Help my friends escape homelessness
Donation protected
Imagine you lose your job at the height of the recession.
You and your wife, both middle-aged queer black women, apply desperately for work (you have had a 30-year-long career and were a teacher for 3 years; she has 2 MAs from Ivy League universities) but find nothing. You eat through your savings; your friends, who stuck by your side when life was good, disappear, unwilling to help or perhaps unwilling to accept what you’re going through. Your family refuses to support you because of your sexual orientation. You keep applying for work, keep spending your savings. You sell your possessions - even the ones you thought you couldn’t live without - just to be able to eat. You lose your home. You have nothing.
For 3 years, you and your wife live in your car with your three beloved cats, who escape and disappear forever one by one. You continue searching for work, but as your health deteriorates due to the living situation and you find yourself unable to afford appropriate clothing for interviews, the options diminish. You seek social services, but there are never any resources available for you, and the bureaucracy is humiliating and impossible to navigate. Besides, you don’t want to live on welfare - you are a qualified teacher, and you just want to work and go back to your life. You are forced to leave your hometown. You have nothing.
My friends Sherri and Shdiva have been living this nightmare for the past 4 years. They are wonderful, generous, vibrant people who, despite their talent and intelligence, their education and their longstanding reputation within their Oakland community, find themselves in a situation most of us cannot imagine. Being able to afford a few months’ rent, licensing fees for work options like Uber or certificates allowing for work, and medicine to treat the illnesses they’ve sustained due to car living, would give them the boost they need to break free from the cycle of homelessness.
Please help my wonderful friends maintain their health and dignity as they strive to support themselves. They are scared and have been abandoned, but with your help, we can show them that we know their lives matter.
You and your wife, both middle-aged queer black women, apply desperately for work (you have had a 30-year-long career and were a teacher for 3 years; she has 2 MAs from Ivy League universities) but find nothing. You eat through your savings; your friends, who stuck by your side when life was good, disappear, unwilling to help or perhaps unwilling to accept what you’re going through. Your family refuses to support you because of your sexual orientation. You keep applying for work, keep spending your savings. You sell your possessions - even the ones you thought you couldn’t live without - just to be able to eat. You lose your home. You have nothing.
For 3 years, you and your wife live in your car with your three beloved cats, who escape and disappear forever one by one. You continue searching for work, but as your health deteriorates due to the living situation and you find yourself unable to afford appropriate clothing for interviews, the options diminish. You seek social services, but there are never any resources available for you, and the bureaucracy is humiliating and impossible to navigate. Besides, you don’t want to live on welfare - you are a qualified teacher, and you just want to work and go back to your life. You are forced to leave your hometown. You have nothing.
My friends Sherri and Shdiva have been living this nightmare for the past 4 years. They are wonderful, generous, vibrant people who, despite their talent and intelligence, their education and their longstanding reputation within their Oakland community, find themselves in a situation most of us cannot imagine. Being able to afford a few months’ rent, licensing fees for work options like Uber or certificates allowing for work, and medicine to treat the illnesses they’ve sustained due to car living, would give them the boost they need to break free from the cycle of homelessness.
Please help my wonderful friends maintain their health and dignity as they strive to support themselves. They are scared and have been abandoned, but with your help, we can show them that we know their lives matter.
Organizer and beneficiary
Eva Valenti
Organizer
San Francisco, CA
Sherri Duncan White
Beneficiary