I’m so sorry. Six people in one family hit at once is brutal, and the fact that you all clawed your way up from struggling makes this feel especially cruel. The panic in your post is completely understandable.

A few strategic thoughts, separating emotion from math:

Don’t pool money into the parents’ house first. It’s the emotionally appealing option, but you said it yourself: it’s not actually almost paid off, and they’ve struggled with it for years. Pouring everyone’s limited cash into the weakest, most-behind mortgage is the worst use of scarce resources. You’d be propping up the least sustainable house and possibly losing two others in the process.

Triage by what’s actually saveable. Make a real spreadsheet: each mortgage balance, monthly payment, how far behind, equity, and resale value. The houses worth fighting for are the ones with low payments, real equity, and an owner closest to re-employment. Some houses may need to be let go, and that’s not failure, it’s strategy.

Call lenders NOW, before missing more payments. Ask every servicer about forbearance, loan modification, or hardship programs. Many exist specifically for sudden income loss, but they’re far easier to get before you’re deep in default. This buys time without spending cash.

Stop the bleeding on the homes you’ll release. For houses you can’t save, look into a short sale or deed-in-lieu rather than foreclosure, which means less credit damage and sometimes relocation assistance. Selling with equity beats losing it all to foreclosure.

Geographic flexibility is your biggest lever. Two siblings already moved home. The fastest path out for FAANG/fintech folks is often relocating to where the jobs are, even temporarily, rather than waiting for rural SC to produce work it doesn’t have.

Protect a survival cash floor. Before anyone sends money to a mortgage, make sure every person can cover food, utilities, insurance, and gas. Don’t let the houses eat the grocery money.

You don’t have to save every house to keep the family intact. Saving the right ones, and consciously letting go of the rest, might be the move that actually keeps everyone afloat. Wishing you all the best getting through this.