A Safe Home For Michon’s Family
Donation protected
The Backstory:
Michón and hir children are being unlawfully evicted— please help us get them into a safe home!
In 2016 Michón (pronouns: ze/hir) escaped an abusive relationship. Ze had a five-year-old child and was pregnant with hir second baby at the time.
Without relatives to help, Michón wound up stranded in San Francisco, facing homelessness. A white woman invited the little family to stay with her, only to evict Michón when hir baby was just five months old. During this time, Michón also helped hir sister to escape from an abusive relationship.
After being evicted, Michón and hir children lived in motels, and later in an RV parked on the street— praying that the police wouldn’t find them.
Michón has over twenty serious medical conditions, notably Fibromyalgia, Endometriosis, Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder, and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.
In short, ze lives with chronic and debilitating extreme pain and fatigue.
Michón is a writer, a community organizer, and a social justice activist, and does work with embodied trauma healing.
Through an online social justice community, Michón met a white woman and her husband, who lived in Boston. After learning of Michón’s plight, the couple invited Michón and hir children to live in Boston, rent-free, indefinitely.
Michón knew hir family couldn’t survive much longer on their own, so in the fall of 2017 ze took a leap of faith, and agreed to let this couple fly hir family out to Boston.
Over the next few months, the couple proceeded to violate Michón’s boundaries, and more than once engaged in inappropriate behavior in front of Michón’s children. Michón was horrified, but ze was barely surviving financially, and had no choice but to stay.
In late 2018, another tenant, Johanne— who had also escaped an abusive relationship— moved into the house. Soon after this, one of the landlords made a pass at Johanne, which she refused.
The landlords started retaliating against Johanne— harassing her, and trying to turn Michón against her. They refused to fix the home’s broken stove, or install smoke alarms or carbon monoxide detectors— endangering the lives of Michón and hir children— now eight and three— and Johanne.
In early 2019, Michón and Johanne made an attempt to reach out to their landlords to ensure that basic safety measures were taken, and that standard tenant-landlord boundaries were respected.
Their landlords initially pretended to agree to these requests, and then suddenly announced that they had to sell the house, and that they were evicting everyone.
(The landlords sent an appraiser to the house who happened to mention that he was *not* conducting an appraisal for the sale of the house, but rather a specific inspection which is related to refinancing. However, there is no way to prove that the couple is not actually selling the property.)
How You Can Help:
The landlords managed to evict Johanne on July 13th—a *huge* thank you to everyone who supported her— and they are evicting Michón and hir children at the end of August, which violates multiple terms of Michón’s lease.
Considerable time has gone into researching whether it would be worth it to take the landlords to court. Because of Michón’s health conditions, and resulting financial instability, ze has concluded that ze does not have the physical strength or financial resources to go through a drawn-out court case.
Earlier this year, the landlords had offered to pay the tuition for Michón’s three-year-old’s preschool. He loves the school, and in Michón’s words: “the school is so good for him— he adores everyone there, and they love him to bits. They can actually get him to eat real food most of the time, LOL”.
When the landlords first announced the sale of the house, they re-committed to pay this tuition through the summer, and also offered to pay for Michón’s moving expenses. When the actual eviction notice arrived, Michón discovered that they had completely retracted their commitment to pay— leaving Michón $1,000 in debt to the preschool. They are also retracting their commitment to pay for moving expenses.
Michón is doing everything ze can to move hir children into a safe, stable home. Hir immediate financial needs are as follows:
• $2,700 to cover moving expenses and storage units.
• Michón’s car is barely running, and hir mechanic has given an estimate of $900 for repairs.
• Michón has received a partial scholarship from the preschool for next year, but needs to pay the outstanding balance of $1,000, and the $600/month tuition going forward.
• The extreme heat and rain in Boston has impacted Michón’s health and ability to work, and ze is behind on several bills, totaling $1,200.
• Last, and certainly not least, Michón needs a way to support hir family in the long term, and to provide a stable, safe home for hir children– for the first time in their lives.
In order to continue working to provide embodied trauma healing in a professional capacity that will support hir family, Michón needs to complete the Understanding and Treating Complex Trauma in Youth Adults and Families certificate program at the Justice Resource Institute.
The certificate program tuition is $3,800 and 10% of the tuition— $380–is due at the time of admittance. Michón needs to apply as soon as possible (admissions have been open since June 1st, and will close August 15 or sooner, if all spaces have been filled).
Fifty percent of the tuition is due two weeks before the course starts— $1,900 by July 31st. The balance of $1,900 is due by January 1st. [Correction: the first $1,900 is due August 15th, not July 31st. Woo-hoo— we will have time to reach this mini-goal!]
Michón is a loving parent, with a sweet and silly sense of humor, who so strongly wants the best for hir children. Michón is also a dedicated and generous community organizer and advocate, who has given so much to hir community.
$12,000 translates into 600 people contributing $20 each. Thank you in advance for your support— and please know that putting a bookmark to come back to this after payday, or even just sharing the GoFundMe link is deeply appreciated!
Please share widely—to social media, with texts to friends and family, and to any fundraising groups or email threads that would want to support a Black non-binary parent and community organizer.
Thank you!
Annie and Parker
~ This GoFundMe was reviewed and approved by Michón Neal.
Additional links:
Venmo: @Michon-Neal
Cash App: cash.me/MichonGG or $MichonGG
Paypal.me/thecuileffectproject
[GoFundMe mods— if these links are not allowed, please reach out to a campaign team member. Thank you!]
Michón and hir children are being unlawfully evicted— please help us get them into a safe home!
In 2016 Michón (pronouns: ze/hir) escaped an abusive relationship. Ze had a five-year-old child and was pregnant with hir second baby at the time.
Without relatives to help, Michón wound up stranded in San Francisco, facing homelessness. A white woman invited the little family to stay with her, only to evict Michón when hir baby was just five months old. During this time, Michón also helped hir sister to escape from an abusive relationship.
After being evicted, Michón and hir children lived in motels, and later in an RV parked on the street— praying that the police wouldn’t find them.
Michón has over twenty serious medical conditions, notably Fibromyalgia, Endometriosis, Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder, and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.
In short, ze lives with chronic and debilitating extreme pain and fatigue.
Michón is a writer, a community organizer, and a social justice activist, and does work with embodied trauma healing.
Through an online social justice community, Michón met a white woman and her husband, who lived in Boston. After learning of Michón’s plight, the couple invited Michón and hir children to live in Boston, rent-free, indefinitely.
Michón knew hir family couldn’t survive much longer on their own, so in the fall of 2017 ze took a leap of faith, and agreed to let this couple fly hir family out to Boston.
Over the next few months, the couple proceeded to violate Michón’s boundaries, and more than once engaged in inappropriate behavior in front of Michón’s children. Michón was horrified, but ze was barely surviving financially, and had no choice but to stay.
In late 2018, another tenant, Johanne— who had also escaped an abusive relationship— moved into the house. Soon after this, one of the landlords made a pass at Johanne, which she refused.
The landlords started retaliating against Johanne— harassing her, and trying to turn Michón against her. They refused to fix the home’s broken stove, or install smoke alarms or carbon monoxide detectors— endangering the lives of Michón and hir children— now eight and three— and Johanne.
In early 2019, Michón and Johanne made an attempt to reach out to their landlords to ensure that basic safety measures were taken, and that standard tenant-landlord boundaries were respected.
Their landlords initially pretended to agree to these requests, and then suddenly announced that they had to sell the house, and that they were evicting everyone.
(The landlords sent an appraiser to the house who happened to mention that he was *not* conducting an appraisal for the sale of the house, but rather a specific inspection which is related to refinancing. However, there is no way to prove that the couple is not actually selling the property.)
How You Can Help:
The landlords managed to evict Johanne on July 13th—a *huge* thank you to everyone who supported her— and they are evicting Michón and hir children at the end of August, which violates multiple terms of Michón’s lease.
Considerable time has gone into researching whether it would be worth it to take the landlords to court. Because of Michón’s health conditions, and resulting financial instability, ze has concluded that ze does not have the physical strength or financial resources to go through a drawn-out court case.
Earlier this year, the landlords had offered to pay the tuition for Michón’s three-year-old’s preschool. He loves the school, and in Michón’s words: “the school is so good for him— he adores everyone there, and they love him to bits. They can actually get him to eat real food most of the time, LOL”.
When the landlords first announced the sale of the house, they re-committed to pay this tuition through the summer, and also offered to pay for Michón’s moving expenses. When the actual eviction notice arrived, Michón discovered that they had completely retracted their commitment to pay— leaving Michón $1,000 in debt to the preschool. They are also retracting their commitment to pay for moving expenses.
Michón is doing everything ze can to move hir children into a safe, stable home. Hir immediate financial needs are as follows:
• $2,700 to cover moving expenses and storage units.
• Michón’s car is barely running, and hir mechanic has given an estimate of $900 for repairs.
• Michón has received a partial scholarship from the preschool for next year, but needs to pay the outstanding balance of $1,000, and the $600/month tuition going forward.
• The extreme heat and rain in Boston has impacted Michón’s health and ability to work, and ze is behind on several bills, totaling $1,200.
• Last, and certainly not least, Michón needs a way to support hir family in the long term, and to provide a stable, safe home for hir children– for the first time in their lives.
In order to continue working to provide embodied trauma healing in a professional capacity that will support hir family, Michón needs to complete the Understanding and Treating Complex Trauma in Youth Adults and Families certificate program at the Justice Resource Institute.
The certificate program tuition is $3,800 and 10% of the tuition— $380–is due at the time of admittance. Michón needs to apply as soon as possible (admissions have been open since June 1st, and will close August 15 or sooner, if all spaces have been filled).
Fifty percent of the tuition is due two weeks before the course starts— $1,900 by July 31st. The balance of $1,900 is due by January 1st. [Correction: the first $1,900 is due August 15th, not July 31st. Woo-hoo— we will have time to reach this mini-goal!]
Michón is a loving parent, with a sweet and silly sense of humor, who so strongly wants the best for hir children. Michón is also a dedicated and generous community organizer and advocate, who has given so much to hir community.
$12,000 translates into 600 people contributing $20 each. Thank you in advance for your support— and please know that putting a bookmark to come back to this after payday, or even just sharing the GoFundMe link is deeply appreciated!
Please share widely—to social media, with texts to friends and family, and to any fundraising groups or email threads that would want to support a Black non-binary parent and community organizer.
Thank you!
Annie and Parker
~ This GoFundMe was reviewed and approved by Michón Neal.
Additional links:
Venmo: @Michon-Neal
Cash App: cash.me/MichonGG or $MichonGG
Paypal.me/thecuileffectproject
[GoFundMe mods— if these links are not allowed, please reach out to a campaign team member. Thank you!]
Fundraising team (3)
Annie Strain
Organizer
Raised $1,700 from 46 donations
Richmond, CA
Michon Neal
Beneficiary
Parker Rice
Team member
Raised $471 from 21 donations
Aime Jesse
Team member
This team raised $7,839 from 212 other donations.
