Please Help Biggi Displaced by COVID-19
Donation protected
March 16, 2020, as 6 San Francisco Bay Area counties issue a "shelter-in-place" order, my life comes to a screeching halt. Within just a few hours notice I lose my home, business, and job.
You see, my home/office are located on the premises of a business, that I believe was misclassified as non-essential and forced to shut down. "There are no exceptions," they said, "you have to leave."
I scrambled to pack everything essential, ending up with about 10 bags and boxes filling my car. The funny thing is, like so many of you, I had fully prepared to self-quarantine and even heal from the coronavirus, because as a rideshare driver, I am very likely to get it, and even more likely to be in contact with someone that might be diagnosed. So, a lot of what I took with me was my food and supplements, because I absolutely don't have the money to re-purchase any of that.
Oh, and it still gets better (or is it worse?)... I have 3 small shipments in the mail with immune boosting supplements and water filters worth $60, and my mailbox service, which is an essential business encouraged to stay open decides to shut down! Yes, I am now also without a mailing address, unable to receive any mail or packages.
So, stuck in my car together with everything that's essential to my life, my stress-level is through the roof (Take that, immune system!). My heart is racing, my stomach is in knots, I haven't slept much the last 3 nights, my hip is hurting from sitting, and I find myself unable to do the simplest things, like making tea, putting on a pair of socks, or brushing my teeth. My brain just isn't sending the proper commands. That's when I realize that probably 90% of our lives is running on auto-pilot. You don't ever think about any of that, your head, hands, and feet do it automatically and routinely. Yet nothing is routine for me right now. (In which of those 10 bags is my toothbrush again?)
Watching people on the outside is bizarre to me. Their lives just continued. Many seem so happy about this forced vacation time. They laugh, jog, walk their dog (a lot), and take home their carry-out food. I feel like a Martian watching this odd lifestyle of humans.
Bathrooms and seats have been either reduced or removed from the public, and they even closed the parks and toilets there. (So much to getting some outdoor exercise and washing your hands often!) As a rideshare driver, I am used to torturing my bladder, but boy is it uncomfortable holding #2 for hours! In previous times, if you got displaced, you simply moved your business to Starbucks and showered at the gym. All these options are now gone.
And, I am experiencing so much fear. Fear that people will report me to the police. Fear that my car gets broken into and I lose my belongings. (If you live in the Bay Area, you know that no car is safe, not even when it's empty, or when people are sitting in it.) Fear that I will get the virus and will lie in sweat-drenched clothes in my car without facilities or drinking water, and too fatigued to get help. Even the fear that officials will now label me homeless and toss me into a church or school with hundreds of immune-compromised humans, while leaving my car and belongings on the street, up for grabs.
NOW, TO TRULY UNDERSTAND THE SEVERITY OF MY EMERGENCY, you have to know what my life looks like on "a good day."
I have worked for Lyft and Uber for 6 years, and made deliveries for TaskRabbit, NewEgg, and SpoonRocket the year prior. That's a total of 7 years strapped into an unergonomic car seat.
I work approx. 350 days a year. I don't have holidays or vacations. Ever.
On a good day, I make half of minimum wage. I mostly work for food, shelter, and the car. (The car makes more money than I do!)
I don't get medical or unemployment benefits, disability, or social security. There's no union behind me. (Though California did put me on MediCal.)
If anything happens to my car, or a passenger simply lies about me, I instantly lose my only income source. Car maintenance costs ($100 for an oil change), and even registration costs ($242 for a Corolla) create financial hardship (and put me on a diet). Car repairs and traffic tickets create life-threatening financial emergencies.
I don't have colleagues or a boss. I don't have family or friends. "Social distancing" has been my middle-name for the past 10 years, as I have Multiple Chemical Sensitivities a.k.a. Multiple Chemical Injuries. This means, that even if I had the money, I don't ever get to go to any type of party or group event. I cannot live in most places or with most people, and I can't take any jobs where they allow employees to wear fragrances. And yes, there have been many times where I wanted to jump out of my car, because a passengers fragrance made me so sick. To date, there have been 2 instances where passengers actually sprayed themselves inside my car!!! I get an outright panic attack when I am called for Jury duty, because I absolutely cannot sit with all these people in a court room. But, the law doesn't care about my disability.
As you can imagine, I cannot save any money under these conditions, and when the transmission on my 3-year old Toyota suddenly stopped working in 2017, and with 85,000 miles on the car was no longer covered under warranty, it put me into a financial tailspin that was unrecoverable!
So, that's on a good day, but even before the shelter-in-place took effect, schools started closing, people stopped traveling, and most of the tech employees stayed home. This had a huge impact on my rideshare business leaving me with $2 net revenue per hour at best!
WHAT DO I NEED, AND HOW CAN YOU CAN HELP?
I need an immediate income replacement to cover all regular monthly bills. I am adding in two month's worth, though we all know that this situation might last longer.
I need to cover extraordinary costs for car maintenance and registration. Because of financial worries, I was already holding off getting my brakes done (all pads and rotors), but it is really important that I take care of this as soon as possible. And I already described the horrendous registration cost for my car in California above.
I need to be able to book a hotel room or AirBnB if I am ordered to self-quarantine. Now, this is 14-days minimum, which I have figured into the goal. However, if we were to significantly exceed the goal, I would be able to temporarily move into such place, and at least continue working on my business, where I was about 2 weeks away from launching a course, which I have been working on for the past year in tedious very, very part-time hours. (That's right, Lyft & Uber were not a career choice.)
Even after I have described my regular life, which you might agree isn't an easy one, I was going to rise to the challenge of this Coronavirus pandemic. I was going to be a hero and support and encourage people as best as I can. I was going to take the sick to the doctor and knowingly expose myself to the virus. Yet instead, I now have to do something that is totally out of character for me. I have to ask for your help.
I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT I APPRECIATE EVERYTHING YOU CAN DO TO HELP. Whether it is including me in your prayers, sharing this campaign, donating a Dollar or a Thousand Dollars, I will be equally grateful! We all do what you can.
Thank you and may you be blessed!
Stay safe,
Biggi
You see, my home/office are located on the premises of a business, that I believe was misclassified as non-essential and forced to shut down. "There are no exceptions," they said, "you have to leave."
I scrambled to pack everything essential, ending up with about 10 bags and boxes filling my car. The funny thing is, like so many of you, I had fully prepared to self-quarantine and even heal from the coronavirus, because as a rideshare driver, I am very likely to get it, and even more likely to be in contact with someone that might be diagnosed. So, a lot of what I took with me was my food and supplements, because I absolutely don't have the money to re-purchase any of that.
Oh, and it still gets better (or is it worse?)... I have 3 small shipments in the mail with immune boosting supplements and water filters worth $60, and my mailbox service, which is an essential business encouraged to stay open decides to shut down! Yes, I am now also without a mailing address, unable to receive any mail or packages.
So, stuck in my car together with everything that's essential to my life, my stress-level is through the roof (Take that, immune system!). My heart is racing, my stomach is in knots, I haven't slept much the last 3 nights, my hip is hurting from sitting, and I find myself unable to do the simplest things, like making tea, putting on a pair of socks, or brushing my teeth. My brain just isn't sending the proper commands. That's when I realize that probably 90% of our lives is running on auto-pilot. You don't ever think about any of that, your head, hands, and feet do it automatically and routinely. Yet nothing is routine for me right now. (In which of those 10 bags is my toothbrush again?)
Watching people on the outside is bizarre to me. Their lives just continued. Many seem so happy about this forced vacation time. They laugh, jog, walk their dog (a lot), and take home their carry-out food. I feel like a Martian watching this odd lifestyle of humans.
Bathrooms and seats have been either reduced or removed from the public, and they even closed the parks and toilets there. (So much to getting some outdoor exercise and washing your hands often!) As a rideshare driver, I am used to torturing my bladder, but boy is it uncomfortable holding #2 for hours! In previous times, if you got displaced, you simply moved your business to Starbucks and showered at the gym. All these options are now gone.
And, I am experiencing so much fear. Fear that people will report me to the police. Fear that my car gets broken into and I lose my belongings. (If you live in the Bay Area, you know that no car is safe, not even when it's empty, or when people are sitting in it.) Fear that I will get the virus and will lie in sweat-drenched clothes in my car without facilities or drinking water, and too fatigued to get help. Even the fear that officials will now label me homeless and toss me into a church or school with hundreds of immune-compromised humans, while leaving my car and belongings on the street, up for grabs.
NOW, TO TRULY UNDERSTAND THE SEVERITY OF MY EMERGENCY, you have to know what my life looks like on "a good day."
I have worked for Lyft and Uber for 6 years, and made deliveries for TaskRabbit, NewEgg, and SpoonRocket the year prior. That's a total of 7 years strapped into an unergonomic car seat.
I work approx. 350 days a year. I don't have holidays or vacations. Ever.
On a good day, I make half of minimum wage. I mostly work for food, shelter, and the car. (The car makes more money than I do!)
I don't get medical or unemployment benefits, disability, or social security. There's no union behind me. (Though California did put me on MediCal.)
If anything happens to my car, or a passenger simply lies about me, I instantly lose my only income source. Car maintenance costs ($100 for an oil change), and even registration costs ($242 for a Corolla) create financial hardship (and put me on a diet). Car repairs and traffic tickets create life-threatening financial emergencies.
I don't have colleagues or a boss. I don't have family or friends. "Social distancing" has been my middle-name for the past 10 years, as I have Multiple Chemical Sensitivities a.k.a. Multiple Chemical Injuries. This means, that even if I had the money, I don't ever get to go to any type of party or group event. I cannot live in most places or with most people, and I can't take any jobs where they allow employees to wear fragrances. And yes, there have been many times where I wanted to jump out of my car, because a passengers fragrance made me so sick. To date, there have been 2 instances where passengers actually sprayed themselves inside my car!!! I get an outright panic attack when I am called for Jury duty, because I absolutely cannot sit with all these people in a court room. But, the law doesn't care about my disability.
As you can imagine, I cannot save any money under these conditions, and when the transmission on my 3-year old Toyota suddenly stopped working in 2017, and with 85,000 miles on the car was no longer covered under warranty, it put me into a financial tailspin that was unrecoverable!
So, that's on a good day, but even before the shelter-in-place took effect, schools started closing, people stopped traveling, and most of the tech employees stayed home. This had a huge impact on my rideshare business leaving me with $2 net revenue per hour at best!
WHAT DO I NEED, AND HOW CAN YOU CAN HELP?
I need an immediate income replacement to cover all regular monthly bills. I am adding in two month's worth, though we all know that this situation might last longer.
I need to cover extraordinary costs for car maintenance and registration. Because of financial worries, I was already holding off getting my brakes done (all pads and rotors), but it is really important that I take care of this as soon as possible. And I already described the horrendous registration cost for my car in California above.
I need to be able to book a hotel room or AirBnB if I am ordered to self-quarantine. Now, this is 14-days minimum, which I have figured into the goal. However, if we were to significantly exceed the goal, I would be able to temporarily move into such place, and at least continue working on my business, where I was about 2 weeks away from launching a course, which I have been working on for the past year in tedious very, very part-time hours. (That's right, Lyft & Uber were not a career choice.)
Even after I have described my regular life, which you might agree isn't an easy one, I was going to rise to the challenge of this Coronavirus pandemic. I was going to be a hero and support and encourage people as best as I can. I was going to take the sick to the doctor and knowingly expose myself to the virus. Yet instead, I now have to do something that is totally out of character for me. I have to ask for your help.
I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT I APPRECIATE EVERYTHING YOU CAN DO TO HELP. Whether it is including me in your prayers, sharing this campaign, donating a Dollar or a Thousand Dollars, I will be equally grateful! We all do what you can.
Thank you and may you be blessed!
Stay safe,
Biggi
Organizer
Biggi Fraley
Organizer
Albany, CA
