Hi! I'm Aspen, and me and my husband Gabe are currently struggling to secure an apartment to live in. After living in a motel since August, we finally have the opportunity to move into a home on December 1! We're just $1100 short of being able to pay the upfront cost to move in.

Our need:

The total fundraising goal of $5535 includes funds we've requested over the past few months to help us stay off the streets and housed in the motel. It has cost about $2600 a month on average to stay in the motel, so if we're able to secure this room, we'd be spending so much less on housing that we'll actually be able to start getting back on our feet. The homeowner is allowing us to rent the room for $800 a month, and only asking for $1600 up front. With donations we've already received, we only need $1100 more to be able to move in!

Our story:

We moved from Columbus, Ohio to Sacramento, California in August 2023, leaving behind family, friends, jobs, and our home of three years, to have access to more research and resources for my health issues. I have struggled with weird symptoms of numbness and tingling, muscle aches, weakness, dizziness, and subluxations of joints, tendons, and ligaments that often result in excruciating pain. I've also more recently had issues with food and liquid sitting in my stomach and taking hours or sometimes days to move along into my intestines. I have learned that much of my body is hypermobile, especially my neck, which has resulted in migraines and sometimes decreased feeling and bloodflow in my arms.

While I have theories on what could be causing my symptoms, there were no doctors in all of Ohio that were willing to do further testing on me after the more common conditions were ruled out. My symptoms have been so debilitating that I've been unable to keep a job. I've been unable to stay consistently involved in any type of social group, because I've been so often unable to leave my home. Community resources were so limited in Ohio, it was clear that if we stayed, I would remain lonely and in pain forever. In addition to my physical health issues, I also had PTSD related to assaults from individuals who still lived in that area, and I was constantly triggered into PTSD episodes any time I went out into the community. I needed to have significant physical distance between myself and my attackers to ever feel safe again. California has the medical resources I need, as well as the distance from Ohio, and is our best and only hope for my recovery.

Unfortunately, it is taking a lot longer than we hoped for Gabe and I to secure enough income to get approved for an apartment. Most studios and one bedroom apartments in this area cost between $1000 and $1300 a month, and to get approved we need to have proof of income adding up to at least 2.5 times that much. Gabe has been working a part time position at Total Wine that will likely become full time after the holidays. But with the hours he's getting right now, it's not enough to be approved for an apartment yet. I got a job that will be doing home care 2 hours a day, which I think my body should be able to handle, but I'm still waiting on a time slot for orientation to open up before I can officially start.

Ultimately, we hope to get our own place and put our full focus into finding treatment for my health issues and working towards our long-term goal of building a community arts center that focuses on making the arts accessible to people living in poverty. Securing this room to rent is the first step in that direction! Gabe and I would be so grateful for anything anyone is able to give, we're so close!