Collier County family lost home to Ian, only has a few days left in hotel

The Sosa family, unfortunately, won’t have a Thanksgiving this year after living in a Red Cross shelter until it closed because Hurricane Ian took away their home.

WINK News spoke with the Sosa family when the Red Cross shelter in Collier County closed.

They didn’t know where they were going to go, and because of that the family of five is staying at Woodsprings Suites and only have a few days left to figure a plan out.

Hurricane Ian took away the Sosa family home, cars, and Thanksgiving too.

“It breaks my heart every child deserves a Thanksgiving, every family deserves a Thanksgiving it’s just that this year we won’t be able to have one,” Heather Sosa said.

Heather, her husband, and three children have been staying at the suites for 10 days.

“We didn’t know what we were going to do when we left the shelter so having this to have a roof over our children’s head for two weeks we are very grateful for that,” Heather said.

While Heather is counting her blessings, she’s also counting the days they have left at the hotel.

“Come Monday the 28th we are going to be out on the street with our children we have no friends or family here to help us and it’s just us so come that day we won’t have a roof over our heads anymore,” Heather said.

Like anybody else, the thought of being homeless is terrifying to Heather.

Despite this, the Sosa’s aren’t living in fear. Ian took a lot from the family but it did not and could not take away their gratitude and faith.

“We get up every morning and are grateful and thankful that we have another day to be able to spend together and have time together as a family because that’s really all we have left right now is our family,” Heather said.

Only four days are left for the Sosa family to figure out where they will find shelter next.

Heather told WINK News, she’s been looking for anything, but everything she’s finding is too expensive for them to afford.