Please help Chaussie and I to be safe, and have a home

Hi, my name is Mona. At the beginning of May, I left Kansas City and moved to Minneapolis with my cat, Chaussie, to seek safety and stability. As a neurodivergent trans woman with physical disability, and numerous mental health challenges, staying in Missouri was no longer tenable. The sociopolitical environment had become dangerous, and I had to get out.

So, I got out, and moved into a sublet in a hurry—out of fear and desperation, not because it was a good fit. It didn’t work out. Since then, I have been staying with a friend and their family. I am deeply grateful for the roof over my head, but this is temporary. I am unhoused, and I need to find a stable place to live—urgently.

The system demands you break first :

I have been working hard to find housing through both official and unofficial channels. But here is the catch: to qualify for local housing programs, you must first go through one of the following:

• be unsheltered and on the streets for months,

• be in jail,

• be in inpatient addiction treatment,

• or be in a shelter.

I cannot do any of these. Not won’t—cannot.

Why I Cannot

• Addiction treatment: I would have to trade my body and mind for addiction, and destroy myself, intentionally, for the system to take me seriously. I would not survive that.

• Jail: As a trans woman, I would be placed with men. That is not just unbearably degrading—it is life-threatening.

• Shelters: Female shelters are inaccessible to trans women. Even if I could access one, it would mean living in trauma-inducing conditions, without privacy, or safety; rest would impossible. A male shelter would be degrading, and life threatening.

• Living on the streets: This is not a viable option. My physical and mental health would deteriorate quickly. I would be at constant risk of assault and worse. It would be life threatening. I would not be able to move forward. I would not survive.

I am doing everything I can to stay afloat and build a future, I have come too far to give up. But the housing system is built around thresholds of suffering I cannot cross. I have come too far to go down like that, and I would not survive them.

What I Am Asking :

I need help raising money to cover the deposit and first month’s rent for a safe, stable home. Affordable places in Minneapolis can be hard to find, and deposits can be as much as 1.5x rent. I am aiming to raise $2,000, which would give me a shot at securing a place with a door that closes, where I can exhale.

This would mean safety. Stability. A path forward—for me, and for Chaussie.

If you are able to contribute, thank you. If you can share this with your community, thank you. Every bit helps.

With love and gratitude, from the bottom of my heart til the end of the universe

Mona