Help Organizer Family Not Get Evicted

Hello friends,

 

My name is Sett. I work for Resources for Organizing and Social Change (ROSC). I am currently only able to work 10 hours a week (This will hopefully be changing as of January), and as the only able person in my 4 person family to work (Due to physical disabilities, mental capacity, and transportation issues) we do not currently make enough money to support ourselves.

 

We have applied for food stamps, which we thankfully got, but I am barely able to make half of our rent in a month, not including bills. Rental assistance is something we applied for, but we were told I make too much money. Our rent is $1,300 for a two bedroom apartment in Augusta, and my $660/month is too much for assistance. We were even told that if we did qualify, they would only be able to pay $900/month, which obviously doesn't cover rent or our bills.

 

$1,817 is what we figured to be the least we need in a month, with bills and rent. Hopefully this will go down as we start to use less and less of our own appliances and power, but as of right now, we're just trying not to get evicted again.

 

Our family came to Maine after a similar situation in Connecticut - we became homeless as a family, and our biggest worry was our pets; a dog and two cats. The closest person we could find to care for them were some distant family in Maine, and decided to make the trip with basically a backpack each of our stuff, meaning we all left behind memories, furniture, collections, hobbies, and of course, friends.

 

Coming to Maine was a scary choice, as our family is made of Queer, mentally ill POC, and this didn't seem like a space that would be accepting of us. We found good people, but not without issues along the way; racial profiling, stereotyping, warnings from other POC we met on where to go and not go..

 

I believe that I, as an organizer, have given a lot to the community. A lot of time, care, money when available. I've been poor my whole life, so I try to save when I can, and asking for help feels really painful. But, we've run out of my savings, and were banking hard on any and all state assistance. As it seems to go, though, they weren't ready to help, and I would like to call on my community to help me and my family in our low points.

 

Mutual aid is the way of the future. I wouldn't be organizing for a better world if I didn't think we could actually get there.

 

Any and all help would be appreciated - from donating a dollar or just sharing this page with your friends.