Hey y’all, TLDR is that my friend Layla is in need of financial support to cover a few months of rent. She’s a trans woman of color with a felony on her record who has been depending on an intensive outpatient program to subsidize her rent. They are closing their doors suddenly and she is losing her ability to pay for her housing. She has given me this information about her so that I can write this on her behalf and raise funds to help her pay rent at her sober house while she continues to focus on getting and keeping a job and staying sober.

Layla is a 24 year old first generation, Hmong, immigrant from Thailand who also happens to be a boisterous transgender woman. She was adopted when she was two years old and her family emigrated to the United States when she was five. She spent her childhood speaking both Hmong and English and acted as a translator for her family. While helping her family navigate American bureaucracy, she also went to public school and graduated high school at 18.

Between the ages of 18 and 24, she started using crystal meth and resorting to survival sex work while being homeless. Meth would lead to psychosis and she would get into trouble with the law, which ended her up in men’s facilities subject to racism, transphobia, and physical danger

Layla was released in April 2024 to an inpatient drug and alcohol program, completed a 30 day inpatient stay at the Pride Institute and went into Prides Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) which was five months long. Thanks to her commitment to the program, she received a scholarship and they subsidized her rent for a sober house. The program was 5 months long and she completed it. Upon completion, with her counselors help, she transferred to Nuway IOP who would offer her the same subsidization. She intended on staying with Nuway while she figured worked on getting her felony expunged. She has also completed a CES (Coordinated Entry Assessment) that could get her into assisted housing.

Unfortunately, due to some legal troubles on Nuways part, they are unexpectedly closing their doors on April 30th which means her rent will no longer be paid and since she has been sober for longer than one year, she no longer qualifies for new enrollment with other IOP programs that would help her subsidize her rent while looking for work and working on expungement. Meanwhile, the paid work training program Layla found with Wildflyer, also ends April 30th. Her family no longer has interest in maintaining respect and or relationships with her and she is feeling like she is running out of time and options. She fears she will lose her housing, which she feels will force her back into homelessness. If push comes to shove she feels afraid her only option will be to relapse to get back into treatment to start the process all over again. Our goal is to keep that from happening and to keep her here with us,

Layla is a centerpiece of our home. We all care about her a lot though we are subject to paying the same rent as she is and since this is a structured home, we don’t have the ability to just allow her to stay without paying rent. If I had my way we would all accommodate her. But it doesn’t work like that unfortunately.We’re hoping this gofundme will afford her the opportunity to stay housed with us so that she has time to work on finding a job as a felon and to cover the rent Nuway was paying and the money she was making in her training program. We’re hoping to buy a few months at least to keep her in supportive housing where she has people who care about her. She is committed to maintaining a positive outlook and just needs a little help. She also has committed to her recovery and has been sober for over a year. She has accountability surrounding her that will ensure that anything that comes from this will go to paying her rent and the house supply fee.

Rent is 700$ a month and the supply fee is 30$ which goes towards things like toilet paper and sanitary products.