I was laid off from my job as a substitute teacher at the end of May, 2025. I had a couple months worth of savings to cover my living expenses (rent, utilities, food, etc.), so I figured if I started applying for at least 3 jobs a day, 6 days a week, I would get hired in no time. I started getting a few calls for interviews in July, and I informed my property manager that I was not going to be able to afford August rent and asked if we could work out an arrangement since I had paid rent on time for 27 months in a row. I offered to do some groundskeeper and custodial work to substitute for my rent until I could find work, but they said that if I missed payment for August they would start the eviction process. My Unemployment benefits didn’t start until the end of August so I made a calculated decision. I used my first round of unemployment to purchase a gym membership, rent a PO Box, and move everything I owned into a 10x30 ft. storage unit. I stacked all of my possessions that I knew I wouldn’t need to access regularly in the rear half of the unit, and set up the front of the unit like an office and changing room. That way, I could go to the gym when they opened at 5am, work out and shower, then go to my storage unit when the facility gates opened at 6am, put on fresh clothes, and using the wifi hotspot on my phone, conduct my job search and submit applications using my laptop. The management at the storage facility was sympathetic to my circumstances, as long as I didn’t sleep there. I would take regular breaks from my job searching to walk my dog around town, taking advantage of the Sacramento area’s lovely parks system. I set up bedding in the back of my light utility vehicle, and each night I would find a well lit spot to park and brush my teeth on the side of the road so that anyone who ever saw me climbing in my car to sleep would know that I was making my best effort. Only a handful of people were in the know about how I had been living while I applied for anywhere from 18 to 60 jobs every week. Unfortunately, my Unemployment Insurance Benefits were exhausted in mid February, and I had to condense all of my belongings into a smaller storage unit that I could afford easier. My employment specialist through Cal DOR has been allowing me to use the lobby space in her office during the week to search for jobs on my laptop, since I now have to live off of a small monthly disability payment from SSI, and a few hundred dollars from my dad and brother. While I am more than grateful to have even that, I am having difficulty affording the registration renewal for my vehicle, and gas and food is getting so expensive that all of my financial resources have been going to just that. Today I finally received a formal job offer from the State of California, but it is at a remote location more than 200 miles from where I currently stay. The job starts on Monday, May 4, and I want to start working more than anything right now. But, I need help with moving expenses and renting an apartment in the new location where I will be working. It’s going to cost me about $2000 to move (truck and trailer rental, gas, mileage, insurance); another $2000 for housing (rent, deposit, utilities), and another $1000 for expenses (food, gas, amenities), before I start getting a paycheck. So I am looking for something in the ballpark of $5000 so that I can get moved, set up, and ready to start my new job without any of the stress that I have been feeling over the eight months. During that time, I have submitted over 800 applications, been on 30+ interviews, in some of the most remote areas in the state. I just want to sleep in my own bed again, have my own bathroom, kitchen, and go to work at my job each day where I know that the work I am doing has value and contributes to making people’s lives better.

Please help me make this happen. Thank you, and God bless you!