My name is Stefan, I just turned 40 years old in September, and based in New York City.

I'm experiencing unprecedented emergency circumstances and am in need of immediate financial support.

I moved to NYC in early July after uprooting my life in Marietta, Georgia to start life over and chase my dreams. I'm a licensed therapist, musician, and life coach.

I knew moving here would be challenging. I didn't underestimate it. However, I just didn't realize just how brutal, damning, and unforgiving moving & living in NYC actually is. My goal has been and still is to find a decent, relatively affordable sublet that allows cats. I'm open to anything, anywhere - roommates or not.

I'm lived in a hotel in the Bronx, with my cat Charlie since September 1st. I just got kicked out because there was something wrong with the building, and had to leave behind a lot of my belongings. I’m staying with a friend in Brooklyn, but need to leave on the 21st.

I've struggled finding stable housing due to poor credit & not enough money to pay both a security deposit and 1st month's rent.

Due to this situation, I made the difficult decision to resign from my full-time, fully-remoate job with Brave Health as a therapist. I reached out to my supervisor mid September explaining everything, hoping they could help. I was put in touch with the head of HR.

While my job was understanding, helpful, & compassionate, I had to prove stable housing, ensuring consistent treatment for my clients. When I realized I didn't have enough time or financial resources, I resigned. I left on good mutual terms, but left me unemployed.

I applied for many jobs since September 18th. I interviewed for three positions, and two more scheduled for the week of October 13th.

On October 7th I was officially hired at a private group practice called Comprehensive Counseling. I start onboarding on October 17th.

On October 10th, I interviewed with another private practice in Brooklyn called Nurture Your Nature. I was moved onto the second interview with the owner, scheduled for later next week.

I will start an additional weekend therapy position within two weeks, so I’m hoping between these three positions, I can generate enough income to become stable again.

If I had my car, I would live in it, and do food delivery apps, but it was towed in mid-July. When I called the towing yard, it costs over $1k to retrieve, and they require proof of car insurance. My rate is very high due to missed monthly payments in the past, making it impossible to afford, forcing me to leave it for now.

Part of my long term goals moving here, is to start a coaching business. Over the past two weeks in hopes to generate income, I've leaned heavily into learning business skills, teaching myself video editing, and the YouTube algorithm. I've put considerable effort into it, and began working to build clientele, but this will obviously take time.

I've applied for freelance jobs on Upwork.com, created Fiverr & Thumbtack profiles to teach music theory lessons and advertised my services on Craigslist. In the past I taught private ESL lessons online, and reinstated my profile on Preply.com.

To make things worse, my laptop died a few days after I resigned. I borrowed a local friend's old laptop for now.

I applied for state assistance, and successfully qualified. They informed me it takes up to 30 days to process the full application. Once that happens, I qualified for full benefits.

So, several major blows happened at once, leaving me financially gutted, at risk for homelessness, and doing everything I can to avoid it.

The night before my Mom passed last September, she made me promise her I would make a better life for myself, reclaim my courage, and chase my dreams. Things fell apart in ways I never expected, but I'm not giving up. I'm still here, I'm still fighting, everthing around me crashed and burned.

I chose NYC for so many reasons - to make my dreams a reality, be financially independent, reconnect with music, reach out to old music friends, start my coaching business for every kind of creative professional, & pursue my ultimate passion in life to help people realize potential they didn't know they had.

Thank you for reading all of this. I'm extremely grateful for any help. If you can't donate, there's no pressure and I completely understand. The world is struggling. Times are tough for many people. Feel free to share this link with someone who you think could help. I appreciate all of it.

Funds will be used for basic living expenses only:

I'm selling a bunch of my stuff on Offer Up (Nintendo Switch for example)