Aid for Jess's Family: Homelessness Crisis

It’s been such a crazy journey that there’s no way I could fit everything in, but I will do my best to get the important parts out.

Here it goes nothing..

Hi my name is Jess and in 2020 during Covid, Thor my husband (not legally) and I had both lost our jobs. After that we struggled terribly to keep up with bills until we finally lost our condo in July 2023 that I had been living in for almost a decade.

While still living in the condo in October of 2022 the cat distribution system chose me and I was now responsible for a teeny tiny black kitten.

I was an alcoholic for 10+ years up til that point, but I now had to get up every few hours to feed this baby and keep here alive so I had to quit drinking.

That caused me to have a spiritual awakening, helping me realize I’ve been autistic my entire life and my life hasn’t been the same since.

From the condo we put everything we own in storage and went to live with his alcoholic mother, her alcoholic boyfriend and Thor’s 80yr old alcoholic grandmother + their two Great Danes and our three animals. We were sleeping on the floor of a spare bedroom that was used for storage so it was crowded and uncomfortable.

We were aware that his mom was having issues paying the bills but she kept most of it from us until it was too late, she had already been evicted and we unknowingly became squatters.

Id also like to note a few things while we were there. A few weeks before we had to move out I had cut my leg open then a few days later Thor almost took his fingers off in a plainer at work, our car was breaking down and since there was barely enough room for us we hardly saw my 14yr old son who had to go live with his dad when this all happened.

From there we went to a roach infested pay as you go “apartment”with the help of my now deceased grandmother. We had gotten a few flat tires when we first got there costing us money we didn’t have and then eventually our car completely broke down on us.

When we lost our car and his mom convinced him to finance a car that has since been costing us SO much money twice a month, on top of storage costs, phone bills, car insurance, food for us and the animals and I’m sure other costs that I’m forgetting. But it started to add up and we just could do it anymore.

So from there we stayed in our car for a few days in the garage under his brothers apartment. Until we moved in with his brother. And honestly this part of the journey was so traumatic that I’m having a hard time reliving it to write it out.

It was a small 2 bed 1 bath apartment with 3 autistic adults and 3 animals living there. It was so disgusting and the only space for us was in the living room on the floor. With their 3 animals and our 3 animals.

It was insane. Between the stress, the conditions and the disrespect from him and his 19yr old girlfriend (who moved out pretty quickly) my health started to decline rapidly. I had to be hospitalized several times for my heart. One time was via ambulance out of the Costco that I was responsible shopping at every weekend for everyone in the house.

I was under so much pressure and stress that I (admittedly) started lashing out and speaking up until it landed me in an altercation with the mid 20’s male roommate.

He assaulted me. I’m gonna skip the details because it’s just too much for me right now but he moved out and we continued to have issues with my brother in law. The 3 of us were supposed to get a place together but at the last minute he signed a lease with his girlfriend and left us high and dry.

From there we went to a motel. I got a little side gig and was able to pay the $100 a night for a few weeks until I wasn’t. By this point I had lost 80lbs,

I had been hospitalized so many times due to stress and my heart and body just couldn’t keep up. We lost the motel.

We were now living out of our car at the park with our 3 animals. I was completely defeated. A few wonderful people came together and got us back into the motel but by this point my body just couldn’t keep up.

I’d like to add that I am disabled and have a hard time finding work that accommodates my needs so it was really hard for me to find any work at any points. Especially with my health declining.

But I want to make it known that Thor started working as a carpenter right before we lost the condo and he worked his ass off this entire journey!

Sleeping on the ground for months at a time. He still woke up everyday and went to work. Sick, stressed, sleepless nights…He woke up everyday and went. Even Homeless, he STILL woke up everyday and went to work at a very physically demanding job.

This man has been doing everything in his power to keep us going and he deserves a break!

He deserves a fresh start. We both do!

So I ended up calling my pastor father whom I hadn’t spoken to in a year and begged him to take us in. I’m gonna skip a lot of this part too because it honestly just breaks my heart how it ended but the gist of it is my dad and I have never really had a relationship.

My 3 other siblings grew up with him but I grew up with my mom’s family. The last 2 members of her family died, one right before going to stay with my dad and the other shortly after going to stay with him.

Leaving me and my much younger sister who’s lived with her dad her whole life the last living women on that side of the family. The fucking irony of me being there while experiencing this kind of pain.

Anyways, he’s religious (obviously) and when I shared with him that I am not only autistic but I have gifts I was accused of being on drugs and asked to leave. That’s the NICE version of what happened. But again by this point I’ve lost so much it hurts to talk about.

That was a few days ago and we’re back in a nasty ass motel and can’t keep up with the payments every night.

All we’ve wanted this whole time was a real chance to start over. And on so many occasions we had the funds to get our own place but we owe over $3,000 on the eviction and our housing options are so slim.

My birthday wish/dream is to pay off the eviction and get us into a little apartment where we can just breathe and have the fresh start we know we deserve.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you so much for your time. If you are unable to help donate please go interact with the post and help us stay off the streets and get us into our home.