Less than a month after 13-year-old Nathan Duszynski's hot dog stand was shut down by a zoning offer, the young entrepreneur and his parents have become homeless.
In July, Nate started his business to help his parents whose illnesses prevented them from holding jobs -- his mom Lynette suffers from epilepsy and his stepfather Doug has Multiple Sclerosis. Opening Nathan's Hot Dog Hut in Holland, Michigan was the boy's attempt to make money, but was closed within ten minutes because it violated zoning laws.
After he was shut down, Nate sold his cart to a packaging company for $2,500 -- more than he purchased it for -- and planned to petition against the zoning law itself.
Before he was able to do so, MLive reports that his stepfather lost his job as a paralegal for the Michigan Rehabilitative Services, and the family became destitute. They stayed in a friend's barn all together for a few weeks, but recently Nate and Lynette moved into a homeless shelter, the Holland Rescue Mission.
"Doug can't stay with us because he takes prescription narcotics to deal with his pain and the shelter does not allow him with those kinds of drugs," Lynette told the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
Nate told Fox17 that he isn't going to allow his family's tough situation to stop him from pursuing his hot dog business. Shoreline Container, the company that bought the cart, lets Nate use it for private events. The youngster recently sold hot dogs at a motorcycle show and has booked a wedding at the end of the month.
"Just because we're in a shelter, it doesn't mean, it doesn't change my personality, what I think, what I do. We're just in rough times, there's a lot of people in rough times," Nate told the news source.
Nate has created a website where he updates followers on the status of Nathan's Hot Dog Hut, and provides instructions to those who would like help his family.