Yesterday was a crazy day tackling an unexpected challenge our single-parent clients face. Three months ago, OnRamp gave a Toyota Sienna to one of our clients, a single mom of five kids under six years old. Though Toyotas tend to be as reliable as they come, this particular minivan’s engine suffered a major failure (a cam phaser broke for those who are interested). She’s in her 12-months of full support from OnRamp, so we’ll pay to have it fixed. But here’s the problem: this is a major repair requiring at least a week to complete if parts are readily available. If not, it could take a couple weeks. But this client must get to work and get her oldest kids to school and youngest to daycare. If she doesn’t, she’ll lose her job and the wheels come off for this family. Uber can’t help because she needs seating for 6, with 4 of the kids still needing car seats. That would take an Uber XL which is rarely available before 7am, which is required for the kids to get to school on time and her to get to work on time. And even if Uber XL was available, it would cost her hundreds of dollars during the time we’re working on this van. A rental vehicle would cost even more… if she could even get one. There’s no other vehicles in the family for her to use, and none of her friends have the capacity to carry an additional family of six around every morning and afternoon.
When my car brakes down, I am inconvenienced. When her car breaks down, it’s a disaster.
Fortunately, OnRamp had another minivan in inventory, the blue one pictured below. It’s what we call a “Tier 2.” It’s not a long-term vehicle due to significant wear in some of the components. But it’s running and safe and warm and has plenty of seats. So… we just gave it to her. We can’t loan it - that’s a hard “NO!” from our insurer for liability reasons. But in grace, we can give it. So we rushed to get it ready and met her yesterday afternoon and now she’s driving to work with another minivan to use free of charge for the next 2 weeks while we repair hers. Then she’ll swap it back to us for her Toyota and will be on her way. Now her job is safe, her kids stay in school, and the family is secure. This is why we do what we do.
Life is hard, especially for low-income single parents of young kids. They need our help. This is what help looked like yesterday.
Tackling an unexpected challenge single parents face
