My name is Riley, though I also go by Lou and PlagueProse online. I am raising funds to move into safer housing to escape abusive relatives.

I have been stuck living in my childhood bedroom for years now after financially losing my footing due to Long COVID, hEDS and co., and severe endometriosis (for which I am getting surgery January 9th). I have an elder rescue dog and two cats (one of which is also disabled by a spinal cord injury) and none of us are safe in this house. My pets have all been traumatized by this situation and my rescue dog is especially afraid and reactive towards other humans (especially men). This means I cannot move in with roommates, which would be a more affordable option. My relatives regularly infect me with COVID which has led to multiple health crises and chronic conditions, they restrict my access to the kitchen and my belongings, they contaminate my cookware with gluten (I have celiac), and they are committed to continuing to abuse me as they did throughout my childhood. I am 28. Being back in this house was always my nightmare as a disabled, neurodivergent, queer girl who has always been this family's scapegoat. It is literally killing me to be isolated in rural Ohio with people who hate me.

I am a disability justice advocate and organizer (you may have seen my work with mask bloc 614 and my @plagueprose accounts), a writer, a gardener and caretaker of the land where I live, and a former graduate student and farmer. My current housing conditions make it impossible for me to eat regularly, let alone find and maintain employment. I know that with safer housing, I will have better capacity to care for myself and community, obtain an income, and work on my writing. I am asking my community to help uplift my efforts to get the fuck out of here before the health consequences of unsafe housing become even more dire. This is not a life.

I dream of finishing my Masters, going back to school, writing essays about COVID, climate collapse, disability justice, and more, publishing a novel, having the space to put all of my books on shelves, being able to leave my bedroom without having to wear a mask, seeing my pets able to rest and relax after years of fear, reading somewhere other than my bed, joining a community garden project, having the safety at home to make more connections in my local community, and having the space to heal from what has been the worst time of my life. If you have the means, please consider helping me. My abilities as as advocate, agitator, educator, and organizer for COVID mitigations, disability justice, and environmental justice are being smothered by unsafe housing.