Hi, my name is Christina, I am a single mom of three amazing people, and I started this fundraiser to hopefully help my kids and I get a home. I used an older picture of the kids and I, they're bigger than that now.

I hesitated a lot about doing this, for many reasons. For one, I didn't want to expose my children, since I have worked hard up to this point to keep them from feeling any of the pressure or uncertainty around everything that has been going on. Second, I didn't want my ex to see anything, to know what's going on with me, or to end up using something against me. Third, my pride. It's hard to put yourself out there, let everyone know that you're struggling, having to ask for help, especially financially. But I am desperate, and scared. I feel like I've tried what I could and yet here I am, with nowhere for my kids and I to live. So, let me start with what got us here.

After years of what I now understand was an abusive marriage, we had reached our lowest point. On top of the abusive behavior, he was not working, he was excessively spending our money, and we were getting further and further behind on our rent payments. Meanwhile, I was working full time night shifts, then spending the days with the kids, trying to continue our homeschooling, and then getting some sleep after making dinner before having to go to work again. In August 2024, I told him that was enough. We couldn't afford to keep living there, he wasn't doing anything about it, so I was going to my mom's with the kids and that he needed to find somewhere to go. I made an agreement with the landlord to be out at the end of October so that way we wouldn't incur a large amount of debt. He didn't take that well and things got worse. By September I told him I was taking the kids that day and going to stay at my mom's with them. He called the police on me, saying that I was kidnapping his kids. When the police came and talked to us both they told me that we have to leave in October anyway so to just stick it out until then. October came and he refused to leave the home and still refused to let me leave with the kids, that I could go ahead but that I would not be taking his kids from him. Obviously I was not going to leave without my kids, so I started making plans at work and with my mom in order to leave without telling him. In January 2025 I took the kids to my mom's for the day and didn't come back.

Obviously there was a lot that went on after that, but I will try to focus specifically on what brought me to needing help today. He continued to stay at the home until he was removed from it, and I went back to pack the house up by myself with the little amount of time and help that I had. So, what would have been little to no debt had things been done in October, is a large amount of debt that now sits on my credit report. I also don't have a positive rental history or landlord reference. All things that are making me a red flag to a prospective landlord.

After I had left him I attempted to return to work, but I had a really difficult time. Anxiety, panic attacks, nightmares, randomly crying and not being able to stop. I was missing a lot of days of work or leaving after I had got there and eventually reached a breaking point and quit. Since I was at my mom's and was also able to take a medical leave, I took the opportunity to try and take care of myself. I talked to my doctor, tried medications, and eventually found counseling that I was comfortable with. It was around September that we found out that I wouldn't be able to keep staying at my mom's (I'm not going to share why because it's not my business to publicly share). At that point, things became less about making myself okay and more about where are my children and I going to live.

I connected with every service that might possibly be able to help someone in my situation. Months of phone calls, appointments, intakes, explaining for what felt like the thousandth time to a different person what had happened that led me to be in the situation that I was in. It was more than six months since I had left my abuser, so that disqualified me from services that were specific to abuse victims. I was added to the city housing waitlist and listed as the second highest priority, urgent priority, but the waitlist is still years long. The shelters are full most of the time, and if they're not it can be hard to find one that has space for four people, not that I wanted to go to a shelter. I was hoping to not have to take my kids there and it was still not a solution, I would only be able to stay at a shelter temporarily and would still be an unemployed person looking for a landlord to rent to me. Eventually my medical leave was over and I went on social services, which I hoped would open up more possibilities for assistance for me, but it did not. Basically at this point, I might be able to receive some financial assistance for last month's rent, possibly also first month's, I'm still getting mixed messages about that, if I was able to find somewhere to live. But besides that there isn't much help when it comes to actually finding a place.

I'm choosing not to name the places that I have reached out to for help, because I'm not interested in publicly shaming anyone or any organization and I'm glad that these services and organizations exist. But I will say that I contacted a lot of them. And up to this point, none of them have been able to help me find somewhere to live. This past mother's day I started to really panic. Feeling like a complete failure and the worst mother in the world, it was Sunday, and I had until that Friday to find somewhere for my kids and I to go. But I had already been everywhere. I don't know what I expected, but that Sunday I decided to go to the police station. Someone, somewhere had to know someone or know of something that would keep me and my kids from ending up on the street. I cried to an officer there and he said, "so nothing criminal?" and he gave me a business card of numbers that I had already called. The next day, still feeling panicked, I went to my city hall hoping to be able to talk to anyone who was willing to listen. I was able to leave my information at a couple of reception desks, and then I sat on a bench outside and cried for a while before going to yet another appointment I had that afternoon. I did end up getting an email from someone at city hall, who had someone else call me, someone from one of the organizations that I had already been to to get help.

I'm still trying to this day, still working with a few of these organizations, and I will continue to, but I am not feeling optimistic. Once the Friday came that I was no longer able to stay at my mom's I decided that the best thing for my kids would be to stay at an Airbnb, so that's where we are as of now. I also had to get a second storage unit for our things. It's not cheap, and it's taking from the money that I had saved to help with the move once I found something, and I can't keep doing it for very long. But I didn't know what to do anymore. I have a terrible rental history, ruined credit, and I don't have a job. I am receiving social assistance and whatever you think social assistance gives for rent, it's probably lower than that. It's certainly not enough to cover the cost of rent anywhere, and I am lucky if I can find a two bedroom apartment that fits in my social assistance budget. Landlords want nothing to do with someone like me, and I get it, I don't look great on paper. But I didn't spend my rent money, he did. I didn't yell at neighbors and landlords, he did. I didn't remain unemployed, he did. But now that is all anyone sees when I submit applications. They don't see me, my positive work history, my successfully completed college diploma, my ability to be financially responsible, they only see the damage that's been done by someone else.

Since all of those things are now in my way, from my perspective I have two realistic possible options for getting my kids and I out of this. Either I eventually come across a landlord who is willing to overlook all of the negative aspects of my record, give me a chance and let me move in anyway, which I have not found yet. Or, to help a landlord overlook the negative things, I pay several months rent in advance, which I am not able to do. So, that's why I am here now. I know that is a big ask of people. I am going to continue trying to find the first option, but if there's a possibility that my miracle might come from reaching out on here, then I need to try.

I'm really eager for this chapter of my life to be over. I haven't even been able to process everything that I went through in my marriage with my counselor yet because so much energy has been put into just trying to be okay until this part is over. I just want to get back to work, I want to not feel broken anymore, I want to build a new foundation that my kids can stand on and get back to a solid homeschooling schedule, but I can't do that until I get out of the pit that I'm stuck in. It's been over a year of waiting, of phone calls and appointments. And I'll do it as long as I have to if that's what it takes to get back on my feet, but no one is helping me get past the barriers that are in my way. And I don't know how to get past them either. I literally don't know what to do anymore, my nervous system is a wreck and I'm exhausted. I'm terrified about where my kids and I might end up if I don't have enough money to stay here anymore. I've had people tell me things like, "they won't let anything happen to you, you have kids." Whoever "they" are, I'm not sure. But apparently yes they will, they will let this happen. I've looked numerous people in the face or spoke to them on the phone, told them point blank that landlords won't rent to me and my kids and I have nowhere to go, and they have nothing they can do for me.

Please. If you are able to, please consider contributing or sharing. Please help me get my kids somewhere safe. Please help me keep things from getting worse and help me get my life back. I really have tried my best to do it on my own, but I just can't seem to. I am going to continue talking about my situation and posting updates, so if you are interested, this is the link to my Instagram profile https://www.instagram.com/christinacameron28/

Thank you so so much.