Help Hoot Get to a Better Place! - Update

Hi there friends.

My name is Hoot, but I also go by Ash or even Dandy!

I'm making this fundraiser because it's becoming clear to me that my situation has deteriorated to the point where it is no longer comfortable living here.

For me, the straw on the camel's back was the occurrence of bed bugs despite regular visits from a third-party pest control that I hired to try to take care of the ever-present pest problem here.

I should preface by saying that I really did not want to get into this apartment.

After falling on dire straights when I was out in tennessee (hit by a tornado, dealing with a managing a new physical illness that I had little understanding of at the time), my parents had offered me to move back in with them come the end of my lease.

Well, the end of my lease was nearing and unfortunately their plans had changed on me. This was at a huge detriment to me. I had been hoping to live with my parents again to recupe some of the financial losses I had gone through with the prior events in my life and to just catch up on everything and maintain stable footing.

As a result of the sudden change in plans on their end, I had maybe a week or two to get myself a place to live in texas where I was moving. In desperation, and not thinking most would accept me due to not so great credit, I applied and took the first one that accepted me - which was a horrible mistake.

I moved here with the hope of starting things over, nonetheless. It was a cheaper and smaller place, easier to maintain and I was extremely excited about that at least. But life didn't want to give me a break, it seems!

Upon moving in, my fridge was INFESTED with roaches! I called and went in to the office to get that sorted, but the complex completely dragged their feet on it for a month, possibly two. I had to spend a lot of money on eating out at this point and time cuz I couldn't store anything in my fridge - it was a downright health hazard.

It took my getting my dad to come in with me multiple times and apply pressure to the front office, for them to finally replace my fridge with a used on that they had lying around.

It wasn't the best fridge, but I'd take any fridge at that point that didn't have roaches.

The fridge was sorted, but that didn't account for the entire house.

The whole place was a roach haven, really, from the moment I moved in. I do pay $5 for monthly pest control, and I recalled that. I would try multiple times to get their pest control to come out and deal with the issues. They were either completely nonexistent or if they did come, they would require you to remove all of your belongings from shelves and cabinets onto the middle of the apartment - which effectively meant that I had to undo all of the unpacking I had taken weeks to do.

I recalled from my previous living location that my old pest control didn't require this, and while it was, unfortunately, out of my pocket, the reliability of the third-party pest control was far more apparent than the in house one. They were readily at their appointments and doing their jobs. It did take care of a vast amount of the roach problem, even if some still came through sinks and bath tubs no matter what we did.

As if things couldn't get worse, as time progressed there were hazardous leaks.

https://twitter.com/Hootaloo/status/1460256247681323009

that left me displaced for some time.

Even after I returned to the apartment despite them not performing the fixes (because I didn't have the money to stay at a hotel further), they dragged their feet to make the fixes and I had to harass them to do it persistently as my apartment sat with it's carpets and floors soaked with water. They had to tear down the entire wall and ceiling of the bathroom and my bedroom to fix it, and it was just a nightmare.

The apartment in general is just unsafe overall.

There have been lockdowns, gunshots. I hear domestic violence through my paper thin walls. All are hugely triggering. I find myself never leaving my apartment because I leave with a sense of insecurity and lack of safety. I've been catcalled and harassed by people who've watched me leave my apartment. My service dog has been rushed on multiple occasions by dogs that are off leash.

And to add to the tip of the ice berg, I was sexually assaulted in this apartment as well, which often comes to haunt me just from living in the space.

I could go on forever about my grievances, but I think I'd just be typing pages and pages...

So this is why I am asking for help. I want to be able to leave my house again. I want to feel safe. The reason I chose washington is because I have a huge support system out there.

I will be closer to my closest friends who have helped support me in the past and it would be a great improvement to my mental health.

I feel it would be a safer place to raise and train my dogs and to reignite my hobbies in the dog world as well. I worry having a service dog in training puppy in this current location because of people's carelessness and lack of tact.

I will be away from an oppressive state where I've had first hand encounters with racism on multiple occasions.

I just want a safer place for me.

I want a safer place for my animals.

I want to belong somewhere. I want to feel like I don't want to die as often as I do.

I just desperately want something better for myself and this is the chance I feel I need to take to try to do this for myself.

I need help on the front end because it is going to be such a lump sum cost. I'm starting with 15k currently but the goal may change depending on what expenses I need to cover..

1.7k will be for the early termination fee.

From the looks of the places I'm looking at, I'll likely need first months rent, last months rent and the deposit which in some cases is roughly 6k.

I still need to take into account moving fees as well. I'm not sure whether I'll be going with a mover, or if I'll be able to enlist my best friend Riley to help by buying her a plane ticket down here to help me move. I'll likely need a small truck, among other things.

It's just a lot all at once.

I've never done a move this big by myself.

I've always been the one to truck through things on my own and figure it out for myself, but I really need help right now if I want to improve my life for the better.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read if you've gotten this far, and for even considering helping if you can.

Much love,

Hoot.