Help My Keep My Home
Donation protected
My name is Tom, and I just lost my job. With $20 in the bank, a payday loan out, a car note, two impending surgeries, multiple medications to manage disabilities, and expensive rent, this leaves me at the brink of absolute disaster.
After escaping an 11-year-long abusive relationship, I had to start from nothing a few years ago: no degree, no job, no car, no money, few contacts. It's been extremely rough but I'd just about made it to a stable place. Then my employer cut my pay by 11% and I started to struggle again. I couldn't afford to buy the medication I need to counter my disabilities on a consistent basis. I had to start taking out loans to make rent, and then another loan to pay off that loan, and so on.
And then on 7/31 I was terminated because my disability got the better of me and I made a mistake. It would have been a minor one but for a contractor refusing to make the simple edits they'd already agreed to make. I suspect my employer was just waiting for a reason to get rid of me. Because of the way I was terminated, there's a good chance I'll be rejected for unemployment.
I have one more paycheck coming in for a single week's pay and then I have zero income. Assuming I eat on $5 or less per day, this will leave me over $1500 short.
Rest assured I've spent the vast majority of my waking hours submitting my resume everywhere I can, but since I don't have a degree it's highly unlikely that I'll be able to find a job that pays the bills in time to make rent.
I've been homeless three times before. It nearly killed me several times. I'm terrified of the prospect of returning to that place where I'm relying on the patience of friends who'll let me couch-surf and languishing without the medication I need to be functional.
Texas is a pretty hostile place to the visibly queer, the disabled, and the poor. Lucky me, I'm all three. :/
I don't know where I'm going with this. I don't know what to tell you to convince you that I deserve your help. I'm terrified, I'm falling apart, I don't want to lose my home again.
After escaping an 11-year-long abusive relationship, I had to start from nothing a few years ago: no degree, no job, no car, no money, few contacts. It's been extremely rough but I'd just about made it to a stable place. Then my employer cut my pay by 11% and I started to struggle again. I couldn't afford to buy the medication I need to counter my disabilities on a consistent basis. I had to start taking out loans to make rent, and then another loan to pay off that loan, and so on.
And then on 7/31 I was terminated because my disability got the better of me and I made a mistake. It would have been a minor one but for a contractor refusing to make the simple edits they'd already agreed to make. I suspect my employer was just waiting for a reason to get rid of me. Because of the way I was terminated, there's a good chance I'll be rejected for unemployment.
I have one more paycheck coming in for a single week's pay and then I have zero income. Assuming I eat on $5 or less per day, this will leave me over $1500 short.
Rest assured I've spent the vast majority of my waking hours submitting my resume everywhere I can, but since I don't have a degree it's highly unlikely that I'll be able to find a job that pays the bills in time to make rent.
I've been homeless three times before. It nearly killed me several times. I'm terrified of the prospect of returning to that place where I'm relying on the patience of friends who'll let me couch-surf and languishing without the medication I need to be functional.
Texas is a pretty hostile place to the visibly queer, the disabled, and the poor. Lucky me, I'm all three. :/
I don't know where I'm going with this. I don't know what to tell you to convince you that I deserve your help. I'm terrified, I'm falling apart, I don't want to lose my home again.
Organizer
Tom Sims
Organizer
Houston, TX
