MILWAUKEE— For Kendall Hines, losing her Milwaukee apartment in a fire meant losing more than clothes, furniture and other belongings. It meant losing something she says took years to find: stability.
Hines, 34, says she spent much of her life without permanent housing before finally getting into an apartment on Milwaukee's south side several years ago.
Now, after an early-morning fire on August 29, she and her roommate are staying in a motel and trying to figure out what comes next.
"I only have four years of stability, and I find that it's not fair when I spent majority of my life homeless. So it's been really hard to have to go through this again when I just literally kind of got stable," Hines said.
Hines says the fire started inside her apartment at 2046 S. 16th Street early Saturday morning.
She says the electricity had been flickering in parts of the apartment before a ceiling light exploded.
Milwaukee Fire Department confirmed to TMJ4 that firefighters responded to a fire at the address. The department has not yet provided TMJ4 with an official cause of the fire.
"I panicked. I screamed," Hines said.
She says she and her roommate initially tried to fight the fire themselves.
"I banged on my neighbor's door because we had a fire extinguisher, but me and my roommate really didn't know how to use it and then our neighbor came and he figured out how to use it, but it still didn't put the fire out. It was still going," Hines said.
But as the fire unfolded, Hines says her focus quickly turned to the five animals living with her.
"I got them out first. My cats were already outside, thank God. So all I had to do was get my three dogs out," she said.
All five animals survived.
Hines says a coworker is currently caring for two of the dogs while she keeps her two cats and older dog with her.
Several of the animals, she says, originally came to her after they needed help themselves. She described taking in pets that had been abandoned or were at risk of ending up on the street.
This time, Hines is the one asking for help.
Although the animals made it out safely, Hines says much of what she owned did not.
"And I lost everything. Clothes, shoes, you know, and my animal stuff, beds," Hines said.
She says the losses include clothing, shoes, furniture, pet supplies, food and other everyday necessities.
"I lost all the clothes and shoes I had," she said.
For Hines, however, the hardest loss is the apartment itself.
She says she experienced homelessness for years before finally getting to a point where she had a stable place to live.
"Me and my home, that's the biggest loss is me losing my home," Hines said.
She says having to face housing instability again at 34 feels different than it did when she was younger.
"From 17 to 30 being homeless and now it's just like being back homeless at 34 when I'm almost hitting my 40s, it just hits a little harder," Hines said.
Milwaukee Fire confirmed Hines was referred to the American Red Cross following the fire.
Hines says the assistance helped cover some immediate expenses, but it was temporary.
"But they gave me a one-time payment. Which helped me stay here for a week and now I'm depleting my funds staying here and I only got This last week to stay here because you can only stay 21 days," Hines said.
She says she is now paying to stay in a motel while trying to find somewhere more permanent.
Transportation is another challenge. Hines says she does not currently have a vehicle, making it harder to move herself, her belongings and her animals from place to place.
"And then you gotta go somewhere else and I don't have a car to pack up all me and my animal and my things that I have left to keep moving back and forth, moving back and forth," Hines said. "It's stressful."
Hines says she worries she will not be able to find another apartment she can afford.
"I don't think I'll be able to find an apartment as affordable as that one," she said.
When asked how she plans to rebuild, Hines did not have an easy answer.
"I have no idea. I don't even know how I'm going to because I just, like I said, it took years for me to even get to the spot that I just had," she said.
'I don't even want a hand out, just a hand up'
Hines has started a GoFundMe in hopes of raising money for housing, transportation, food, clothing, pet supplies and other basic necessities.
She says she is not expecting someone else to rebuild her life for her. She is asking for enough help to get back on her feet.
"I'm, I'm just out here struggling alone and I really couldn't, you know, use a, a good hand up. Like I don't even want a hand out, just a hand up," Hines said.
The emotional toll, she says, has been just as difficult as the financial one.
"It's been really, really hard," Hines said.
Despite everything she lost, Hines says her immediate goal is simple: find another safe place to live and begin rebuilding the stability she spent years working toward.
HOW TO HELP
Hines has created a GoFundMe to help with temporary housing, transportation, food, clothing, pet supplies and replacing necessities lost in the fire.
A link to the fundraiser can be found here - https://gofund.me/5eb9278bc
TMJ4 has requested additional written information from the Milwaukee Fire Department about its response and the cause of the fire. This story will be updated when that information is received.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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