Rehousing a Black Chronically ill Person By Decembers End.

Hello, I’m Mem, a chronically ill Black MaGe. I use they/them pronouns. I have lived with another disabled Black person since 2019, call him D. That year, we both left abusive families and our hometowns following harm and auto theft from my father and his family.

We were homeless from December 2019 through December 2021. I began crowdfunding to survive when living in the car from summer 2020 through the fall. It took over a year to successfully escape the predatory cycle of expensive temp shelters, but since then we have been supported through 3 years and 2 leases in homes, that sadly were both poorly managed, neglected, with biohazards.

When our lease ended last year, it was after a summer without AC due to broken air ducts, no fridge due to a broken seal that took months to diagnose and be replaced, and of course, the year and months prior there were difficulties that led to financial insecurities while we were already in poverty. The repair issues in summer caused me to not be able to pay rent for two months, right before lease ending, so it was not renewed.

When moving here, we had a fridge that wouldn’t cool for a month. Even with documentation, the supplier refused to change it and also harassed me in person about Covid, masking, and her religious beliefs. This same supplier went on to do the simiar ableist harm when the stove that hadn’t worked since December move-in was finally approved to be replaced in March, even knowing I’d provide masks when handing them her partner refused but without a word they left my stove on the porch. In these first few months, we were getting multiple repairs, starting with busted window screens of the only 3 ones in the house that do open—all others painted shut. The kitchen sink dripped and still does. Our washer water lines didn’t work, but once fixed, a sewage backup started immediately (January). The backup reoccurred even after snake-n-rooter repairs. By April, it had flooded our entire basement. This sat through May until the drains were fixed. I still owe $300 to get the space sanitize. Of course, we’ve been slowly getting more repairs since, even still dealing with a broken fridge seal. It’s been said to me that this home was made ready with a cleaning but even the maintenance man i prefer to says it’s not- he just fixed the outlet to my fridge that’s not worked in months and the broken oven I received had burnt milk on the stove top for examples.

Still, I would not want to move from here. It is not accessible for us to; we’ve lost our winter wardrobe and bedding to the April sewage flood, our car is unsafe to drive and couldn’t haul our belongings. We’ve been reinfected by SARS multiple times since 2021, we have new illnesses, and they have exacerbated, giving fatigue, and I’m often bed-bound, both unable to consistently do tasks for ourselves and the home like cleaning and cooking.

Unfortunately, our current 12-month lease is coming to an end on December 31st.

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As I mentioned, it’s not safe for us to move, especially if there’s nowhere to go. This is why I’m here to ask for support and have a place to centralize funds for relocating.

I’ve started off by raising November rent, $1,030 and as of today October 4th I have saved 200. Im asking to meet this goal by the upcoming Monday. My other goals are to Apply to a home within this management for simplicities sake, make a thirty day hold gold deposit by November 22nd. hire cleaners, movers and clear utility debt before December 15th, for utilities, I am in debt to gas so it is off while it’s already cold and I’d need to make payments to keep services and transfer them over. I also owe December rent.

if you have the ability to donate that is always appreciated but sharing this need to people by word of mouth, messages on social medias, making your own posts with my gofundme, graphics found on my and friends socials- is all just as supportive and can lead to the next donation.

Thank you for reading about us. Please continue to support other people, especially Black, Queer and multi marginalized ones in forced poverty, as the new season is challenging.