Help Evelyn & Xandir escape an abusive landlord

Hello, friends. My housemate Evelyn and I are in crisis and have been for a long time. Things recently got much worse. I’ve lived in the bottom unit of a duplex in Berkeley (the top unit occupied by our landlord) since 2018 and Evelyn since 2019. Over the course of the pandemic it has become very clear we can no longer stand to live here for our own safety, mentally, emotionally and physically, and we need the funds to leave.

Our landlord has always been abrasive, but we have been in near constant conflict with her during the pandemic. She gave us bogus and illegal eviction threats when we were unable to pay rent due to covid-related loss of income, leading us to seek legal help from the Oakland Eviction Defense Center. When many of us were still unable to pay rent, she raised the rent by as much as she could anyway. She refused to fix a major plumbing issue that caused our toilet to flood repeatedly and could have caused a sinkhole in the foundation of the house; she only attended to this issue when we got a city inspector to put pressure on her. During the resulting inspection, she both swore at me over a maintenance request and started a verbal altercation with the inspector. We have repeatedly asked her to communicate with us through email for the sake of professional and legal documentation, even having this reiterated through a letter from our lawyers; however, she consistently tries to step over this boundary and speak to us in person to emotionally manipulate us. She plays the victim and lashes out when we set boundaries and ask for repairs, gaslights us, misgenders us, and generally eveades accountability. She has yet to address the fact that the unit has no heating whatsoever, and at times has downplayed and outright denied the pervasive presence of toxic mold that has caused long-term health problems for me and other housemates. Most recently, she tried to move a complete stranger into our unit with a large dog, giving the least legal notice possible, despite the fact that I have cats who are terrified of large animals.

Last week Evelyn was a victim of a hit and run. She was in the hospital for 4 days and had to have a major surgery on her leg as well as her hand and arm. She currently has limited mobility. My landlord's reaction to me telling her that Evelyn got hit by a car was the last straw for me. I told her minutes after I found out, because I saw her outside, was in shock and just needed to tell someone. She's the only person I told who didn't gasp, say "OH MY GOD" or have some sort of reaction proportional to hearing that someone was hit by a car. Her face didn't change at all. She didn't ask if Evelyn was ok. She didn't ask if I needed a ride to the hospital. There was not a shred of empathy inside her. She did act inconvenienced and annoyed that Evelyn and I wouldn't be present for when she showed the new room to the housemate she's forcing on us. She has continued to harass the both of us while Evelyn was hospitalized and since she has been discharged.

We’ve been wanting and intending to move out for many months but neither of us have been in the financial position to do so. We can’t wait anymore. The actions and words of our landlord have taken a huge toll on us and it doesn’t feel safe for us and my cats to live here anymore. We shouldn’t have to live in constant hypervigilance about how our landlord will lash out next and Evelyn should not have to be recovering from a major trauma in a hostile living situation.

Like many others our income was impacted by the pandemic. I have a job but only work two days a week and may not be able to get additional hours for a while. I try to supplement that income with pet sitting but the amount I’m able to do that has now significantly decreased because much of my time is spent helping Evelyn with daily tasks as she’s fairly immobilized by her injuries. Evelyn had just started work as an in-home care attendant before the hit and run and is now unable to work for the foreseeable future; she has some savings in the form of recent EDD backpay, but this is limited. We very much need to move out before the eviction moratorium ends on September 30th as our landlord has already attempted to evict us during the moratorium.

Money from this GoFundMe will go towards application fees, a deposit (which may be increased as neither of us have credit and I have cats) as well as some amount of rent until we are able to become more financially stable as Evelyn heals from her accident.

Please help in any way you can. If you can't donate, please share.

If you wish to donate to us directly

Venmo: xandirfluff

Paypal: caringcadence at gmail dot com

CashApp: $littlebreakfast

Additionally we could use the following support:

- dropping off meals or cooking for us

- helping with chores such as cleaning

- offering rides to Evelyn’s appointments

- helping Evelyn with daily tasks when I’m working on Monday and Tuesday

- checking in on us

-offering low pressure relaxed hang outs in our home (if you’re someone who’s very careful about covid safety/not spending time in large groups, going to indoor dining establishments, or similar events)

-sending us listings for places in the East Bay that are 2 bedrooms, cat friendly, and under $2100/mo

-helping us pack and move when the time comes