Hi there! My name is Devin (they/them). I am a Black queer disabled advocate and activist (known as @mxdevin in most spaces). My husband's name is Aaron (he/him), and he is a white trans guy whom I adore. We recently moved back to Richmond, VA in mid-June, the city where we met during our freshman year of college but had to abruptly evacuate from at the very beginning of the pandemic.

We anticipated moving into our first apartment as a married couple, in a city we love, and being able to simply exist, to breathe. What we got was the exact opposite -- instead, here are just a few of the things we encountered:

In order to stay safe (and mentally intact-ish), we had to leave the apartment nearly immediately. The entire situation caused us to hotel hop for a week -- wracking up hotel costs of about $2000 (for the stays alone -- there were many more expenses throughout those stays that resulted from being unable to stay in the apartment we'd leased), on top of the nearly $700 that we paid in specifically move-in fees that day for the Apartment That Never Was. We've also both suffered quite a bit of trauma from it all, to be quite honest (there's SO much involved).

The leasing office is currently refusing to refund our hotel expenses. Because of this entire issue, we have depleted essentially all of the funds that we have since 6/17, and now have no idea if/when we will get it back, besides our move-in fee refund within 45 days. As a disabled person myself, that is absolutely devastating -- and with both of us being neurodivergent and also just generally, job luck has not been great despite our incessant searches, and bills and emergencies and the need for food do not wait. I also cannot personally work much at the moment, as my conditions have worsened significantly due to how strenuous everything has been and the nature of my disabilities. Aaron is going through it for his own reasons too of course.

During all of this, my (Devin's) grandmother also passed away -- life support, then hospice. There has been NO time to process, no time to grieve, and instead we are having to flounder to fund our survival due to the negligence of a property company, the inaccessibility of the workforce, unpredictable health declines, and oodles of bad luck. This isn't fair to us, nor Nanna, to be quite honenst.

Any funds donated will be used to help Aaron and I regain some semblance of balance, gather enough for a security deposit and such for when we DO secure (safe, habitable, good, hopefully accessible-ish) housing soon, help with some funeral-related costs and travel expenses to get there, medical costs so that we can maybe stop cancelling crucial medical appointments, and the rest will be for other necessities as we work through this really difficult period.

Thank you in advance, lovely. Thank you for reading. We appreciate you more than we can say.

(If it's easier, donating via venmo/cashapp/paypal is an option!

venmo / cashapp: mxdevin / $mxdevin

paypal: paypal.me/mxdevinn)

-The Norkos