SEATTLE -- Marquette Bowman first noticed a hole in the roof of her father's Central District home three years ago.

But what started out as a tiny hole has grown to more than two feet, thanks to uninvited guests crawling into their home.

"There's been mice, there's been rats, there's been pigeons," Bowman said. "It's very unsettling and unhealthy."

A few weeks ago, Bowman says neighbors spotted a mother raccoon and her three babies clawing their way into the roof and attic.

Bowman cannot afford to fix the aging roof because she is on disability. Her 81-year-old father, Charles Bowman, relies on a monthly $875 Social Security check while he battles prostate cancer.

"The misery, you know, is something else," said Charles Bowman. "It's constant day and night."

Charles took out a reverse mortgage to stay in the house where his wife died, but Marquette says that mortgage is preventing him from getting another loan to fix the roof.

"With a reverse mortgage, they require that you have no liens," she said. "Therefore you can't go to the bank and get a loan; you can't refinance and get another loan. The county lending limits won't allow that. The Senate... we are waiting on to pass that."

A roofing company estimates the cost to fix the hole at $31,000. The Bowmans know they can't afford that so they are patching up their walls and enduring leaks from the ceiling.

But Marquette says walking away from a home her father built 52 years of his life around, is not an option.