SAN JOSE — Less than two weeks after her family fled their burning rental home and then were robbed of their last belongings left in their car, Frankie Gomez stood at the gate of her grandmother’s house and peeked inside the white banker’s envelope.

She burst into tears, then tried to compose herself.

“I’m so overwhelmed right now. This is crazy,” the 41-year-old mother of two daughters said on a bright Monday morning. “I mean, somebody who doesn’t even know us is willing to give us this amount of money.”

Inside the envelope was a cashier’s check from a Los Gatos couple who had read about the family’s plight in this newspaper.

It was made out for $20,000.

“We always tell our children there’s still good people in this world and this is a true testament to that,” Gomez said, wiping her eyes.

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA – DECEMBER 23: From left, Daniel Muniz, Lyric Gomez-Muniz, 14, Berlin Gomez-Muniz, 11, and Frankie Gomez stands in front of their home in San Jose, Calif., on Monday, Dec. 23, 2019. The family lost their home to a fire this month. (Randy Vazquez / Bay Area News Group) 

With her grandmother’s house already filled with other relatives trying to make ends meet, the Gomez-Muniz family has been living out of a hotel room since the Dec.19 blaze. As much bad luck as they have endured — from the San Jose flood that inundated the cottage they were renting in 2017 to the fire and robbery just before Christmas — they are now facing another seemingly insurmountable obstacle: finding an affordable apartment in the midst of the Bay Area’s housing crisis.

SAN JOSE, CA – DECEMBER 30: Frankie Gomez, whose rental house burned down before Christmas, reacts while talking with a Mercury News reporter on Dec. 30, 2019, in front of Gomez’s grandmother’s home. She and her family have been staying in a hotel while having no luck finding an apartment they can afford in the midst of the Bay Area’s housing crisis. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group) 

Gomez works as an administrative assistant at Kaiser hospital in San Jose. Her partner of 26 years, Daniel Muniz, 42, works part-time and takes care of their daughters, Lyric, 14, and Berlin, 11. They moved in with Muniz’s mother on 19th Street near downtown San Jose after rising rent forced them out of their own apartment. The morning of the fire, Berlin noticed black smoke pouring into her bedroom from the living room and woke her family. They all managed to escape except their cat, Munchkin, who hid when Muniz ran back in to try to save her.

The family can afford to spend $1,700 a month on rent, which would only qualify them for a studio or one-bedroom apartment in the San Jose rental market. But with every call Gomez has made for apartment listings over the past 12 days, she has been turned down. The couple sat down with their daughters and discussed the inevitable: moving out of the area.

“No one wants to rent a one-bedroom for a family of four,” Gomez said. “It makes me depressed and sad because I feel like we can’t find someplace for us to restart, someplace decent for our children. We’re not picky about the neighborhood.”

The family’s plight touched scores of readers, who contributed to a GoFundMe page set up by Gomez’s sister-in-law. Some $32,000 was raised, which will be split with Muniz’s mother, who has found temporary housing. The family disabled the account last week, grateful for the donations from friends and strangers and not wanting to appear greedy.

But as anyone thrust into the Bay Area housing market knows, even $16,000 won’t go far after first and last month’s rent and security deposits are paid — not to mention replacing furniture, clothing and possessions of her girls who are students at Hoover Middle School and Lincoln High and are avid soccer players.

The Los Gatos couple, who wish to remain anonymous, wanted to donate anyway and asked to meet Monday morning with a reporter from this news organization to personally deliver the check in their place.

“We were very touched and can’t imagine that happening any time of year, let alone Christmas,” the wife said of the family’s string of troubles.

“Hopefully they will have some luck in the new year getting a new start,” the husband said.

The donation left Gomez stunned — and hopeful.

“It’s a huge relief to me,” she said, “knowing that I can apply for places and I don’t have to worry about a deposit or first month’s rent or even the second month’s rent.”

Even with the extra cash, she doesn’t want to pay much more per month for an apartment, she said, “so in the long run it’s not something we can afford.”

The couple both grew up in San Jose and want to stay. They spent years helping underprivileged children in their jobs working locally at City Year and the Boys & Girls Club, which had helped Muniz when he was a boy. But their nonprofit salaries weren’t enough to provide for their family, so they found other work. As they have learned, however, it’s still difficult to provide now that housing costs have skyrocketed.

Over the last few days they have discussed the possibility of moving, perhaps to Sacramento, where they have relatives and the housing market is less expensive. The idea is especially tough on their oldest daughter, who is shy and reluctant to leave her friends. The parents hope to keep the girls in their same schools at least until the end of the school year.

By then, perhaps their luck will have finally changed for good.

“We’re hoping the new decade will be our year,” she said.