Urgent Aid for Micah & Talia

Hi there!

For those of you who may not know, my name's Micah. I'm a videographer & editor by trade, but have also done some voice acting & hosting for different company's media branches. However, work in my field isn't incredibly frequent or often available in Oklahoma, so I've had to work plenty of jobs outside of my field.

Over the past 2 & 1/2 years, my partner, Talia, and I have been living in an apartment here in Oklahoma City. Talia has a lot of medical complications that she has to deal with such as Type 1 Diabetes, Hypothyroidism, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Social Anxiety, Depression & even PTSD from difficult times growing up. All of those make life pretty difficult for her & the first two alone can cause her to be bedridden & have to miss work. During those times, I've had to assume the role of caretaker & also try to keep bills paid, which has been really difficult at times.

Talia has been unemployed for a year, but it hasn't been due to lack of trying. However, her health has made things tougher on her when trying to find a job. And there have been times where my freelance work has been extremely dry or retail jobs saw my hours be cut severely after the holidays, even though they weren't seasonal positions. Because of this, we've had to seek financial help here & there and we've even had to get help from a local food pantry a few times.

There have been plenty of ups & downs, monetarily, but we've stayed afloat the best that we could up until the past few months. I started a position as a videographer, editor & barista for a local coffee shop in April 2024 and things were going pretty well for the most part. However, I lost my job midway through August due to a mistaken miscommunication from a superior that I ended up taking the fall for (not by choice). That was the last month that I was able to pay rent.

Since then, I've been looking for work. I've done DoorDash, I have applied for other courier services (all of which I'm still on the wait list for), I've done odd jobs, and I've also gone through a staffing agency which helped place me in a temp job up until the beginning of November. I've also applied for jobs in & out of my field and have recently had interviews with our local PBS station, in a media role, and even Amazon, to be a delivery driver. I'm a great interviewer with probably close to a 70-80% success rate up until recently, but nothing has stuck as of late. I was even supposed to start a temp position in November, after Thanksgiving, but that didn't happen due to the company needing to relocate offices, setting back their hiring process.

Somehow, during this whole time, we have still not been evicted. There were some issues with our apartments on the corporate side, so we're still here. Near the end of last month (November 2024), I was informed that the apartment complex was willing to do a payment plan with us. The plan that they presented was essentially us paying double rent for the next 3 months. I let them know how difficult that would be under the circumstances that we found ourselves in & essentially counter-offered with a plan that allowed us to pay much smaller payments over an 6-8 month span. They agreed to this, but said that December rent would need to be paid on time. This was a few days before rent was due & we had no money. I had even asked for a bit of leeway on this in my counter-offer letter, which was very detailed. However, they didn't accept that. I asked my apartment manager if there was anything that we could do to prevent eviction after the rent became late & I haven't gotten a response from her since December 10th, when she said that she would ask. I haven't heard from her since.

This morning (Dec 27th), we got the court date from the Sheriff. We have to pay the full amount by the court date of January 2nd or else we're going to be evicted (UPDATE - below).

My hope is that, if we're able to pay what was meant to be paid in December (rent + the first payment of the plan) and also pay for the fees that will be due in January, then they'll be willing to allow us to move forward with the payment plan without eviction, even if we end up choosing to move soon once finances allow. This amounts to around $3,500. Arriving to court with this is much better than arriving with nothing.

(Update: Court was on Jan 2nd & we still have some time. Based on what we were told, there is a chance that, if we can raise around $3,500 by Friday, January 10th, we may be able to stay. We will receive a definitive answer on this within the next day or so. Regardless, any contribution would be extremely helpful, whether we end up staying or having to move. Between GFM & Venmo, we have now raised $1,500.)

Talia & I had a plan of leaving the apartment complex months ago & probably getting our own places, but due to my job loss & her continued health complications, which are essentially chronic, that plan had to be put on hold. A couple more months would be extremely helpful to us & we're trying to buy that time to work out where we're going to go. However, with an eviction on our rental history, either of us getting a place will be extremely difficult. So, I'm making this GoFundMe, which is not something that I wanted to do.

I don't want people to think that we're looking for handouts & are just sitting around doing nothing. That is the furthest thing from the truth. But, I can't think about that right now. We just need help however we can get it, so this is pretty much a last resort. I'm hopeful that we can find some assistance & I will do whatever I can as well.

Thank you so much for your time, if nothing else. And, if you're able to give anything at all, please know how deeply grateful we are for you. Happy Holidays & Happy New Year to you all. God bless <3