Disabled El Paso grandmother may lose home

Cyntia Lares is trying to hold on to the Northeast home she’s lived in since she was five years old. But much has changed since then.

The 52-year-old’s home is being foreclosed on, and she suffered serious injuries in a 1990 crash over El Paso’s Spaghetti Bowl where her car plunged to street level after being struck from behind. It left her a paraplegic, relying on her electric wheelchair for the rest of her life.

She has no job, relies on Social Security.

Unable to make mortgage payments of $1,200 a month for years, the bank is foreclosing on her home. She owes $130,000 dollars. She says she has no help from her husband. “He abandoned us when he found out I would never walk again,” said Lares, leaving her to raise her three children. One of her daughters had a baby boy, now living with Lares. He is 13 years old, and is all Lares has to rely on. “He’s my rock. Without him, I would have given up and disappeared under a rock.” adds Lares.

The home is under Lares’ mother’s name because the title was never changed over before her mother died suddenly from an aneurysm, which makes the foreclosure battle even tougher, she said.

Attorney Ruben Robles heard her plight while sitting in a courtroom as the 52-year-old tried explaining her case to a state judge. Now Robles represents Lares pro-bono.

What may sound like a dire situation, is even worse.

In 2014, floods claimed the Lares home roof, which partially caved in. The entire left side of the house has no shingles on the roof. Holes pocket through into the house, making way for sun to shine in, but also make way for rainfall to flood the house.

Attorney Robles has been able to get the case moved from state to federal court because the house is in her mother’s name. But even Robles admits, keeping the home is an uphill battle.

As time winds down to the next court date, the house is falling deeper into disrepair.

She has no hot water in her bathroom because of poor plumbing. Her power, water and gas have been shut down on several occasions due to lack of funds. Internet access is spoty.

A GoFundMe account set up for her was closed after little, to no activity.

Asked why so doesn’t move out, through tears, Lares says this is her home, where she grew up, and the personal attachment to where her mother raised her is too much to leave without a fight.

Lares realizes she will never walk again, but wants to spend the rest of her life inside the home she grew up in.

For a link to the GoFundMe account, click here.