The family of a longtime Newmarket resident are asking the community for financial help after he and his girlfriend lost their home in an apartment building fire in Bradford last week.
Tom Dunlop, 82, lived most of his adult life in Newmarket before moving into an apartment building with his girlfriend, Lois Bellamy, and her son. Last week, however, a devastating fire on March 22 in their building at 114 Holland St. left them homeless and with no money or insurance to put their lives back together.
Now the trio are living with Dunlop's daughter, Terri-Lynn Brown, and her husband with no idea when or if they will be able to go back to their home.
"We were hoping he could go back later this week, without realizing that the place is completely flooded. My dad is 82, has Parkinson's disease, early-stage dementia, and is on a pension; his girlfriend and her son are also on disability. So they were living cheque-to-cheque. They basically walked out of that building with sandals, shorts and a t-shirt," said Brown.
"He and his girlfriend lived their whole lives in Newmarket, and they desperately need help. My husband and I both work, but we are not in a position to give them money for first and last month's rent or to help refurbish a home."
"We are at a standstill, we just don't know what is happening. It's bad, really bad."
The family has started a crowd-funding campaign to try to help them rebuild their lives, but so far, only $500 have been donated. Brown thanks everyone who has donated so far, saying every bit helps, but it's a small part of what they need.
"To start over at 82 years old is pretty devastating," she said.
They are not the only residents from the building in need of assistance. The need has been so great after the fire that the community group WOW Living has started an adopt-a-family campaign to help get building residents back on their feet.
Brown admits that her father's lack of insurance was an oversight on his part but also notes that the household didn't have a lot of cash, and money for insurance premiums was needed elsewhere.
"With the $20 to $50 per month, they could have spent on insurance what they were using to buy medication and paying their bills. They were often short, so we would have to give them money to buy food or pay a bill. So people can criticize them for not having it, but if you had to choose between insurance for food, what are you going to buy?"
