Please help us sue our landlord

Hi, My name is Nicole aka Caroline, and I am asking you to help us raise the funds to sue our landlord. The reason we are asking for help is due to a long situation. In April, we became homeless because the pandemic just destroyed us as it destroyed many other people. We ended up staying in some pretty bad shelters and getting assistance from DSS (Dept. of social services) and they give you a time limit on when you can find a place. Our time was coming up. We ended up going through this company called Torres Turn Key. Maybe we should have known better, but we were at the end of our rope. It was to find a place, or they would kick us out of the shelter, and we would live on the streets. I have two special needs kids and couldn't do that. We ended up taking this place that happened to be in the city. Not ideal, but better than living nowhere. It was shown to us during the day and looked fine. A few things would be requested to be updated, but nothing major at first. We moved in and settled, and after a few days, things got worse.

Our food suddenly had holes in it. Bugs were crawling around. It didn't matter how clean we were. They kept coming back. First, we found that we were infested with roaches and mice. The landlord tried to claim they didn't know anything about it. I had spoken to my neighbor (we live in a side by side), and she had told us that the roaches and mice have been going on for over three years. We have nails sticking out of the floor and windows that didn't lock. Our front door doesn't close. The tub had standing water as if someone had sandpapered it down. The wall in the bathroom that connected to my oldest son's room has no drywall. The tub and toilet started leaking and were coming into our kitchen. The living room has floor rot and the stairs leading upstairs are falling apart. The more we looked into the place, the more issue we found. We have discovered this home dose not have COC ( certificate of occupancy) of 5/01/22, and we moved in at the end of July. They have come to "check things out" and harass us. They sent their exterminator to deal with the bugs, who told us he doesn't fumigate and was "watching" for hot spots for three months. Then this guy verbally sexually harasses my husband and me. When I made a complaint, they said they would call before he showed up so we would not be home. They never followed through. Everything we found to be wrong, we waited months for them to fix, and no one showed up.

One of the most disgusting things we have found since living here is a dead rotting gerbil under the skin, and they just dismissed it.

Eventually, a property manager showed up to check things out, and the first thing he said to us was, "it doesn't matter if we knew about the roaches or not." Then proceeded to intimate me and try to tell me there was no wood rot when I had three different people say it was.

In November, when it started to get cold out, the heat went out. I called to get it fixed. It took them a month to get it fixed. Now they mistreat us, and we won't be surprised if they kick us out when the lease is up.

I have called the department of health, the city code enforcement and the mayor's office, and it was just a joke to get things taken care of. Even though there are written rights for tenants, no one wants to do anything.

The roaches and mice ruin anything we have brought into our home.

It is expensive to move, and we are disabled. I am legally blind, and my husband is temporally disabled. We don't have much money, and everything we own will have to be thrown out when we move. It is not fair to my kids that they have to live like this, even if we are doing everything right.

Even after the city finally started to help us Torres Turn Key does everything they can to find ways to nickel and dime things and not fix the things they legally have to do.

There are forty-six violations between my neighbors and this place. There is no end to landlords like this. We have a winnable case but need help getting the money together.