Blind Woman And Guide Dog Face Eviction In Jersey City

HOBOKEN, NJ — If you lost your job and your health, would you soon lose your housing, too?

For many, life can change as soon as they miss a few paychecks.

Marisa Cartiglia was laid off from her job during the covid pandemic, and she's been losing her eyesight due to diabetes. A seeing eye dog helps her get around the Newport section of Jersey City, a friend said recently.

[NOTE: New Jersey has stringent laws about the eviction process. Even landlords of those with month-to-month leases must follow a strict court process. Read more about that here.]

She's been strengthening her skills in data analysis and marketing, but she's still out of work. And now she's being evicted from her LeFrak development in the neighborhood.

The friend, Meredith Roth, has started a fundraiser for her and her Labrador retriever, Dustin.

"There are no affordable housing units available anywhere in the entire state of New Jersey, much less in the LeFrak Newport neighborhood
of Jersey City, where Marisa and Dustin can safely navigate the walking path and access public transportation," wrote Roth recently on a GoFundMe page for the pair.

"She has no family to turn to, having lost her mother to cancer," Roth wrote. "If you know Marisa, you know she is tough… and smart. She reluctantly agreed to GoFundMe as a measure to give her a little more time to avoid eviction, keep her seeing-eye dog Dustin, and find a new job."

As of Tuesday morning, Marisa and Dustin had earned 608 donations and raised $18,258 toward the $25,000 goal.

The money is meant to pay rent and also pay the court fees regarding the eviction.

Roth wrote, "With all this hanging over her, Marisa steadfastly earned even greater accreditation as a Google Data Analytics expert. (She’s applying for Data Analyst, Marketing, and Admin roles, specifically related to her skills in Data Wrangling; Data Visualization; and Data Cleaning, Validation, and Manipulation; as well as Excel, Google Sheets, SQL, Tableau, Python, R, Google Data Studio, and CRM Systems."

See the fundraiser here.