Hello, our names are Leo and Maryam and we are a disabled transgender couple seeking help escaping a dangerous housing situation. Our lease has ended on the place we currently live in, and we cannot continue living here for both our physical and emotional safety. Without financial help, we face homelessness. This GoFundMe is intended to raise the funds needed for both of us to move into a safe and stable house together.

In early 2025, Leo had to move into this property on extremely short notice as he was desperately trying to escape an escalating domestic violence and stalking situation, and this was the only place he could move into on such short notice. Around the same time, Maryam was violently physically and sexually assaulted in this house. Unfortunately, despite receiving help from multiple domestic violence and LGBTQ+ specialist organisations, we were unable to move after this incident due to severe financial stress. Since then, the repeated exposure to the same triggering environment has led to multiple PTSD attacks (especially for Maryam), many of which have landed both of us in hospital multiple times over the past year.

Having to wake up day after day in the same house she was assaulted in has taken an immense emotional toll on Maryam. During the worst of these PTSD episodes, remaining in this house became so triggering to Maryam that she tried to stay at the house of an acquaintance in order to escape the triggering environment. Instead of helping her, this acquaintance and an unknown accomplice drugged and sexually assaulted her. Maryam managed to flee, but upon returning home, she fell unconscious and began vomiting heavily and struggling to breathe. Leo called an ambulance and Maryam was rushed to hospital where it was revealed that she had been unwillingly, unknowingly given a near-fatal amount of GHB by her rapists. She had overdosed and her lungs were filled with vomit. The doctors said that if she didn’t get treatment as soon as she did, she would have died. This incident would not have happened if we had been able to move after the first assault, and it is by no means the only incident that has happened because of the stress of living in this house. It is incredibly difficult to heal when you cannot escape the environment you were hurt in.

This emotional stress is not the only reason we have to move. The house itself is hazardous and physically harmful to our health. Our back door does not close or lock, which is incredibly dangerous as we live in a busy, high-crime area and our house is on a main road. Our bedroom backs directly onto this road, and we have been woken up multiple times by car crashes happening just feet away from our bedroom window. We were even questioned by the police in relation to one of these accidents. The noise from this road has made it virtually impossible to maintain a normal sleep schedule, and the fumes from the car exhaust and constant car crashes have begun causing health problems for us.

The house has black mould so extreme that without constant removal, it covers the entire bathroom. Every time we clean the mould, it comes back just as bad if not worse. The combination of extreme emotional stress, vehicle fumes and mould is constantly making us sick. Leo, who previously did not have any breathing issues, has developed asthma after living in this place for a year and Maryam’s asthma has gotten markedly more severe. We are now visiting the doctor constantly for new, mould-related sinus and respiratory issues as well as worsening chronic and mental health problems.

This mould has caused lasting damage to our health, which is especially dangerous as Maryam is severely immunocompromised from past cancer treatment and having had cancer twice. She also has multiple chronic health conditions (including Fibromyalgia, EDS, POTS, severe Asthma and allergies) and mental health conditions (including C-PTSD and high-support needs Autism) which have all been dramatically and dangerously worsened by our living environment. These conditions also leave her at an extremely high risk for developing long-term issues caused by mould exposure.

Leo has Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome, Bipolar, C-PTSD and a neurological disorder which have all been worsened by the emotional and environmental stressors of living in this house. The emotional stress from living in this house has caused him to have multiple CVS episodes, three of which were so severe they required hospitalisation last year. The environmental stressors in this house have also caused flare ups of previously well-managed conditions, leading to chronic migraines and a relapse of multiple parasomnias. The culmination of these health issues caused him to lose his ability to work and leave his job in mid 2025, a few months after moving into this house.

This house also does not meet our state's minimum rental standards. The floors are extremely warped, to the point where the bathroom floor is caving in; we have to be careful not to step on the wrong tile or we will quite literally fall through the floor, as the foundations of the house are rotting. There are multiple holes in the walls which we have to block with various objects, lest pests, insects and rodents come into the house. The electrical wiring was deemed too dangerous to be legal and after one of multiple blackouts, an electrician told us that the house could burn down at any point. For example, whenever the oven is turned on, the faulty wiring causes the power in the house to surge and overload the circuits which causes a blackout, so we cannot use our oven. We are also dealing with a suspected gas leak related to this oven. An electrician told us that the faulty wiring is causing us to use far more electricity than we should be using. This, in combination with the gas leak, means our energy and gas bills constantly come back higher than they should be.

The worst part is, our landlord refuses to address any of these concerns. Whenever we notified our agent of these issues, the landlord would ignore everything that was reported for months and even dodge the agent’s calls. Whenever we tried to push the issue of repairs ourselves, the landlord not only ignored us but tried to argue with us and flat-out refused to carry out mandatory repairs or safety checks. For instance, when we contacted him regarding the dangerous electrical wiring, he responded by telling us that we didn’t need an oven, and got angry that we had called an electrician. When we threatened to escalate the issue and go to VCAT or RAHU, the landlord changed rental agencies and our numerous damage reports were ‘lost’ in the transfer. This happened not once, but twice. Our complaints and maintenance requests were ‘lost in the transfer’ two separate times. When our new agency (the third one) finally agreed to have someone come in and perform mandatory rental compliance checks, there was less than a month left on the lease.

These are only some of the reasons we are trying to move out of this house. To list everything we are struggling with here would not only be impossible, but it would also put us in danger. As I said earlier, it is impossible to heal when your environment is constantly triggering and endangering you. We need to leave this environment so we can move on with our lives and begin to heal, and we need financial help to do that. All donations for this GoFundMe will go towards paying rent and bond at a new place. If there is any money left over, it will go towards paying off the high energy and gas bills caused by power surges and the gas leak, or paying for medical treatment for the health issues this place has caused. We are immensely grateful for any donations; every dollar or share of this fundraiser helps us more than you could imagine.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts,

Maryam and Leo