Help Us Get Home: A Mother Fighting for Stability

I've never had to make a post like this before. But right now, I'm a mother trying to get her children home, and I need help.

I'm a single mother of two young children, ages 1 and 5, and a business owner who has spent the past several months trying to rebuild our lives after leaving a situation that I did not believe was healthy or safe for my children to grow up in.

I knew leaving meant starting over.

Since then, my children and I have been moving between temporary living situations while I've searched and applied for a permanent home.

I grew up homeless as a child.

I never imagined that one of my biggest childhood fears would be something I'd have to face with my own children.

But here I am.

I've spent months applying for apartments, paying application fees, navigating scams and trying to keep my children sheltered while searching for a home. We've had to rely on hotels, rooms, Airbnb stays and other temporary arrangements, and those expenses add up incredibly quickly.

Being self-employed has also made the housing process more difficult. I've learned that some landlords simply don't prefer working with business owners, even when you have income and are working constantly.

I've applied for assistance. We've gone through 311. We're on the waitlist for transitional housing and shelter placement, with over 100 families ahead of us.

I've also learned that having income can make some forms of assistance difficult to access, even when that income is already being consumed by the cost of keeping your children sheltered.

I'm working. I'm doing everything I can.

But I am exhausted.

My son is autistic, and his therapy has been life-changing.

Since starting therapy, I've watched him go from being nonverbal to finally using words to communicate — even cursing a little. I'll take what we can get.

I've watched him learn to express emotions, stand up for himself, put on his own clothes and become more independent.

I've also discovered so many abilities in him that I didn't even realize were there.

Those things might sound small to someone else, but to me, they're huge.

I've watched my son make progress that I prayed for, and I don't want our housing situation to interrupt that progress.

So I adjusted The Black Vegan Restaurant's hours so I could prioritize his therapy during the day and manage the business overnight.

I've been working late into the night after taking care of my children and making sure my son gets the support he needs.

Even through all of this, I've continued trying to give our customers the experience they've come to expect from us.

I've personally delivered orders when drivers were taking too long because I didn't want customers waiting.

I've continued working on our food, our service and our brand.

And recently, we've received more 5-star reviews in the past few months than we've received in years.

I'm incredibly proud of that because I know how hard I've been working behind the scenes.

But there is only so much one person can carry.

Because of everything happening with our housing situation, I've had to downsize and operate with less staff than I'd like. I've had to cancel things, put creative projects and business ideas on hold, and turn down opportunities because I haven't known where my children and I would be living.

Once we have our own home and reliable childcare, I plan to expand our hours back into earlier parts of the day, rebuild our team and continue growing the ideas I've had to put on hold.

I know there is so much more I can do.

I just need stability at home to be able to do it sustainably.

Many of you know The Black Vegan has always been about more than food.

We've provided free food, toiletries and assistance to people in need. We've helped people experiencing homelessness with mailboxes when they didn't have a stable address. We've donated free meals. People have come into our space for prayer, encouragement, connection and even help figuring out their next step in business or life.

This is what God called me to do.

I've always believed that when you have the ability to help someone, you should.

I grew up being taught:

“Do all the good you can, while you can. Because the time may come when you want to and you can't.”

— Pastor Wilson Daniels

So it's incredibly humbling to now be the person asking for help.

I'm not starting from nowhere.

I have been pre-approved for housing opportunities and am waiting for final approval.

I've been actively working toward housing for months.

The problem is that I've been trying to manage the housing process in between everything else — working, caring for my children, keeping the restaurant operating, taking my son to therapy, making calls, following up on applications and trying to figure out where we're going to be next.

I've been working overnight while trying to solve a housing crisis during the hours I'm not working.

And I've realized that I need to step back for a moment and approach this with a clear head and a better plan.

I need some breathing room.

I'm asking for help so I can take a day or a few days away from working overnight and focus completely on securing our housing, handling paperwork, following up on the opportunities already in progress and getting my children settled.

The funds raised will help with the immediate costs of transitioning into stable housing, moving expenses and the other costs that come with getting our lives back on solid ground.

It will also give me the breathing room to focus on this without having to choose between working another overnight shift and spending that time fighting to get my children into a home.

I'm setting an initial goal of $10,000 because I want to give us enough breathing room to actually get through this transition instead of continuing to move from crisis to crisis.

I want my children to have a room.

A bed.

A place to play.

A place to come home to.

I want my son to be able to continue his therapy in a stable environment.

And I want to wake up knowing where we're going to be tomorrow.

I'm not asking anyone to take care of my family indefinitely. I'm asking for help getting us through this transition and giving me the opportunity to finally get my children somewhere stable.

If you can donate, anything helps.

If you can't, please share this.

A share could put this story in front of someone who is able to help us in a way we never expected.

I've spent years building The Black Vegan while trying to create something meaningful for my community.

Right now, I'm asking for a little help while I do the most important thing I can do:

Get my children home.

Thank you for reading this, for caring about my children and for helping us get through this difficult season.

We're just trying to get home.

This fundraiser for my Sparkle Rucker, it currently says it's for Katrina Martin (my mom) because she the person who can withdraw donations on my behalf since they currently don't accept temporary licenses and I will have to wait until we are in a home of our own to get a permanent one❤️