Hello, my name is Elmira. I'm a 41-year-old trans woman with autism, ADHD, CPTSD, Major depressive disorder, a spinal cord injury, untreated MS. Just a compound of issues that aren't being treated well that I'm trying to get help with and get stability to treat.

I recently lost a little income that I did have and was able to get. I'm working on other ways to gain an income. I have applications in for housing assistance, but there is just an astronomically long waiting list for not only general housing assistance, but emergency housing assistance that I don't know when it's going to come. It's been six months and I haven't heard anything from housing. I have since enrolled in school full-time for graphic design and certification in advanced manufacturing automated design, which should help me be able to start making some money. I even did my first freelance graphic design job, and I was planning on using the financial aid I got from that to pay back rent and everything, but apparently since the last time I went to school, like a year or so ago, we get a lot less, so I did not get enough to cover my back rent. I only have $5,000, and I need $4,375 to make up and catch up on rent.

If I lose this apartment, I don't know where I will be able to rent another one. I don't think I will find another place to live. And I will go homeless. It will completely disrupt every kind of progress or momentum that I have going forward, as minuscule as it is. So it's absolutely imperative that I keep my current living situation.