<div>I've done a lot of scary things in my life, but creating this GoFundMe is the scariest. Multiple friends have been telling me for a while to do this, but I was embarrassed. And I feel weird because I'm always the one to help others! Long story short, my son Franklin and I are having to leave my ancestral home with very little time. We are actually supposed to be out on December 8/December 9.
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<div><strong>***Brief version for today's attention span***</strong>
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<div>It's practically impossible to move when:
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<div>1. My credit has been on and off the struggle bus since I got laid off in 2020.
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<div>2. Freelance journalism has been pretty much my sole source of income for years, so I've always had just enough but nothing to spare. I've applied for so many jobs, but nothing. Even gotten to the last interview many times, but they went with someone else.
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<div>To apply for apartments, you need either great credit or a lot of money to give upfront.
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<div><strong><em>Also if you'd rather not use this platform, I have </em></strong><a href="https://meganbradenperry.com/payment" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong><em>all my payment apps</em></strong></a><strong><em> listed here, on my website.</em></strong>
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<div><strong>***Long story, all the details. I'll try to keep it cute.***</strong>
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<div>As one of my neighborhood uncles has said, "I put my trust in man and not the Lord." Twice!
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<div>This is the house I grew up in. My family died when I was 17, and it was left to me. That was 2002/2003. I went to college (Dillard University) and stayed on campus. In 2005, of course, Hurricane Katrina happened. I worked so hard to rebuild this house at 22, in 2007. Catching the bus to go to City Hall to file paperwork, riding around with my contractor at 6 a.m. But I did it! Yay! Mostly because, as I would always say, "this house is all I have left of my family."
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<div>I've written about this house for Apartment Therapy, back in 2020 when it was cool to [redacted]:
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<div><a href="https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/inherited-childhood-home-36805608" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Living in my Childhood Home</a>
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<div><a href="https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/living-room-classroom-36847816" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pandemic Living Room Classroom</a>
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<div>I even wrote for Apartment Therapy in 2021, about how hard it was to make ends meet:
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<div><a href="https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/pandemic-assistance-bills-one-year-in-36897297" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Making Ends Meet Without Pandemic Assistance</a>
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<div>And I've written about my soon-to-be former neighborhood too, the 7th Ward, for Gambit Weekly, in 2013.
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<div><a href="https://www.nola.com/gambit/news/article_fe65ad24-e70f-5d79-98b6-defd801ab154.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">It Wasn't a Blank Slate</a>
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<div><a href="https://www.nola.com/gambit/news/article_b6cceaf2-234d-56f6-aa07-e361a8b3b381.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">I'm a Seventh-Generation New Orleanian</a>
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<div><a href="https://www.nola.com/gambit/food_drink/article_542257e4-f6a2-5ef0-8a77-b28b02d2f12f.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">In Search of the 7th Ward Hucklebuck</a>
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<div>The house was long paid for. My family bought it July 4, 1969. Which was weird, TBH, because my mom had just graduated from high school. Like... kinda late for stability but OK. Anyway...
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<div>In 2014, my now ex-husband and I had a baby. The day after I had the baby, while obviously still under the influence of the all the labor and delivery drugs, I was made to sign something to put my now ex-husband's name on my house, so he could put a mortgage on it. I remember a friend who was also the wife of a colleague came to visit me, and she was made to sign as a witness.
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<div>But, you do what your husband says. A lot of that money was spent fixing our carriage house his best friend stayed in for free and completely destroyed. I mean, completely.
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<div>Louisiana law makes it so if you have a kid, you are "separated" for a year before your divorce is final. Our "separated" year was 2015-2016. My now ex-husband only paid for the mortgage that year. The mortgage he put on my family home, the place our son lived. Oh yes and right after I told him I wanted a divorce, in 2015, he drained our bank account.
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<div>The people my then husband had hired to repair the carriage house were people I didn't trust from the start, Home Bright Construction (Larry and Ivy). But, you do what your husband says. I called Larry in 2017 to come check the roof because when it would rain, it would leak. He didn't think it was the roof. So he didn't bring a ladder. The ceiling eventually caved in at multiple spots.
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<div>But yay I went back to school in 2016 and finished my degree in 2017! I wrote a(nother) book! I was teaching! Eventually I left the classroom (the stories I could tell about JCFA in Algiers oh my goodness) and went back to freelance. It was great!
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<div>But as Franklin got older, I wanted a traditional job. In 2019 I was hired by Nexstar Digital as a daytime news editor and overnight copy editor. I loved it so much! Fully remote! One day in November 2019 I had a dream I was losing my job. Then, in real life I got an email/call that we were being restructured and that the entire editing department was being eliminated. Luckily I could stay on til April 30, 2020. My 35th birthday.
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<div>Of course we all know what 2020 was like. At first, you know, everyone was loving hiring Black writers! I had money and bylines galore! I was able to give to folks and it felt great! But then a lot of that dried up, once hiring Black ceased to be trendy. Which I knew would happen.
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<div>Eventually my neighbor started seeing the signs that the foreclosure monster was going to come for me. I'd paid the mortgage my ex-husband put on the house pretty well. Even though my name wasn't on the mortgage, so I'd have to Ca$h App him to do it. But after getting laid off, and of course with the world shutting down, I just didn't have the money. The people came taking photos of the house. One man even took photos of the house with me inside. Creep. Don't worry, I HANDled him perfectly. These are all people sent by the bank.
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<div>In 2023, I came home to a 30-day notice to vacate. I told my neighbor I'd be leaving and she said for me to come over, because she'd cry if Franklin and I left. At the time, I had strangers coming to my door, all sorts of people trying to buy my house. My neighbor is someone I trusted and called friend. One thing led to another, and she bought the house and said I could stay by simply paying her $1,500 a month in rent. I couldn't afford $800 in a mortgage, but, you know, miracles happen every day.
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<div>Except, no miracle ever happened to where I could afford to pay her regularly. She told me to try Unity, Travelers Aid, HANO, etc. Of course there was nothing they could do. Look at the number of people on the street.
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<div>In April 2025, my neighbor-turned-landlady came over and had the idea to turn the old den, a converted garage, into an apartment. "I gotta start making <em>some</em> money on this place." Cool. So for months, up until September or so, everything here was chaos. People in and out the house banging on everything. Hot water off and on, my laundry machines gone. A beautiful set of service stairs, my storage area, my gorgeous wrought-iron door and vintage door with the pretty glass panels, my carport, gone.
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<div>In September or so someone moves in downstairs. In October, I get texts telling me to find another place and that 5- and then 10-day notice to vacate on my door. I don't think she'll let me stay past about December 9, but she very graciously offered me to stay in one of her 16 AirBnBs.
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<div>I politely declined, mostly because I think God is using this to set me up to move to New Orleans East! Which has actually been my goal since May, when I founded my nonprofit newspaper, <a href="https://www.meganbradenperry.com/introducing-the-new-orleans-east-sunshine-weekly/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The New Orleans East Sunshine Weekly</a> , which I'm praying I'll be able to focus on after securing housing for me and my son.
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<div>If you've read this far, thank you! This is <strong><em>TERRIFYING and EMBARRASSING. </em></strong>Have a very blessed rest of 2025!
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Julie Graybill

Nicholas Pierre

Anonymous

Maxwell Ciardullo

Loye Ruckman

Stacy Myles

Fredcye Hill

EJaaz Mason

Kelly Cassady

Tiffany Creuzot

Help Franklin and Me Find a New Home

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

dyn_template_ids

Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

Bene transfer V6 and AdyenV6MyMoney Campaign Organizers - production

OneTrust next-app audience

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NextDoor Share Option Users

Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

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US + Non-charity COs Only

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fund country is US and user language is English

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Poster share - new funds eligible (newest 9/18)

Streaming widgets beta user

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3DS payment method

user language is English and fundCountry: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

GoFundMe Employees

ipAddress

Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

Fund is in English speaking country

desktop

Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

paymentMethodType

checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

admin pr kit prod

EUR Donation Upsell

Share Text generation Skip Fundraiser

(prod) new funds eligible for amp12 (UGC gallery)

fintrac_cad_idv_form_v2 audience

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fallback mode accounts

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p2p legacy startfundraising page

AMP24 New Funds Only PROD (DO NOT MODIFY)

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route.pathname community

US Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks Feature Audience

Supporter Comments Eligible Funds

International Only

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braze fundraiser group 

Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

leaderboard-partner-id-audience-givepanel

Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

charityCommunityId

Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

currencyCode

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

writePath

Stream Notification

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

unclaimed charities

prod_ach_audience

AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

shared notification bell audience

Custom users

ach frontend audience

Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

smart goals test01

Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

Team EGG - IP Address list

Fundraiser Without Instagram Deep Link

Native 11.4.0 and above

UC Tipping v20250107

Users Receiving Braze KYC Validation Failed

Native 11.3.0 and above

Influencer - Prod

US fundraisers and US users

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Native 11.4.0 and higher

New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD)

GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

isRecurringFriendly

Is Recurring Friendly

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

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Localized Currency

v11.5.0 and above

testAudience

pathname

Survicate

appVersion is at or above 12.8.0

Non-charity fund

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challenge-fundraisers

Payment Identity Launch Verification - Production

New funds eligible - Posters v2

CAD Donation Upsell Audience

Braze Email Tester

NPO Profile Opted-Out

iOS App Version

hasKnownDonors

PYMK has donors

iOS v12.3.0 and above

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