Support Marilyn - from Houseless to Sustainable Tiny Home

Hello, I'm Marilyn - aka Kitty- Your Neighborhood Stray. Help me pounce into a brighter future! Support my GoFundMe campaign and join my journey to self-sustainability!

Living on the streets taught me resilience, but I need your help to thrive. Help me build a sanctuary from where I can support women & queer people, animals & plants!

With resourceful street cat energy, I'm not one to ask for help, but I'm at a turning point where I need your support as I am also a neurodivergent, Afro-Latinx, nonbinary human individual who's been met with challenges as life brings us including living in my car/changing temp housing on and off since 2020, an intentional house fire that had made me houseless once again, lack of support and escaping abusive situations.

I've spent years struggling to find stable affordable housing and healthcare. Before the “panorama” I worked two and and half jobs at minimum wage but was still unable to make half my rent for a 600sqft one bedroom apt in Virginia after meeting basic needs. Without any emergency funds or savings Covid hit and I found myself moving back to my home state in NY to be supported by my immediate family with my cat, partner at the time and their pets. Work was touch and go, and things were still up in the air as we were gaining some momentum towards stability. Until unfortunately my brother burned down my apartment during an episode, leaving me with $6k in debt plus interest from my cat getting hurt in the fire and a loss of familial support as I no longer felt safe to live in the care of my family who also supported my brother nor did I feel safe living in the same state as them eventually moved to Maryland than colorado and back. I was forced again to live in my car. Starting from scratch again, I first needed to reground so I threw myself into volunteering at a local cat rescue and with my city's park department nursing three trees back to health in Queens, NY. Community gardening and animal rescue are what helped me feel a sense of support in community, abundance, connection to resource's, and regain my grounding while maintaining my mental strength.

Afterwards, an unfortunate car accident resulted in a settlement and I saw an opportunity to find an inexpensive lot upon which I could build and start living out. This was a huge step forward toward securing my future of stability through a self-sustainable, zero-waste property that I call - "The Bast Pad.”

*The Plan:*

I used up all of the settlement funds to:

-Purchase an abandoned empty lot of land in Baltimore Maryland

-Fund all car repairs; that have been my lifeline for both housing and transportation.

-Clear debt cumulated by the house fire + vet bills from pet injuries.

With local community support/resources like craigslist, Facebook Marketplace and materials my new Baltimore neighbors have donated, I have successfully:

-Cleaned the debris from the previous house that burned down (full circle) with myself, friend and neighbor volunteers and professional help.

-Cleared the land and basement structure of trash and debris

-Acquired Woodchips + leveled the ground

-Become a member of The Tool Library for access to inexpensive tool rentals

*I Need Your Help:*

I’am still living from my car that unfortunately still needs repairs making it is an unreliable source of transportation. So to go about meeting my needs I use public transportation, making my day to day take longer to start compared to those that have shelter with immediate access to utilities. The lack of stable housing, and adequate healthcare to address my neurodivergence, trauma from these events has made it challenging to maintain regular employment. Thanks to public healthcare though I am actively working with health care professionals to acquire disability benefits from public healthcare but it is a process that takes some years. Public housing programs like section 8 and shelters aren’t a solution as they have their limits and limitations being either full, unsafe, don’t allow pets, or a temporary stay being 3 days or if lucky, a month. At the moment, I can manage to make about $300/month, utilize public resources like libraries to charge up and be indoors, food stamps for food, land to build from, disability support potentially on its way and living from my car until I can raise enough funds for a dwelling and winter is fast approaching. This is where I need your helping in raising $18,000 to secure a tiny structure to live from, a generator, tools and other essentials to make this winter livable for my cat and I.

Your donation will help continue the plans for "The Bast Pad." Any contribution will bring me closer to a life of stability, so I may begin thriving not just surviving.

The additional crowd funds will help me to cover:

-A 10x14 or 12x20 shed that I can transform into a temporary dwelling before winter to stay warm (ranges $8-12k)

-A chicken coup, green house and a Garden I can share with the Community.

-Professional building plans for a more permanent self-sufficient tiny home with an underground fridge, well, and zero-waste systems

-Building permits, building material and insulation for winter

-Solar power banks for a heater

-Being a haven to share with the sapphic community, animals, and plants

-Gas money, car needs to get it running and more efficiently + basic needs in the interim

*The Bast Pad:*

I aim to create a self-sustainable, zero-waste property that will be my foundation to share my values and gifts with the community. Named after the Egyptian Goddess Bast, protector of women, family, the symbol of fertility, and happiness, represented by a house cat or a big cat, mainly the black panther or a black panthers head on an Egyptian woman's body. This property will be a symbol of strength, resistance and community.

*Other ways to Support Me*

Help me create a transformative space and a new chapter in my life. Donate today and share my story with others. Other ways to donate; Venmo, Paypal, Cashapp: (@ or $) mayk1 or Zelle: [email redacted]. These ways can be easier to access for anyone wanting to donate a dollar in support and without fees. Other effective ways to support me but don’t have the funds: volunteers on the Lot, connections to people with professional as well as personal information on just about any part of what I’m doing, and donations of tools, materials and things of this nature. Feel free to reach out to me on my social medias IG: @BastxNYCharm_Kitty, Facebook: Marilyn Kitty Carlson. Thank you for reading my story and being apart of the journey. Together, we can make "The Bast Pad" a reality right meow.

*Context about me:*

I grew up in Long Island New York to two unwedded young parents embracing parenthood in their own ways. I lived with my single working mother and my younger sibling. I love cats, reduce, reuse, recycle and Pokémon. I go to therapy, I have my first year of my associate college credits in the Biology field, I enjoying going to a variety of workshops, I like to ask questions, do research, stay actively learning, especially pertaining to biology and being engaged in community someway or another, exploring by public transportation, cycling, and get involved in community activities.

Growing up and well into my adulthood I’ve only ever known ways to survive that have always been met with their own obstacles in a similar jist to this most recent story I shared. These obstacles have had their effects on me even to this day. But I got lucky and am grateful for what I have… I never let a single thing go to waste.

This is Me,

Marilyn “Kitty” Carlson