Help Homeless LGBT Couple Rebuild Life
Donation protected
In February 2020, an Edinburgh, UK LGBT couple (J and L) became unintentionally homeless. They have been living in hotels, hostels (they experienced homophobia there which was the reason the local authority moved them somewhere else, yet again ) and they remain in emergency accommodation to this day. In these places, there were no cooking facilities or washing machines- the only 'hot meals' were cheese toasties made using tin-foil and an iron. All this moving around meant work was constantly missed. To say they are down on their luck would be the understatement of the century. When they became homeless, they lost most of their possessions as they could only fit so much in their car as they had nobody else to help them move their items due to issues with family not accepting their relationship . Both of them worked as Care and Support Workers for vulnerable people but unfortunately due to the emotional and mental impact of the situation, as well as the sudden loss of his darling grandmother, L had to stop working. L's grandmother was the only member of his family that supported him and she truly appreciated the couple. Since then L's depression has taken a turn for the worse and he has never been this low, some days he can't even get out of bed. Both J and L already suffer from mental health issues, these have only been amplified by these circumstances. An already dire situation has only got worse as they have just recently lost their car as a result of their financial instability. This has caused a multitude of problems- J would drive around all day to attend his care visits and if any emergency call-outs were required then he could be there at the drop of a hat. Their car was written off in a car crash caused by a driver using their mobile phone. As J now either walks or uses public transport, his hours have been cut as he is now unable to take on so many care visits. Living in temporary accommodation, the local authority have told the couple they may have to wait up to 3 years to be given a permanent home of their own. They have realised waiting this long will only further impact their fragile mental health so they have agreed and come to the conclusion that renting privately would be one of the answers to their problems. This is where the help and generosity of kind strangers come in- they are needing funds for a deposit, first months rent, budget household items, basic clothes and help towards a second-hand car so J can once again attend to his vulnerable clients. They basically need to start re-building from scratch. J suffered a workplace injury that had him off work for 3 weeks, that's a 3 week dent in already limited finances. They have looked around and found essential items at low prices. They need your help to give them a fresh start in life, to give L the confidence and emotional security to work again and to overall give them a better chance at life. The pandemic has shown everyone the importance of having somewhere safe, secure and somewhere to really call home. Any donations would literally change their lives for the better.
We have been featured in an article on Edinburgh Evening News viewed at-
There will be an article about them in The Sunday Post on July 18th.
People that feel the need to go out of their way to deliberately upset and distress people need to take a long, hard look at themselves and put themselves in their victims shoes.
Organizer
Lee Riches
Organizer
