Hi, my name is Flora, I'm a 30 years old disabled trans woman, struggling to afford living costs. I suffer (among others) from anxiety and depression disorders. Right now I am unemployed, and had to suspend therapy, couldn't pay the therapist bills not covered by insurance, as they're based in a foreign country. I am working on getting therapy here in the Netherlands, where I live. I share my home with my two cats Knopje and Blacky.

Since the beginning of 2026, I no longer have an income, I am living off of unemployment welfare, and my disability makes it hard for me to get hired. I can live off the safety net for several months still, but my situation is becoming more and more precarious. UWV sends me the monthly allowance several days after the mortgage debit, leaving me with no funds. In this short overlap, I live off of my partner's emergency money.

Up until relatively recently, I had a stable living situation: I used to work in the IT field as cloud engineer, and thanks to the steady income from this job, I had the privilege of being able to afford buying the apartment I currently live in, and of not having to worry too much about being able to afford groceries after paying off the monthly mortgage term.

Around Feb 2024, burnout made me go on a 5-month full-time sick leave from my job. From then on, I could never hit the full-time (40 hours per week) mark again, and I often had to call in sick for periods of 1 to 3 consecutive days.

I keep applying for adjacent IT jobs. I gave switching careers a shot, going for a dream job in the public transportation field, wanting to drive some sort of vehicle. NS rejected me outright, and getting my bus driver's license came to a screeching halt due to an unfortunate mix of my medical background, and prejudice around the notion of epilepsy.

Next to that, I had to handle sharing my home for 9 months with an abusive housemate who paid very little mind to my boundaries, refusing/avoiding communication, ditching responsibilities onto me, antagonizing me, and often not paying rent. The situation generated so much stress it rippled out onto my ability to focus at work. I was already struggling with reintegrating after the burnout, this stacked up onto it. Eventually my employer took note of me not performing my role well anymore, and pulled me into a procedure that ended in a mutual agreement for employment termination.

Ending both the employment and the abusive house sharing took getting a lawyer, one for each case, each with their own costs. Employer covered part of the legal fees for the employment termination, but the eviction of the housemate was fully out of my own funding. All of my savings, until the very last euro, went into settling the invoice from the lawyer.

I very much appreciate you reading through all of this. I have to turn to the community for help now, and ask for support until I can recover from this. I am putting all of my energy into fighting for a job, and I hope to live rather than survive soon again.

Please donate if you are able to, share this around you if you aren't. Every bit of support is greatly appreciated. I want to be able to pay the community forward again.