Preventing Homelessness

In typical "Nikki/ADHD" fashion, I've waited until almost the last minute and I can't wait any longer to ask for help. And as always, I hate doing this, but I hate the thought of my child losing everything and being homeless far, far more.

We're approximately 5 weeks away from being homeless. When JR's mom died at the end of May, we knew we'd have to move out eventually. We thought we'd have longer than that, but thanks to JR doing something he shouldn't have, we ALL have to be out by the end of August. We have nothing saved, as we can barely pay most of the bills AND eat as it is. We've been sinking all year, and the water is about to get into our mouths and cover our noses. We keep getting letters from the IRS saying there's a tax return coming, they just "need 60 more days".

Well in 60 more days, we'll be homeless.

In some ways this is "good", because this house is a disgusting menace. Let's just say I've been very quiet (publicly) about the condition of this house, and it's full of all kinds of biohazard and chemicals that have been rotting in the basement for years. When we got here, the biggest room in the house had been used as a litter box for years. I can't tell you how much work and money both Dave and I put into this house, but JR hasn't done a single thing. He's never washed his own dishes, even. Granted, we haven't been able to chip in for some of the bills for about 4 months, but we are the only ones who buy toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning products, we do the yard work, and we are the only ones to clean. He won't take his little dog outside to the bathroom, so puppy pads lie around with pee and poop on them for days. His cat uses the litter box about half the time, but the cats they had here for years have destroyed the sub-flooring in here by pissing all over it and nobody ever cleaned it up. He doesn't even clean up after himself, he leaves a trail of wrappers and packaging everywhere. He hardly ever washes his clothes, even, and he has issues with body odor, and his clothes stink up the whole upstairs. Between the cheese smell he makes upstairs, the piss smell that’s constant downstairs, and the coming and going smell of fresh shit just makes it all lovely here, ya know? And we refuse to clean up after his animals, as when we start doing it, he stops. It’s all too much. Add in the fact that MY CAT hasn’t been able to leave my room in almost three years because the cat here hates him and will literally shit as she flees his sight, we’ve honestly been living a fucking nightmare since we got here.

This has all gone on from day one, though. None of this is new. I did SO MUCH WORK when I got here just to make two or three rooms USABLE, and when Dave got here, he worked his ass off and spent so much money trying to fix this neglected shit hole, and not once has there been an effort on JR’s part to participate.

The sad part is, I think I know the reason he's like this, and I've encouraged him countless times to get help from medical professionals, but he refuses.

On the bad side, finding housing will be extremely difficult. Especially in this area, where it's nothing but Republicans. We'd love to move out of this area, especially since my trans child will have to start school and set for in a classroom soon. That though alone terrifies me alone, for multiple reasons.

I could go on, but this is emotionally exhausting. Suffice to say that even if the house weren’t going up for auction at the end of next month, we’d still be looking for alternative housing. It’s killing all of us.

Thank you for reading, even if you don't have the inclination or financial means to help. If you can share the link, that will help. Just getting all that off my chest helps in a way.