Hi everyone,

We’re Levi & Ocean, and we’re reaching out for help & sharing our story with heavy hearts.

June 13th our apartment ceiling suddenly collapsed. Water from the week long of storms & feces from the above vacant apartment, flooded almost every room in our home - destroying our furniture, electronics, & personal belongings that meant a lot to us. With the heatwave that followed the next week, mold and mildew quickly set in, ruining even more of what little we had left. We had family helping us move what was salvageable out as fast as possible. Ocean is a full time wheelchair user, therefore couldn’t be of much help. It took several days, even with help, to move everything out & into a storage unit.

We lost so much in just a matter of days. The worst part about all of this was it could have been prevented. Our landlord knew about the pipe leak before March of this year & did nothing to fix it. This happened to us due to negligence & yet we’ve been left to carry the emotional & financial burden ourselves.

I, Ocean, am a full time wheelchair user, because I have limb girdle muscular dystrophy. Due to us staying in a hotel, I haven’t been able to use my electric wheelchair and have had no choice but to use my manual chair 24/7. This has taken a serious toll on not just my mental health but physical health as well. It’s been more than exhausting, mentally draining, & incredibly limiting.

We didn’t cause this. But we’re the ones left dealing with the fallout - mentally, emotionally, and financially. We’ve come out of pocket for nearly everything, and while our hotel is temporarily covered, everything else - meals/new groceries, replacements, moving supplies, & other essentials lost in the flood - is falling on us.

We recently found out that insurance is only reimbursing us $690 to cover our electric couch, TV, sound bar, and lamp. Everything else we lost at this moment has been denied, including all of our lost groceries. We literally could not eat in the apartment & the health department advised us to not go back in unless wearing a mask. Really if we didn’t go back in, we’d have lost so much more.

The fact that our landlord knew of the issue & neglected to properly fix it has us lost. It was preventable. And yet we’re left putting the pieces back together.

Currently our storage unit is full, or we’d really appreciate physical donations. At this moment what we really need is financial assistance- anything you give is going directly to:

•meals & groceries

•essential & daily items

•storage unit rental

•replacement of lost personal items & furniture

•relocation costs

•other out of pocket expenses as we rebuild

& to help us gain back our sense of stability & get back to our “normal”.

This experience has taken a huge mental and emotional toll on both of us. We’re doing everything we can to stay hopeful, but we can’t do this alone. Your support—whether a donation or a share—means more than we can express.

With deep gratitude,

Ocean & Levi