I’m trying to help a dear friend going through a very hard time right now. Due to a series of circumstances beyond her control, after going to serious lengths to use the resources available to her, she is now without housing and living out of her car in Los Angeles. She is reluctant to ask for help but is at a point of desperation to care for herself and her two teenage sons and so she has given me permission to share some details of her story. I am hoping to raise some funds to help her find temporary housing and pay her car note.

She left Oxford because she lost her job when her position was dissolved, and her position afterwards didn’t become stable. Her younger son suffers from severe anxiety and had to withdraw from high school mid-semester last Spring for mental health reasons. She returned to California, where she had spent many years prior, because of promises of work when she arrived, as well as to get help for her son that wasn’t available here.

After driving across country with her two sons in July, she got to LA only to be told that the job wasn’t going to happen after all. Since then, she has been looking for work constantly, and as of a couple of weeks ago, she has a temporary position, but it will be ending very soon unless extended.

She was able to get vouchers for housing for a limited time, which allowed her family to live in a motel for a few weeks. They are not candidates for overnight shelter housing because her sons would be separated from her. LA’s support services are in crisis, and she has exhausted every current source of help. She has no family to support her. So they have been sleeping in her car for weeks. During the day, her older son attends community college on grants and is doing well in his first semester as a college student. Her younger son is in an alternative high school program that allows him to attend classes onsite part time and work independently part time. She spends the days looking for work and has had many interviews, been to several job fairs, and is currently working a temp job.

She has a college degree and graduate work in two fields, with one graduate degree nearly complete until interrupted by this period of need. She has many years of advanced project management experience in high tech and healthcare work, and she is organized, detail-oriented, hardworking, and very creative. I can vouch for the quality of her character as a kind and compassionate person, great mother, and very dedicated community volunteer and employee.

To me, her situation represents the greatest failures of our society, as her family is without housing, employment, or healthcare, and she is at risk of losing everything at no fault of her own.

Thank you for reading this, and please let me know if you have ideas to help her in the LA area, especially with solid employment.

I have researched and compiled a budget, based on cost of a modest extended stay motel and her car note, and gas for her car to get to work and job searching. Food, car insurance, and prescription meds for a significant chronic illness are above those costs.

Extended stay near where she is working temporarily:  $120/night x 31 nights = $3,720/month
Car note: $397/month
Gas for car: $225/month
TOTAL: $4,342

Obviously, this is only a stop-gap solution, but I’m very concerned for her safety sleeping in parking lots and going without medically necessary prescriptions.

Thanks very much!