Detroit Rallies for Homeless Woman Fighting Cancer

Simone Heam, third from left, is battling Stage 3 breast cancer. Her fight is made easier by the donation of a home. (Photo via GoFundMe)

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Simone Heam has cleared one hurdle.

The 24-year-old single mother has a roof over her and her three children’s heads.

Heam, of Detroit, couldn’t say that a week ago, but then strangers who heard her story on WJBK-TV stepped up. She and her family are settling into a furnished home on Detroit’s west side, thanks to the efforts of a couple of nonprofit organizations, Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries and Working Homes Working Families.

But she still faces a steep climb, and all the charity in the world won’t change that.

Heam was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer in February. She’s been through two rounds of chemotherapy, and will eventually have a double mastectomy.

“It’s kind of overwhelming,” Heam told the TV station.

She is still working at a restaurant – against her doctor’s advice – and recently passed out from dehydration while on the job.

But Heam is persevering, motivated by setting an example for her kids – 7-year-old Simyiah, 2-year-old PJ and 1-year-old Skylar – “to keep going to work,” she said.

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Heam and her children had been camping out for months with a relative in a home without electricity. But then the eviction notice arrived, and Heam faced the grim possibility that she would join 3,300 other Detroit residents who are chronically homeless.

She eventually found a $700-a-month rental unit in Inkster that she could afford on her meager income, but the charities offered a better option.

“It is so bad when we know a person’s going to go through chemo and then come back and be in a car or in an unhealthy home,” Chad Audi, the president of Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries, told the television station. “So now she doesn’t have to worry about it and that’s one less thing she has to deal with.”

That charity partnered with Working Homes Working Families, a charity founded by author Mitch Albom that refurbishes the hundreds of abandoned homes in Detroit and donates them to people like Heam, who have jobs.

“I want to give you these keys and hope that this part of your life, anyhow, is a little easier for you,” Albom said as handed the keys to the house to Heam earlier this week.

“I’m just grateful that they thought about us and gave us a home, and I won’t let them down,” Heam said.

Heam won’t have to pay rent on the house, but will be responsible to pay the utilities and taxes.

To help with those and other costs associated with her cancer treatments, a GoFundMe account has been established. Nearly $23,000 was raised in two weeks.

Young Simyiah, Heam’s oldest child, expressed her family’s gratitude.

“We can have our house and we can eat and our lights won’t be off or nothing,” the 7-year-old said.