UPDATE: June 20th - I updated the goal because before about 5 days ago all of the money previously donated to me was spent on rent, and food. The situation is now more quite a lot more dire so a larger goal should be set to reflect my current needs and the fact that $1005 was already spent. Scroll down if you wanna see the original context that the fundraiser was made in before this turned into a crisis. Thanks everyone for helping out.

Quick updates bc emergency situation

- possibly illegally prevented from renewing lease of the apartment i was at

- failed to get a job prior this

- no money for food

- currently sleeping on someone's couch, can only stay here until the end of the month of june

- I have an offer in another city for housing assistance but it's a long turnover (>2month) turnover to get in so i currently need to sort something out temporarily so that I don't have to sleep on the streets or return to the shelter where I was abused at

- as of writing I have two weeks maybe on this couch, can't obtain EBT bc we are scared the landlord will notice the mail and kick me out and evict the person hosting me. i dont want to be responsible for someone else being on the streets too.

Rue is a disabled 21 year-old transgender woman that has been suffering houselessness for the past 6-7 months. She has been struggling with housing instability since age 18 as a result of disability, mental illness, and sexual abuse, as well as a lack of family support. She is currently in a homeless shelter, but said shelter does not provide ample services to help their residents get to permanent housing, blames their residents for whatever disabilities they might face, and are not properly educated on the social services available in the city they are located in--forcing her to seek these services out on her own accord through word of mouth and her own online research in that regard. Unfortunately, thus far this has not proven fruitful.

Additionally, the shelter is extremely violent, and unclean, and apparently houses sex offenders without notifying the other residents. Basic needs like toiletries, food, and so on, are not provided as often as they should be, further complicating her situation. She is currently jobless, and unable to work (outside of sex work, which she rightfully loathes) due to the aforementioned disabilities and mental illness, and even if she were to find something suitable for her different issues she would have to contend with getting a new ID card--but she is in the process of fixing this latter situation, and has worked in the past, though any form of manual labor gig work is as now not an option due to severe malnutrition and muscle atrophy largely caused by the lack of ample and nutritious food provided by her shelter.

She has a large support network, but their ability to help her has run dry, as they are struggling with their own situations of impoverishment alongside the general housing crisis facing the United States.

One friend is capable of taking her in, but will require substantial rent, of $700 for the first two months, before another roommate moves in, dropping her share of rent. Coinciding with this, she intends to seek work. This is the purpose of this fundraiser: to cover the first two months of rent and help with travel costs and any other costs associated with bringing oneself up from homelessness (e.g obtaining a new ID).

UPDATE:

Bad news first.

I successfully got out of the homeless shelter I was placed at and into my new home on February 27th. Unfortunately, since then there have been numerous problems:

The fundraiser didn't reach it's initial goal of $1,500, meaning only one months rent was able to be paid (for the month of March), and my roommate has been graciously picking up the slack in that regard. Not to mention fees for things like a new ID which wound up being covered by friends.

The landlord has decided not to let my roommate or myself renew the lease, which ends on June 1st--it was already due to end in June by the time I moved in, but none of us expected something like this. We are currently talking to lawyers about the situation to try and see if it can be sorted.

With my roommate picking up my slack in regards to rent, and my lack of income, getting food has become a pretty obnoxious affair.

Here's the good news:

On the 30th of April, I was able to successfully apply for an ID. It should be arriving within the month--prior to May 20th.

Come to think of it, that's about all of the good news. The problem with the ID situation is, of course, on the first of June the lease will be expired and--barring legal recourse on my roommate and I's part--I will simply not have time to get a job and get paid enough to:

Sign onto a new lease for a new apartment

Afford first months rent and a security deposit, let alone last months rent where that is a requirement

Sort out my banking situation

This is of course complicated by living in the NYC area where cost of living is extraordinarily high. That being said, even having the ID will--if I do suffer from homelessness again-make things a lot easier on me getting out.

Taking some sort of legal action against our landlord seems promising, but I have been through too much to try putting all of my eggs into one basket here and wind up going homeless again so soon if things go south. Please help, if you can.