For the last two years, I’ve been living in a duplex with a number of structural issues that the landlord has ignored, including a broken staircase, black mold, lead in the pipes, and improperly installed plumbing, and I found out recently that the landlord’s rental license hadn’t been renewed since March of 2024. I finally moved out of it and into a much better place, but I was counting on getting my deposit back to help me get settled as I had received it back last year when the amount I paid for rent was changed. This, however, was impeded by one of my roommates causing even more issues that the deposit will now have to cover: namely, they brought bed bugs into our unit and their cats were mostly confined to one room, where they repeatedly urinated on the carpet. (I knew the cats didn’t roam downstairs often but wasn’t aware that the room had become practically unlivable as I kept my door closed and usually have a wall-mounted air freshener running.) The entire deposit will need to be used to deal with these issues, and there may be an additional charge if it isn’t enough to cover the expenses. This roommate also owes me for rent that I helped them cover, and my other two roommates also are owed money by them for helping them cover rent. Further exacerbating my problems are the fact that my workplace has had to cut hours across the board and the fact that I just found out that I will in fact have to pay a deposit for my new place when I was previously told that I likely wouldn’t. I want to make sure I can stay on my feet while the moving process wraps up and that I can leave any financial issues caused by my roommate’s and landlord’s actions behind me.

Money donated will be used to cover the deposit, the remainder of the first month’s rent, additional living expenses, and treating my mattress for bed bugs (I did have it sprayed with the rest of my furniture but want to be on the safe side as the exterminator wasn’t able to treat the entire house due to my roommate not having their room prepared for it in time.) If more is raised beyond what I need for that, it’ll go towards either potential medical expenses due to the mold issue (I’d like to see a doctor and figure out if the mold had any lasting effects soon) or towards career-related expenses (I’m trying to transition into working independently as a performing artist full-time so I don’t have to keep dealing with my job’s inconsistent scheduling.)

Update: I’ve been able to pay the first month’s rent since I managed to get a lot more hours at work over the past few weeks, but my roommates and I might have to go to court over this and I can’t eat the potential legal costs that could result from that. I also still haven’t quite been able to make enough for the deposit.

Update #2: Well, the roommate that caused the property damage still hasn’t paid for any of it and the landlord is officially threatening to sue all four of us (not just the one who caused the damage) if we don’t pay it back within seven days. At this point, this is urgent.