and to keep each others spirits in tact at the hardest times any of them have ever faced.

Each day the children ask their parents where they will be staying the night.

They ask if they will be able to go back to school and see their friends.

They also cheer each other up, sometimes not even intentionally.

The kids have become “little hotel critics,” their mom says.

She laughs when she hears them say they like one hotel more than another because of the people who run it or the breakfast that is served.

They say things like, "I could never live at this hotel but the one last week I could live in." This makes mom smile and laugh — the little hotel critics.

Until this spring the Beaver family had lived in Swampscott for about three years.

Originally from Durham, North Carolina, they moved north for better opportunities.

Work opportunities. Good schools. A secure life in a small town.

They found it in Swampscott.

But their lives went spinning off balance in March with the arrival of all things — mold, Carlton said.

They had been renting a condo for three years for $1,700 a month.

The landlord was having the condo kitchen redone when mold was discovered.

The landlord had a crew go through the home and remove mold, Carlton said

The Beavers moved out for three months and spent much of their savings on hotels while the crew was doing the work, he said.

They moved back last month and discovered mold on windows and under the carpet on the upper floor.

Nashayla got sick and spent five days in the hospital. Carlton started to feel sick and experienced seizures.

When Carlton told the landlord about the mold the landlord said he had no money left for mold removal.

Carlton does not know whether the condo's condition caused his or his daughter's sickness but he told the town’s health department about the problems out of concern for their health.

After an inspection by the department, it ordered the landlord to attend to some of the issues, Carlton said.

After this, the family was ordered out by the landlord, given 30 days to leave, evicted, Carlton said.

The next day, Carlton suffered stress-related heart problems, he said,

Another health problem emerged and he is scheduled for surgery in the next week.

Meanwhile, the family has tried to find a home.

Friends from Swampscott Youth Football have helped them try to find a place.

First Church Congregational and St. John’s, with their limited resources, have helped them with temporary lodging, paying for hotels, Carlton said. But that help ends Friday.

Friend Scot Cohen has looked through Craig’s List for local rentals and tried to find them a place to rent in Swampscott.

They want to stay here. It feels like home they say.

Their problem is they exhausted their savings on hotel rooms in March, April and May.

Both of them continue to work, but without having the money to pay the first and last month's rent and a security deposit, they have been unable to find a place to live.

Scot Cohen continues to look for a place.

A credit union has stepped forward to provide a place for funds to be sent to help the Beavers.

To help them, you can send donations to:

Att: Helen Paragios, Community Credit Union of Lynn, One Andrew St., Lynn, MA 01901 Please make the check payable to Hellena Beaver.

Also, anyone who can help can reach Scot by email or mail.

His email; Scotcohen@hotmail.com

His address: Scot Cohen, 311 Paradise Road, Swampscott, MA, 01907