Help with Jenna’s Recovery and from being evicted

*Hello. My name is Jenna and I have been struggling financially over the past few months which comes towards the end of a really difficult year for me. If you’d like to read about it I’ve written about it below. However the summary of it is my long time partner told me she was leaving me with our dog and moving across the country and the next morning my mom passed away. A few months later I relapsed and entered rehab. Through paperwork discrepancies, my job terminated me when I returned and would not give me unemployment. I have a new job now that is fulfilling and that I love (para educator for special education in first grade) however it does not pay much. I’m also door dashing on the side and working to become a certified teacher. In the meantime, I just received a note on my door that I have 13 days to pay this months rent or I’m evicted. I don’t just want to move to a new place in Portland I want to save enough money to go back to California where I have support. Thank you so much for reading and find more detailed info below. Much love. - J*

For those that do not know, I was hit with some really big losses last year, and it has left me without the two people that I cared about, cared for, and in some ways, depended on.

My mom was my best friend since I can remember and was until the day she passed. The last years of her life were extremely difficult as she developed Vascular Dementia following a series of TMI strokes, needing hip surgery, and an emergency quad bypass heart surgery (she actually technically died in this surgery but was revived, thank goodness, and was able to live for several more years after).

My brother and I had been her caretakers since the beginning of all of this. I started with it and my brother took over as a full-time caregiver. My mom told me years back, while she was going through needing to help her own mother go to the bathroom, shower, clean her up, change her diapers… that she never wanted me or my brother to have to go through that with her. But life happens and we very much did on a daily basis.

My mom passed away the morning after my long-time partner and love of my life told me she would be moving across the country with our dog and that she did not want me to come with her and that we would be breaking up. The timing was not planned, of course, and I did my very best to stay positive and well. I had been sober at the time and ended up relapsing and ultimately I went into rehab and extended a few times to make sure I was good. I was completely on my own and I knew I needed to keep my shit together. The job I had been working at while I went on leave for help ended up terminating me a few weeks after my return, basing it on technicalities. It’s a long story that I’m happy to tell but I can say for now in summary it was absolutely awful and there’s currently a boycott against the business for unfair treatment to employees.

I am currently working as a substitute teacher for special education and I love it. I’m on a long-term job right now and may end up staying with the school and leaving the substitute company I’m employed with.

What is the point to all of this? I have been perpetually behind in one month's rent and bills from the time between being terminated from my job and being approved for this substitute teaching position. At this time, my previous roommate also told me she was moving out. I have since gotten a new roommate, someone that I was in treatment with. It’s a great setup.

I want to be able to feel like things are getting better and feel the positive changes I’ve made and excitement over my new job which has been my calling for a long time. I am also interested in becoming a licensed drug and alcohol counselor. I got degrees in Psychology and Gender Studies two years ago from PSU and loved every minute of it.

My dad cannot help me with a month’s rent. I’ve asked some family friends of my mom and they have not been able to either. It’s no one’s responsibility, of course, but I really need help. I’ve tried different outlets to no avail.

TL;DR I’m trying to get back on track with rent and bills from being fired from my job as retaliation for being gone for several months while I went into rehab to get better after my mom passed away and my spouse and I separated concurrently.