FROM HOMELESS TO HOUSED: HELP A DISABLED CRIME VICTIM

This campaign started out aiming to replace items that were stolen from me. My car I live in was stolen and all of my possessions stolen or junked. I stole my car back, but I had nothing else left. Please see the original text below.

My goal is to be housed by September. Sooner is of course better. If it doesn’t look like I will make my year goal, I will start looking for a six month lease in August.

My hope is that, even without income currently, I could pay security deposit AND the full six months or year rent up front so that my income doesn’t matter.

Being housed will:

- make me safer

- make me healthier/save my life by healing and prevention of infection due to sleeping in the car. I will also enable to cook food again

- save me money by allowing me to make food and store it

- provide me with dignity and comfort

- allow me to focus on my job search and less day-to-day issues

- is much more suitable for my disabled body

- give me free access to a bathroom

- allow me to practice hygiene far more easily

I am looking to rent a studio a modest drive outside of the Bay Area, to be able to find something at all in this budget, and also to get more for the money.

I don’t want to waste money on a motel when it can go toward more permanent housing.

A year is ideal because landlords are more likely to want to give a year lease. Six months should be doable, but harder.

I might also need to factor in a pet fee.

New Goals:

$2500 car theft replacement fund

$17000 six month lease and move in fund goal

- $1200 move out of storage

- $1500 security deposit

- $9600 six months rent ($1600/mo)

- $600 utilities

- $200 renters insurance

- $1000 new items for apartment

$25400 year lease goal

- $9600 six months rent ($1600/mo)

- $600 utilities

- $200 renters insurance

I updated the campaign goal to reflect GFM fees.

Thank you so much for sharing and donating!

ORIGINAL TEXT:

This is a rolling goal.

My car was just stolen.

I live in my car.

I am disabled and can barely walk.

I have COVID for the fourth time.

It’s all gone. All my clothes. Laptop. iPad. Makeup. Everything.

I know roughly what I need right now. I will write it in the first update.

I will keep updating as I know what will happen.

Thank you in advance for your immense generosity. I love you all.

What happened?

I am staying at a motel as I have covid. My car battery was dead when I went out to my car this morning. A guy gave me a jump, and I went to the motel office. I left the car running cause I didn’t want it to not start again.

Someone left with it.

I’ve filed a police report. They are investigating a spot that it shows in Find My IPhone. I have an AirTag in the car.

I doubt it’s coming back anytime soon, if ever. And who knows where my stuff will be.

More in the updates.

Edited 6/28/24:

A friend suggested I talk a bit more about my back story, so I'm putting this here so that she and everyone can read and understand better.

I had a really amazing position in the federal government. I, like all of my colleagues, were limited to a four year tenure at the organization. I stayed four years to the day, and then found myself unemployed.

In the months leading up to this, my mental and physical health were in decline. As much as I loved my previous position, twenty solid years of full time work also left me quite burnt out. So, I had my brain and body battling me as I looked for work. I got to final rounds for 3-4 engineering manager positions, but failed to receive an offer anywhere.

For awhile I got discouraged. I lived on savings, and then with some help from friends. But, one cannot sustain Bay Area rent for long without solid income. I gave up my apartment in April of 2024. I have been living in my car with my cat Jordy ever since.

This last year, it's been about survival. I needed to learn how to live on the street, live with no resources at times, live with other homeless people, navigate the scant resources available to people in my position.

I am still pursuing the aid route - SSDI applications, Section 8 lottery, other public resources - but I believe that I must work again if I ever want stable permanent housing. It is nearly impossible to come by when you are homeless.

But I'm not complaining. I'm excited to get back to work! I created and continue work on theresasumma.com and am actively seeking engineer and engineering manager positions.

A place to live and feel some sense of thriving while I am sorting out my career... well, I can't even tell you what that would mean to me. It would make the entire process 75x easier. You don't realize what having a bathroom and sinks and a refrigerator and whole kitchen enables you to do when you have it!

Plus, living in the car is exacerbating and creating health problems. I have gotten COVID twice since being homeless. I've been hospitalized for two weeks for cellulitis in my leg, which is still there. It is caused by sleeping upright, not flat. My back seat is entirely too small for me to sleep comfortably, so I just lean back my driver's seat. But it's not flat. I was originally essentially dying from this infection, which was going systemic when I was admitted to the hospital.

Not to mention that being on the street with all ones belongings, as I've felt keenly recently with the car theft, is extremely dangerous. I've been staying out of Oakland. I'm kinda traumatized by too many memories in Oakland, anyway.

If you could all help support me getting off the street, it is my deepest promise that I will continue spending my life in pursuit of the resources and ability to help others, and by doing so. I don't want comfort and wealth for myself as much as I want it for people I love, people who have helped me with their last dollars. I want to give back to organizations like Pets of the Homeless, who helped me immensely when Jordy needed emergency care.

Thank you all for reading and for your support and link shares.