Help Simon (me) and Spooky get someplace safe!

I recently moved cross country with my cat and most of what I own to live with my girlfriend and her family— from Louisiana to Seattle— because my home had become hostile and unsafe for me. I didn’t expect that after only a month of my being here, most of it with one or both of us being sick, that my girlfriend would break up with me and suddenly I’d need to leave the apartment by October 7th, or risk them losing the place because I haven’t been put on the lease like we’d planned.

I don’t have my own vehicle, as the one I’d been using back home was currently inoperable and in no state to be driven from Louisiana to Seattle. It also legally belongs to my parents, who I was trying to escape the control of.

And thanks to us both being sick, I don’t have any sort of job or source of income at the moment. I have almost nothing to my name and know basically no one in the area.

I have a few options to move forward, but none of them are optimal and all of them are expensive in different ways.

> Seattle has some of the highest rent costs in the entire country, and even renting a small room in a shared home is between $750-1000 /month, not counting deposits and combined first and last month rent. The lowest estimate of what I’d need to do that is around $3000 and that’s if I’m able to secure the lowest cost room I found. There’s also no certainty that the cheapest option I’ve found allows cats, as it’s the only posting with no information one way or the other on pets.

> I have a friend in Atlanta who has very graciously offered me their spare room, though it would be sub-optimal to return to a red state, but my ex’s mom has offered to purchase a suitcase and plane ticket for me to fly out there. I wouldn’t immediately be able to bring the bulk of my stuff with me, and would have to secure a storage unit that I estimate to cost around $80-120 /month depending on which facility I can rent from. I would have to either eventually hire a moving service (at a minimum estimated cost of $1800) or attempt to utilize a relocation service that helps trans folks in red states move to Seattle. (So theoretically I’d be moving back in a few months, provided they approve me)

This is still generally the lower cost solution up front, though Atlanta has significantly less robust public transit, and less available jobs in the area. But I know they’d allow Spooky and I wouldn’t have to fear being kicked out in under a month again.

I have to make my decision on which path to choose by tonight (10/01/25)

Anything that doesn’t go to immediate moving costs will help me survive, feed myself, and potentially get a car or pay for transportation otherwise.

Thank you for your kindness and generosity.