Shula Kitkowska, 42, and Louis Peralta, 56, are two Rhode Islanders who became friends when they met in a local supportive housing program.
Kitkowska was living in her car, and Peralta found himself needing housing after he was discharged from cancer treatment. Once they were in a shelter, the two lived next to each other.
During this time, as they were both working to get back on their feet, Kitkowska learned of Peralta’s penchant for buying discounted storage lockers — the kind you might see on the A&E Network show “Storage Wars.”
He would buy the abandoned storage units at a steep discount, pick through them for items he could sell at a high price, and throw the rest away. It was a hobby he had been doing for 25 years.
“By becoming neighbors, she could see what I was doing … so she asked me what was going on, and I told her to subsidize myself, I would buy storage lockers, but I would throw away 80-90% of what I got because you just can’t accumulate too much,” Peralta told WJAR News.
“And she got upset because she knew she could do a lot with it to give back.”
Shula Kitkowska smiles with donations in her car. Photo courtesy of Up 2 Us Neighbors/Facebook
Now that the two have secured their own permanent housing, they use Peralta’s longtime hobby to give back to others like them.
“When I saw him doing that, I thought, ‘I can do something with this. I can redistribute it so it doesn’t end up at the landfill,’” Kitkowska told WJAR.
“When I came out of homelessness I had nothing. I didn’t have furniture, I didn’t have any of that, so what I can do for people today is give what I can.”
Now, they strategically shop the storage units, with Kitkowska keeping household items, shoes, and other valuable essentials in her own home to share with others who have very little.
The first time the pair put out a call on social media, several people reached out. Now, they’ve helped hundreds in need, and they call their effort Up 2 Us Neighbors.
“I take in the requests and then if I have the stuff, whoever needs a coffee table or size 12 clothes or children’s clothes or anything, then I give it to them,” Kitkowska said. “I’ll deliver it or they’ll come and pick it up.”
Their policy is simple, the pair writes on a GoFundMe page: “Upon request. No questions asked.”
From nursery furniture to new clothes, the goal is to get people connected to the things they need to rebuild their lives.
The mission has grown in recent months, and the duo now has three of their own storage lockers where they keep items to donate. However, demand is growing, and they are fundraising to expand to a box truck or cargo van to support their efforts.
People across the state have come to Up 2 Us Neighbors for support, and they’ve created a community of at least 30 to 40 volunteers, Kitkowska said.
“I have over 100 requests right now and I can only do a couple a day. Just yesterday, I received over 100 requests,” she said. “I mean, everything is up, you can’t buy clothes, everything is expensive. You’re a family with multiple kids, how do you do it?”
She reportedly spends about 10 hours a day working to fulfill requests, and she doesn’t receive any money of her own to make it happen.
“I do it because it makes me feel good,” she told WJAR. “That’s all.”
A sign of growth from their own rock bottom, Kitkowska and Peralta are turning their struggles into a new beginning for others, too.
“From a homeless shelter to a new apartment, my journey has taught me one thing,” Kitkowska wrote on Facebook.
“We are stronger when we look out for each other.”
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Header image by Meathead Movers (CC BY-SA 2.0)
