Hi. I'm Ash. I'm a trans woman that's been dog-sitting / doing housework full time and looking for better paying work for months. I recently had a random day gig working a food tent at Warped Tour which was a nice small relief, but it happened at the same my hostel rent was raised. The pay for my current work isn't enough to survive off of, but it's the best I can find right now. I have been interviewing for jobs I am extremely qualified for and getting rejection letters saying they're looking for another candidate. These are all jobs that require a lot of interaction with the public which, I don't mind but I know being trans it's an issue for other people. It's very frustrating.
As of writing this I'm about to start a new haunt season, but pay doesn't start until after rent/bills are due.
I've had a few rough years of housing, in early covid I accepted an arrangement to take care of a chronically ill person in exchange for a place to stay. However I wasn't able to look for other work due to concern of infection. My debts started to pile up and chip away at what little savings I had. As time went on I became vocally worried about being able to move out safely when I needed to since the merch operation was falling way behind and I needed other work. I was repeatedly told that would never happen, and then exactly that happened and I had no shelter with no savings.
I got solid work soon and an offer for a couch to crash in soon after luckily, but the place I was offered to crash after that had a severe black mold problem which crashed my health. I was sent home for being too sick to work and then fired for taking too many days off. When the mold was reported the the landlord to fix everyone was evicted. After that I lived in a rental car for around 8 months living mostly in a state of sleep deprived delirium doubled with heat exhaustion for the worst months. I then had to return the car (document issue) which brought me into a hostel. The hostel was shut down, and then a found a new one which would be shut down a few weeks later, and so forth. I've been floating from shared space to shared space as a result.
I've been able to stabilize a lot mentally and physically from the low point and start to get the merch operation that fell apart back together. I'm hoping to secure better work soon (at least temp work during haunt season) but until then I have no safety net aside from fundraising.
Anything helps, thanks. Please share if you can't give.
Organizer
Ash L
Organizer
Los Angeles, CA