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O's Post-COVID Recovery Rent and Living Fund

I’m creating this fundraiser at the request of my friend O, a Mexican Angeleno of color who has been impacted by blow after blow including contracting COVID-19 in July 2020.

O is a hardworking, upstanding dude who I feel lucky to know. We met when a band I was in a few years back needed a drummer, and have stayed friends long after the band died. He won’t spend a lot of time loudly showing it off, but he’s an absolutely admirable and supportive friend, you know? He’s sat with me through intense episodes of OCD, we've stayed up til two in the morning talking about life—the kind of friendship that has made me a better person for having it.

And after all that, and all that he's done for me in my life, I honestly can’t say how grateful I am that he did let me know what's going on, and did ask for help. I'm so grateful for how much the community around me is helping me follow through for him.

Mutual aid is for you too, and contributing to fundraisers is, as always, for people who have disposable funds to donate. I'm well-acquainted with the fact that very many people around me do not always have those funds, and I want you to know that supporting your own life is exactly as noble as supporting his. Please don’t give away money you need for your own wellbeing.

The short version is that due to contracting COVID-19, O missed 5 weeks of work. This fundraiser covers the domino effect of costs since then. His landlord has repeatedly declined rent relief, and as the pandemic rolls on, continuing, periodic COVID exposures have shut down O’s workplace, resulting in more days without pay.

He's been fighting to catch up, taking advantage of the rent moratorium when he could and paying whenever he could, but one can't simply make up five weeks of paychecks. He's doing everything in his power to stay on his feet right now, and to get out of this financial hole and back to supporting his own day-to-day living.

O is now in rent debt, and this GoFundMe is helping him get out of it as he continues to work full-time. 


Here's a timeline:

March 2020

When services in the United States were just beginning to shut down due to COVID-19, O started thinking ahead, trying to work as much as he could as he watched friends around him be laid off.

“At work, even if I did as little as cough or blow my nose, they would send me home....that kept happening throughout March and April," which seriously messed with the number of hours O was allowed to work. 

April-May 2020

The rent moratorium meant that he didn’t need to pay April and May’s rent, which was a small comfort (and enormous relief), and he kept working.

June 2020

In June, O had enough to pay rent again, which he did.

And then in June, there was a COVID-19 exposure at O’s workplace, which announced it would close for the recommended two weeks.

July 2020

On July 5th, O had a mild fever. He went to take a COVID test because he lost his sense of taste, and sure enough, the test came back positive. O had to inform his employer, and was quarantined for three weeks. Combined with June, that’s a little over a month without an income.

Another two days of income were lost to a pulled nerve.

August 2020

O kept pushing to sustain himself, not asking to make this fundraiser until late September.

In August, O was able to return to work, but several everyday expenses had skyrocketed. He has now paid off June’s rent, but is totally without money for July or August’s.

September 2020, At Start of Fundraiser:

O has looked into unemployment and rental assistance, and doesn’t qualify for either. Because of this, we’re turning to the community to carry him through. 

June 2021:

So far, this fundraiser has accomplished an enormous amount: It’s paid for several months of utilities & utility debt, and covered some day-to-day grocery expenses, in both cases allowing for O to recover and begin once again covering those costs himself. It paid 25% of O’s outstanding rent debt, enough to avoid eviction at the time thanks to renter’s rights during the pandemic. It’s helped cover COVID-safe rides to work, a necessity given O’s asthma and prior COVID experience—he cannot at this time afford a car.

Focus for the fundraiser shifted: To paying for COVID-safe transportation to and from work, and to trying to prevent any further debt. Being poor is expensive, as the saying goes, and COVID exposures at work have continually robbed O of available hours.

At Present:

In early September, O received a 30-days' notice to pay $3,530.11 or declare COVID-related financial hardship. That $3,530 is late rent owed for June, July, and August. The full text of that notice will be transcribed in an update by Sept 16. For now, he’s declared COVID-related financial hardship, and we’re working on learning what that means.

This is newly incurred rent debt because he’s making less than life costs right now. The fundraiser is still so critical. He’s working full-time, and still needs support out of this hole.



Thanks once again for all of the community support. It has made a tremendous impact thus far.

O and I are friends who are in regular contact anyway, so whenever there are updates to give, I’ll be posting them here.

Stay safe out there. If you need every penny in your pocket to survive right now, then right now mutual aid is for you, too, not for you to drain yourself dry—everyone is struggling right now. Please share, if you can.

It's a tall ask, so I appreciate you all endlessly.


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GoFundMe's Required Information: My name is Justice Ross, and I'm from North Hollywood, CA. O and I have been friends for 5 (edit: now... 7? hot dang) years. Funds will be spent entirely on O's rent and bills—which was been necessarily expanded to include groceries and transportation until March 2021, see the most recent update if you have any concerns, because the last thing I want is for you to be unhappy about where your money has went.

If a benevolent twist of fate allows the rent debt to be fully forgiven, and there are left over funds, a portion of the funds raised will be set aside for COVID-safe transportation. If there is any remaining money, it will go to other people of color in LA county whose housing situations, health, or survival are in immediate need of funds.

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Justice Ross
Organizer
Los Angeles, CA

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