Urgent: I have less than two weeks to raise enough to sign a lease before my July 1st move-out deadline. If I do not, I risk becoming homeless.

Content note: this page mentions sexual assault, the loss of a parent, abuse, and the mental and physical health impacts of trauma. Please take care of yourself while reading it.

Hi, my name is Angel.

I am terrified to ask for help, but I am more terrified of what happens if I stay silent.

I am currently living in an extremely abusive environment, and I have less than two weeks to raise enough money to safely be out by July 1st. If I do not raise enough in time, I risk becoming homeless.

I cannot keep surviving, healing, working, and trying to rebuild my life in the same environment that keeps harming me.

Who I was before all of this

I was full of life. I was creative, ambitious, hardworking, funny, intense, driven, and filled with energy. I started working young because I wanted independence, stability, and a future I could build for myself.

Work gave me freedom. It gave me hope. It made me believe I could take care of myself.

That is why being raped at work shattered something so deeply in me. The very thing that once helped me feel independent became the place where I was traumatized.

Then, in the same year, I lost my mother.

After that, my physical and mental health collapsed. I was grieving, traumatized, physically unwell, and trying to find my will to live again.

The home that was supposed to heal me

During that vulnerable period, a family member allowed me into their home. I thought I had somewhere safe to recover. Instead, they used my weakness and vulnerability against me, and the environment became extremely abusive and controlling.

This has affected my ability to eat, sleep, work, go to school, afford therapy, write, and take care of my health.

Recently, it has also affected my access to food. I have had to start buying my own groceries because I have been told I cannot eat the food in the house.

I can no longer afford therapy consistently, even though therapy is one of the main things I need in order to recover. I am also experiencing health complications from everything I have been through, which means I need to afford medication, doctor visits, food, and basic stability.

What I have been trying to do on my own

I have been trying for months to find a way out on my own. I have been working on my healing, my writing, my small businesses, my community, and every possible path toward independence.

I have made progress, but not enough to leave safely, avoid homelessness, and stabilize.

I have tried to do this alone for months, but I am at the point where the safest and most responsible thing I can do is ask for help before I become homeless.

That is why I am asking now.

What the $12,000 covers

My emergency goal is $12,000. This is not a luxury fund. This is the amount I need to give myself six months of real safety so I can rest, heal, and start rebuilding sustainable income.

Here is exactly where every dollar goes:

$7,200: six months of rent in a safe area at $1,200 per month, so I have half a year of housing security to actually breathe, sleep, and heal without monthly panic

$1,200: bare-minimum essentials to make the place livable (mattress, bed frame, a desk for school and work, basic kitchen and bathroom setup, safety items like a door lock and a personal alarm)

$1,500: ten therapy sessions with a trauma-informed specialist trained in sexual assault recovery, suicide loss, and CPTSD

$1,200: three to four months of groceries so eating stops being a daily crisis

$600: medication, doctor appointments, and ongoing health care for the physical damage I am still carrying

$300: small emergency buffer for the unexpected things that always happen

Total: $12,000

My goal is not luxury. My goal is six months of real safety so I can actually rest, heal, and rebuild.

What I want to build after this

I am not asking because I have no ambition, no work ethic, or no plan. I am asking because I know I am capable. I just need to get safe enough to recover and use that part of myself again.

The first thing I need is a safe home.

Once I am safe, I want to restart therapy, stabilize my health, return to school for English and writing, finish my book, become an author, and build an online safe-space community because I know what it feels like to have none.

One day, I want to become an English professor and teach people how to write their own stories.

I am asking for help because I do not want my story to end in survival mode.

I want to eat without fear. Sleep without stress. Go back to therapy. Go to doctor appointments. Afford my medication. Return to school. Write my book. Build my life. Become financially independent. Create a safe space for other people who know what it feels like to have none.

I am exhausted from surviving, but I am ready to stop living trapped in fear and start rebuilding in a place where I can finally rest, heal, and become independent again.

I am not asking for pity.

I am asking for a chance to get safe, heal, and rebuild.

How you can help

If you can donate, please do it today. Even $5, $10, or $20 helps me get closer to housing, safety, and independence.

If you cannot donate, please share this with one specific person who has been where I have been and may be able to help. A narrow throw to the right person moves this number more than a wide post to strangers.

I have less than two weeks to raise enough to sign a lease, so every donation and every share matters right now.

Thank you for helping me get out of this last chapter.

— Angel