Community Corner

The Beaver Family Finds Home on Jessie Street

Thanks to help from friends and others in town the mom and dad and their three kids will soon move into their new home.

 

Hellena Beaver sounds a lot brighter and even rested these days.

There is good reason for the lift in the mom's spirits.

Find out what's happening in Swampscottwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Hellena and her husband, Carlton, and their children have found a rental home on Jessie Street after being and confronting sickness and homelessness.

Hellena and Carlton — who works as a case manager in Salem for homeless people and coaches youth football in Swampscott — signed a lease late yesterday afternoon, and will soon move into their new home.

Find out what's happening in Swampscottwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Two of their children, Nashayla, 9, and Jaz, 7, will continue to go to school with their friends at Stanley Elementary.

And their youngest, Mirrell, 3, will be going to a child care center in Marblehead. This is a huge help since it means that Hellena can get some sleep after working the overnight shift at North Shore Medical Center as a unit technician.

Hellena said she and Carlton and the kids continue to feel overwhelmed and surprised by the outpouring of help they have received from people in town.

She is especially grateful for the help that Scot Cohen and his family gave them, rallying support for them after they were evicted from their home of three years and encountering serious medical problems.

She and Carlton and the kids were deeply touched by both the financial help and the realization that people around them cared for their well being, Hellena said.

The family had depleted all their savings on hotel rooms.

A donor is paying their first and last month's rent and half the security deposit for the Jessie Street home.

Online donations to the Beavers, many of which came from parents of children who attend the , were $6,500. 

And people donated $550 to an account set up for them at an area credit union.

Hellena said the family loves their three-bedroom house and they were lucky to get it.

They drove to Jessie after seeing the rental advertised. The woman who owns it happened to be out front.

It turned out that there were 10 other people who wanted to rent it but after talking to the Beavers, the owner decided to rent it to them.

"Later that night she emailed me and said that after thinking about it, 'I want you in my home,'" Hellena said.

Carlton is doing well after his surgery. They await the biopsy results to determine whether he has bladder cancer.

He continues to work his main job as a case manager but, earlier, on his doctor's recommendation, had to give up his second job to relieve some of the stress in his life.

The stress the family was feeling over not having a place to call home has lifted now that they have secured a roof over their heads.

The rental is affordable, Hellena said.

And they are happy to know they will continue to live in the town which has become home.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here