[urgent]: help us stay in our apartment!

In late 2023, my roommates and I let a new subletter join our apartment. This roommate rarely paid rent, falling behind nearly immediately and making the apartment borderline unlivable due to both their own instability and outbursts and their cleanliness issues contributing to pest issues the rest of us have had to solve in their absence when they abandoned the apartment. This roommate has left us to pay their share of utilities and to get so far behind in rent we had to appear in housing court for Mediation in July of 2024. Mediation went as well as it could have, they agreed to let us stay and to sign a new lease, but only on the condition that we are completely caught up on rent by 7/31/24 and that we stay ahead on rent through January once our lease is resigned.

This will be much less of a struggle once the empty room is filled, but the landlord has made us wait to find a new roommate, and the amount of rent owed has compounded month by month as we've tried to find assistance. We've already received help from RAFT and from Neighborhood Support, but after they included court fees and once we hit the upper threshold from the secondary assistance agency, we still owe 1,874.75.

Once that is paid, we'll be able to bring in a new roommate, and them paying for both first and last month of rent will help us to get ahead. I was workplace discriminated against in April of 2023 and am currently pursuing that in court after the EEOC determined it to be wrongful, and I am working with a lawyer for my disability claim, but if this mediation fails and we're brought to court we will be evicted and I will not have anywhere to go.

Any little bit helps. I have set the goal high enough to also include my portion of rent for August, but even being able to partially pay this amount down will have a huge tangible difference in my life and the life of my roommates. Thank you