Property Tax Emergency (or Home is Seized)

Fantastic.

Not only has Corcoran banned me from New College campus for daring to take video of him felling our precious trees -- 150 of which he has destroyed to date.

But I have just received word that while I was focused on all of that, on finishing my Master's this May, and on finding Chris stable work...

...my property taxes came due and I missed the notices.

There is no repayment plan possible, according to the County: the back taxes must be paid in full, all at once. Cash in hand or cashier's check or wire transfer if you please, they tell me.

So I must raise $24,000 or they will seize my two homes and auction them for pennies on the dollar.

I will lose my life savings. I will lose my future. I will lose my ability to help students with low ability to pay rent, like the two I have in this very "Mango House" here in the Uplands as I type this.

But most gutwrenching to me: I will lose my home.

I have recently been diagnosed with autism, and with ADHD which is "the worst I've seen", according to one psychiatrist. "Which form of disability checks are you on, and for how long?" he asked me, in the course of our diagnosis meeting.

"None," I had said.

And he had laughed.

"Well, you qualify for every kind of disability service," he said. "With scores this high, I don't know how you get anything done!"

So at least I have a reason now that I'm fired from most jobs. The instructions either don't make sense (autism), or I can't keep them straight (ADHD).

So now I'm looking into disability services going forward. Surely that will help my income and ease my constant destitution somewhat.

But certainly not in time to forestall the 5 August seizure of my Uplands home. Nor the September seizure of the small house I was bequeathed when my partner, Army Captain Benjamin Kommor, died ten years ago this week.

That small house is nearly done being repaired both from Hurricane Ian and from tenant damage it suffered over Quarantine: I've been chipping away at its long list of fixes. Friends this week, in fact, are volunteering their trucks and time so we can haul the last of the damaged cabinets and doors and furniture to the junkyard. Already friends from church (yes, church!) fixed the wiring (at cost), trimmed endangering trees, installed a front-yard fence, and more.

I even bartered with a roofing company to let one of their work teams stay there gratis, in exchange for building me a new roof (otherwise a $20,000 cost).

In short, I have been doing everything I know to do, and inventing solutions I didn't even know I could do, to restore that house and my solvency both: to get my home up to code and able to produce shelter for the community and tenant income to me and mine.

But I did not get that mission accomplished in time.

Now if I lose both houses to tax forfeiture I will lose my life savings. I will be unable to generate income.

I will have no safe place.

And I will run out of time. Considering the multi-year process I have heard it takes to be added to the disability roster, I will lose my home. Considering how low SSDI payments are here in "The Free State of Florida", I will never be able to afford another home.

This is more staggering a crisis than I even know how to cope with.

Reanimating this GoFundMe to reach you is the only thing I could think of, to do.

Thank you for your time and your consideration in reading this new story today. Certainly I am in crisis again, from missing tax notices. The only upside is that, with these new diagnoses, finally I know why.

And if you can help me this last time, even with a loan, or pocket change, you would have my gratitude, that of my family, and that of my tenants both current and future.

In shock and appeal,

Jinx