My name is Alex. I have three siblings {13, 12 and 11, respectively} and a disabled mother. Our financial situation is extremely bad right now due to an inability for me or my mother to find stable work and the fact that my mother's social services benefits were cut off during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays and beyond due to a temporary job that I had only for a few weeks because We Had A Family Emergency & I had to be home to help my mother and the kids, especially my youngest brother Jordan who is special needs. There was some technical issue where they wouldn’t turn the services back on for months until they finally resolved the issue. But that big hit put us way behind, especially with the pressure of the pandemic and the lack of work. Since then, we’ve been unable to get ahead of the debt my mother ended up accumulating when we had minimal assistance.

My mother, siblings, and I are all still struggling to recover from the severe trauma we suffered before leaving New York, and it’s not easy. My mother has tried so hard to get jobs here and hasn’t had luck at all. She works day and night on so many projects trying to find a way somehow to have one take off so as to have enough income to not worry or to at least get us out of the red. But since the holidays, it’s been impossible, and every month we are forced to overdraft just to get by, and even that doesn’t fully cover it. We’ve tried to get a cheaper apt, but no one will even show us one to rent, so the overhead is too high for us in our situation, but it’s our only choice. Though we did finally receive temp help w the rent during the coronavirus, that’s come to an end. For five years, we’ve tried to get housing assistance to no avail. We are always told the waiting lists are closed and that we can’t put our names even on the list to get a section 8 voucher and we’re running out of time.

 

We are consistently struggling to pay for rent and food and at the end of every single month we wind up with nothing in the bank and nothing in the fridge. On the first of the month half of her assistance is sucked up in overdraft fees which she only does because it’s an emergency and there’s nothing else to count on. Without gas in the car we cannot pick up the kids from their school events or run errands or even travel to job prospects.

 

I have put off getting my highschool diploma countless times to find an immediate job to help cover the cost of everything and the few jobs I’ve had wouldn’t even cover a fraction of the things we need not to mention once again risking having all of our services cut off.

 

We’ve both also experienced workplace discrimination and more trauma here in Vermont. We both try very hard and my mother works harder than anyone I know trying to create things that she can monetize while she still searches for jobs in her field and we can’t catch a break.

 

We need help so badly and we're going to be evicted shortly if we can’t start generating more or get into another housing situation that’s more affordable for us. If that happens again then we will be in extreme trouble. Every single one of us has health problems but I’m most worried about my mother. Being homeless and going through all she has has taken a toll on her health and her spirit. She struggles with vascular issues and I know the stress of it all is not helping and very few doctors will even see us because of our insurance.

 

I don't know what to do to help my mom at this moment and she has no family that cares about any of us. We need help. So please if you can spare anything at all it would be so appreciated. Anything is something right now. Anything would help and we NEED HELP so much. We would also be willing to work for the help if you need logos , social media set up , graphic arts , commissions , { for people in Windham county, in VT} a ride from Dover to wilmington or back and forth, a ride to the mountain etc etc.

 

My Mother will be embarrassed that I wrote this but I want to help her. She had to swallow her pride two years ago and ask for help and thank god some good people came forward and donated which is part of the reason we still have the roof over our heads that we do. She had planned on buying equipment for her business but ended up having to save the rental we were in. She told me she’d never do a gofundme again and there were even friends and family who shamed her for it but I want to know that I’ve done something myself to help her and my siblings even though I’ve not been able to make a living here in Vermont.

 

That’s why I’m writing for your help.

 

The goal amount for this fundraiser was a completely random number that I picked because I didn't know what else to put.