DANIA BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - 7News viewers have reached out to help a father of five who was laid off from his job at a Miami Beach hotel during the coronavirus pandemic and was running out of money to provide for his loved ones.
John De La Hoz, who worked as a bellman, had just $100 in his savings account and had not been able to pay his rent for two months when he spoke with 7News last week. He also hadn’t gotten unemployment or rent assistance.
“Now I am stuck, stuck behind a rock and a hard place,” he said.
De La Hoz was in a bad spot, but after his story aired, viewers like Paul Minnucci stepped up.
“After the interview, I said to my wife, ‘I want to help this guy,’ so she said, ‘Why don’t you offer him a job?'” said Minnucci. “I went online, I went to WSVN, and I saw your Twitter [account], and I sent you a message, and in five minutes the phone rang, and John’s on the phone.”
Minnucci, who owns All Class Detailing in Dania Beach, hired De La Hoz on the spot to work detailing boats, and that’s what has been keeping the former hotel employee busy for the past week.
“I got a job. Now I know I have something coming in. Next week I have a paycheck. I can make ends meet,” he said.
Donations also came in for De La Hoz, including from a man who gave him $1,700 to pay rent.
In a Twitter message, that anonymous donor wrote: “The line in your tweet, ‘Before COVID-19, he was living his best life,’ stuck with me, and despite the world crashing down on him from his best life to, I’d imagine, his most trying, he just seemed incredibly positive, and he is doing all the right things to get by, but the system is failing him. And, I don’t know, it just felt especially unfair to me, so I wanted to make things a little easier for him, because I’m lucky enough to be able to.”
“I called each person individually and talked to them. They know who they are. Thank you very much for all your help. My family is eternally grateful,” said De La Hoz.
After waiting for unemployment and applying for many jobs, De La Hoz is finally back to work, and he feels like his life is back on track.
Minnucci said he needed the help and is happy he could do it.
“In the beginning — I don’t want to get into all the boring stuff — I was a single parent, I had two little kids that I raised,” he said. “When I see John on the TV, with five kids — and all little — I thought, ‘Man, I can help him somehow. I couldn’t send him any money, but I could give him a job.'”
Life always works itself out somehow, and it did for me,” said De La Hoz. “I’m blessed. Thank you.”
De La Hoz said he is currently almost up to date on his rent, and despite trying for months, he was never able to receive unemployment.
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