THE ESCAPE FROM FLORIDA PROJECT
Donation protected
Young couple and 3 cats at risk of homelessness, trying to get back home to the PNW to seek self sufficiency and a better life. -- Housing ending on December 1st.
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intro
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Hi, I'm Evan, I'm a 33-year-old freelance graphic designer, artist, and general creative type living on the Treasure Coast in Florida. I'm talented and motivated when it comes to art, design, and technology. I suffer from health problems, both mental and physical, that prevent me from actualizing my true potential. I am essentially disabled, I have untreated ADHD, depression, and anxiety, for which I am currently seeking treatment for. To make matters worse, my partner and I were both diagnosed with COVID-19. Our post-covid19 symptoms have been making even basic tasks difficult, and functioning fully in a capitalist society has been made essentially impossible.
I was working many freelance jobs, but as of recently, working at all has been made impossible due to my chronic symptoms and post COVID-19 effects. The fall out of coronavirus has affected my clientele base and the number of job requests I receive. I make a negligible amount of money doing graphic work for different companies online. It is not enough to sustain us, feed us, or go toward any type of future. We have many obstacles and are only spared starvation and homelessness by the work my wonderful girlfriend Allison is able to do. She works too hard for far too little money at a grocery store. She works 40 hours a week or more, on her feet all while suffering from post-COVID-19 symptoms.
With no transportation, a fair amount of medical and mental health issues, and no friends or colleagues in the area, I'm relegated to exploitive freelancing sites, online advertising (that I can't afford), or working for 'free' on barter sites like Simbi. With the freelancer sites basically being more unpaid work. (proposal after proposal, contests, competing with foreign firms, etc)
While my partner is (barely) able to pay for our food and housing (and that of our 3 cats), it is increasingly clear that we will not be able to make significant progress on our life goals without a drastic change in our situation.
Because of our low income and our 3 cats, we have very few affordable housing options and our current housing situation was tenuous to begin with. We are subletting a room in a low-income apartment against policy, so we could have faced eviction at any time. But now that fear is eclipsed by one more tangible: The leaseholders are planning on moving out on December 1st. We now have no choice but to find new housing, yet all the obstacles remain.
Some people, even family members, have suggested that we simply abandon, surrender, or even euthanize our cats so we could find better housing. This appalled us and would never be an option for us. We love our cats dearly, they function as support animals for us and we think of them as our children. We regularly refer to them as our 'kids' or 'children'. They are our babies and we must protect them. At this rate, we won't be able to afford to have our own kids anyway, they might be all we get. In Florida, despite our low income, we are not qualified for any sort of medical insurance, treatments or medication so our cats are our only coping mechanism as it stands.
We really do not want to get stuck in yet another precarious situation where we cannot live our life fully and work hard to progress on our plan for success. Even during a period where both of us were making substantial incomes, we were not able to lift ourselves out of our predicament because of the unfortunate Floridian circumstance of the extremely high rental prices and no possibility for medical treatment options. A shift is necessary. We don’t want much, we just want the opportunity to better our lives. We believe that the pacific northwest and more specifically Washington state holds the opportunities we seek. We believe we can reach our full potential and become active functional participants in society once we set roots in Washington.
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history
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Almost as soon as I met my girlfriend, we started talking about how we wanted to move to somewhere in the pacific northwest, build our own homestead, and farm the land. In 2016 we dreamed of building a school bus RV conversion and driving it across the country, but lacked the means to do it. Then in early 2017, after months of problems affording rent, my mother, who I was living with, was finally being forced out of our rental house and my partner and I had to go somewhere. Between my gig as a vehicle wrap designer and her job at a gas station, we managed to save enough to buy a ragged old RV in Kissimmee FL. But it was the beginning of a nightmare. The RV was a lemon, and by the time we had figured it out, it was too late.
We had paid in cash, and the owners ghosted us.. We wound up getting stranded in Kissimmee overnight and had to pay $800 to have it towed back to our town. It was the first of many traumatic experiences in that nightmare RV.
We found someone who let us rent some space in their yard and let us plug in, and began trying to save up enough to get the RVs transmission fixed (and many other things) but little progress was made and things just kept getting worse. At one point we tried to move our ragged RV because hurricane Irene was coming and we had just got it stuck in a crooked and tilted position. Luckily nothing was damaged in the storm. Every day was a struggle.
Then I lost the wrap design work. My mental health during this period was dire. I had never had much of an issue with panic attacks until this point. Now I struggle with panic and anxiety at least every week, even though things have since improved. Add this to the list of issues I had already suffered.
After almost two years, the county was coming down hard on our landlady for the RV in her yard and we were forced to seek better housing. I was lucky enough to find the situation we have now on a roommate finder app, but it is still far from ideal. Every day we were scared we might be found out and subsequently evicted. That fear has actualized, and now we have a very limited time to find housing and find hope for a better life. This is a dire situation for many reasons.
Life in the apartment is better than the previous living situations, for sure. We have running hot water, toilets, a level floor, but the lack of progress, and the uncertainty and insecurity of it are something we would not like to replicate in our next home. That's why our goal is to avoid another housing arrangement in Florida and shoot for the stars.
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reason
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Relocating to Cascadia is the most ideal option as it dissolves many of the barriers to our success. In Washington state, we would have access to expanded Medicaid, which would allow my partner and I to get the healthcare we need. The climate is much more tolerable for exercise so we can get active and lose weight, and allow the natural environment to do its job and heal us. The climate is also far superior for farming and growing our own food. In Washington our eco footprints will be significantly reduced, no air conditioning needed.
I am from Washington state and have a large social support network there. We have friends that are also interested in building a sustainable future for their families and may want to form a little collective with us.
In any case or TLDR, we are basically screwed without a financial assistance stepping stone. Please consider supporting our campaign, every dollar collected will go to funding a future that gives us hope and a life with something to live for. Our goals and dreams are not for riches or luxuries but rather basic life necessities, (like shelter, medicine, nourishment) to help us live up to our full potential.
Please share on your social media platforms and if you have any other way to help (like transportation, or land/community in Washington), don't hesitate to contact us!
With gratitude, love and appreciation,
Evan and Allison
----
intro
----
Hi, I'm Evan, I'm a 33-year-old freelance graphic designer, artist, and general creative type living on the Treasure Coast in Florida. I'm talented and motivated when it comes to art, design, and technology. I suffer from health problems, both mental and physical, that prevent me from actualizing my true potential. I am essentially disabled, I have untreated ADHD, depression, and anxiety, for which I am currently seeking treatment for. To make matters worse, my partner and I were both diagnosed with COVID-19. Our post-covid19 symptoms have been making even basic tasks difficult, and functioning fully in a capitalist society has been made essentially impossible.
I was working many freelance jobs, but as of recently, working at all has been made impossible due to my chronic symptoms and post COVID-19 effects. The fall out of coronavirus has affected my clientele base and the number of job requests I receive. I make a negligible amount of money doing graphic work for different companies online. It is not enough to sustain us, feed us, or go toward any type of future. We have many obstacles and are only spared starvation and homelessness by the work my wonderful girlfriend Allison is able to do. She works too hard for far too little money at a grocery store. She works 40 hours a week or more, on her feet all while suffering from post-COVID-19 symptoms.
With no transportation, a fair amount of medical and mental health issues, and no friends or colleagues in the area, I'm relegated to exploitive freelancing sites, online advertising (that I can't afford), or working for 'free' on barter sites like Simbi. With the freelancer sites basically being more unpaid work. (proposal after proposal, contests, competing with foreign firms, etc)
While my partner is (barely) able to pay for our food and housing (and that of our 3 cats), it is increasingly clear that we will not be able to make significant progress on our life goals without a drastic change in our situation.
Because of our low income and our 3 cats, we have very few affordable housing options and our current housing situation was tenuous to begin with. We are subletting a room in a low-income apartment against policy, so we could have faced eviction at any time. But now that fear is eclipsed by one more tangible: The leaseholders are planning on moving out on December 1st. We now have no choice but to find new housing, yet all the obstacles remain.
Some people, even family members, have suggested that we simply abandon, surrender, or even euthanize our cats so we could find better housing. This appalled us and would never be an option for us. We love our cats dearly, they function as support animals for us and we think of them as our children. We regularly refer to them as our 'kids' or 'children'. They are our babies and we must protect them. At this rate, we won't be able to afford to have our own kids anyway, they might be all we get. In Florida, despite our low income, we are not qualified for any sort of medical insurance, treatments or medication so our cats are our only coping mechanism as it stands.
We really do not want to get stuck in yet another precarious situation where we cannot live our life fully and work hard to progress on our plan for success. Even during a period where both of us were making substantial incomes, we were not able to lift ourselves out of our predicament because of the unfortunate Floridian circumstance of the extremely high rental prices and no possibility for medical treatment options. A shift is necessary. We don’t want much, we just want the opportunity to better our lives. We believe that the pacific northwest and more specifically Washington state holds the opportunities we seek. We believe we can reach our full potential and become active functional participants in society once we set roots in Washington.
------
history
------
Almost as soon as I met my girlfriend, we started talking about how we wanted to move to somewhere in the pacific northwest, build our own homestead, and farm the land. In 2016 we dreamed of building a school bus RV conversion and driving it across the country, but lacked the means to do it. Then in early 2017, after months of problems affording rent, my mother, who I was living with, was finally being forced out of our rental house and my partner and I had to go somewhere. Between my gig as a vehicle wrap designer and her job at a gas station, we managed to save enough to buy a ragged old RV in Kissimmee FL. But it was the beginning of a nightmare. The RV was a lemon, and by the time we had figured it out, it was too late.
We had paid in cash, and the owners ghosted us.. We wound up getting stranded in Kissimmee overnight and had to pay $800 to have it towed back to our town. It was the first of many traumatic experiences in that nightmare RV.
We found someone who let us rent some space in their yard and let us plug in, and began trying to save up enough to get the RVs transmission fixed (and many other things) but little progress was made and things just kept getting worse. At one point we tried to move our ragged RV because hurricane Irene was coming and we had just got it stuck in a crooked and tilted position. Luckily nothing was damaged in the storm. Every day was a struggle.
Then I lost the wrap design work. My mental health during this period was dire. I had never had much of an issue with panic attacks until this point. Now I struggle with panic and anxiety at least every week, even though things have since improved. Add this to the list of issues I had already suffered.
After almost two years, the county was coming down hard on our landlady for the RV in her yard and we were forced to seek better housing. I was lucky enough to find the situation we have now on a roommate finder app, but it is still far from ideal. Every day we were scared we might be found out and subsequently evicted. That fear has actualized, and now we have a very limited time to find housing and find hope for a better life. This is a dire situation for many reasons.
Life in the apartment is better than the previous living situations, for sure. We have running hot water, toilets, a level floor, but the lack of progress, and the uncertainty and insecurity of it are something we would not like to replicate in our next home. That's why our goal is to avoid another housing arrangement in Florida and shoot for the stars.
------
reason
------
Relocating to Cascadia is the most ideal option as it dissolves many of the barriers to our success. In Washington state, we would have access to expanded Medicaid, which would allow my partner and I to get the healthcare we need. The climate is much more tolerable for exercise so we can get active and lose weight, and allow the natural environment to do its job and heal us. The climate is also far superior for farming and growing our own food. In Washington our eco footprints will be significantly reduced, no air conditioning needed.
I am from Washington state and have a large social support network there. We have friends that are also interested in building a sustainable future for their families and may want to form a little collective with us.
In any case or TLDR, we are basically screwed without a financial assistance stepping stone. Please consider supporting our campaign, every dollar collected will go to funding a future that gives us hope and a life with something to live for. Our goals and dreams are not for riches or luxuries but rather basic life necessities, (like shelter, medicine, nourishment) to help us live up to our full potential.
Please share on your social media platforms and if you have any other way to help (like transportation, or land/community in Washington), don't hesitate to contact us!
With gratitude, love and appreciation,
Evan and Allison
Organizer and beneficiary
Evan Skallerud
Organizer
Florida Ridge, FL
Allison McCarty
Beneficiary