Julie Freeman often has to stop to catch her breath. A breast cancer survivor,the 60-year-olduses an oxygen tank for her emphysema and is raising her five grandchildren. She is the primary caretaker because her daughter is working and going to school and the children’s father is not around.
What the family needs the most is a bigger place to live and financial assistance with the rent, Freeman said. They live in an 1,100-square-foot former Airbnbin Round Rock with a tiny living room, a small kitchen and three bedrooms. Freeman, who drives her grandchildren to school daily, said she also needs help with her car payments. She doesn’t have a job because being on oxygen limits what she can do.
Freeman is also home schooling her 9-year old granddaughter, Scarlett, because Scarlett was bullied at the school she attended, Freeman said. She said she would like to send Scarlett to a Christian school and provide her with cheerleading lessons but cannot afford to do either.
She is also raising her eldest granddaughter, 18-year-old Hazel Reimers, a senior at the Premier High School – Austin Wells Branch charter school, and granddaughter Violet Reimers, 17, and grandson Sonny Reimers, 14, who both attend Round Rock High. Grandson River Reimers, 6, goes to Old Town Elementary…