A single mother of three from Chicago received a holiday surprise on Steve Harvey’s talk show on Dec. 12. Over the summer, she and her three young children had been evicted from their apartment when the city declared it uninhabitable around the same time she was fleeing domestic abuse.
Steve Harvey surprised Ashanti Taylor and her family with a fully furnished apartment with the rent and utilities paid for a year. Helping Harvey was Make Room, which also provided Taylor with a check for $5,000, and Pangea Real Estate.
Taylor is just one of the 11.4 million people who spend more than half their income on rent and housing costs across the nation.
“There are so many families like Ashanti and her children struggling across America. Without access to an affordable home and with rents rising and incomes stagnating, we are trying to give renters like Ashanti a voice and make this a national priority that is solving the rental housing crisis so we have more homes like this beautiful home that we are able to provide for Ashanti,” said Ali Solis, president of Make Room, on the talk show.
Enterprise Community Partners is the sponsoring partner of the Make Room campaign, which also receives support from the MacArthur and Ford foundations as well as accounting firm CohnReznick.
