Help Make My Destroyed Family Home Livable

My name is Kristen, and I relocated from Florida to Illinois to be closer to family. I uprooted everything and came north under the impression I would be repairing my old childhood home.

For the last several years, my father allowed someone to live in the property since this person needed a place to live and was in a hard spot.

My dad has MS and epilepsy and was pretty taken advantage of during this time by said person. I knew the previous tenant was not tidy but I never knew the extent of the damages. What I walked into after 23 hours of driving a truck to move across the country both devastated and floored me.

Many walls have fists through them from punching, doors as destroyed, drug paraphernalia and narcan are inside, along with endless heaps of trash, rodent droppings, and evidence of bugs. Nothing is clean and the woodwork is damaged. The kitchen isn’t even usable because the cabinets have collapsed and the sink is falling away from the wall.

It was almost 10 PM last night when I finally got to the house, expecting to unload with my pets and sleep, but the house is so disgusting and in such a state that it isn’t currently safe to live in, so I’m at a hotel with my pup and two kitties.

I have rented a massive dumpster and hired a professional cleaning crew to come in and help but these are expenses I wasn’t accounting for. Until I get the house emptied and sanitized, I can’t even begin to unload my truck or get anything inside, making me effectively homeless until the house is safe to live in.

If I had known the horrors I was going to be walking into, I might not have come here at all, but now I’m trying to make the best of a bad situation that I’m stuck in.

If at all possible, please consider donating even $1 to help. I work from a home office, but without a home to go to, I can’t work. Factor this in with the cost of cleaning and repairs, as well as the expense of hotel stays, and I’m already in over my head financially.

All of this is extremely nerve racking and stressful, and I don’t even know where to begin, but I make a meager salary as is and I can already see massive expenses ahead of me. I just want this nightmare over as soon as possible so I can try my best to move forward into a more optimistic future ❤️