Who We Are:

Kristen has been our dear friend for over 30 years. She is permanently disabled

and suffers from C-PTSD and agoraphobia. Kristen and her 2 cats will be ejected from her home of 13 years onto the streets of Los Angeles on October 31st. After trying everything to spare her little family this awful fate, she came to us broken, terrified, and desperate for a solution. So, we started this GoFundMe to save our friend from this crisis she did not create.

Kristen’s Story:

Even as a kid, Kristen was no stranger to fighting for her survival. When she was 10 years old, the abuse and dysfunction in her family became clear to her and she realized she needed to find a way out. Despite being an unwanted child to a 16-year-old mother and constantly told she was “worthless” and “would never amount to anything”, there was a voice in her head that said, “I think you’ve got me all wrong.” So she used what she had, her brain and every educational opportunity she could seize, to ensure she would have a stable career and never have to rely on anyone else for her security.

Kristen became a mechanical design engineer. She fought bias and the discomfort of being the only woman in the room to go on to be quite successful. During her 20+ year career, she was relocated from Illinois to California for her specialized skill set and earned several US patents for her work.

But her trust was broken when she was sexually assaulted by a co-worker and discovered her pay was discriminatory based on sex. From the overwhelm of these two events occurring weeks apart, she developed C-PTSD (a mental health condition that can be developed by someone experiencing chronic, long-term trauma) and agoraphobia (a fear of leaving one’s home). During this time, she coped by isolating and self-medicating with alcohol. And during this time, she discovered a lump in her breast that turned out to be cancer.

Over the following year, Kristen battled breast cancer and sought treatment for her mental health and subsequent self-medicating with alcohol. Fighting through these challenges helped define her sense of self and gave her the strength and wisdom to help others struggling with addiction and trauma. She felt a new world of possibility had opened up to her, and she was very optimistic about her place in it.

But just as her visions for the future began to take shape, the rules of the game changed and she was delivered one devastating blow after another…

She fought through all of this alone. But the moment she returned to figuring out a path forward, she was kicked when she was already down: Her disability benefits were wrongfully 100% reclaimed by the insurance company, leaving her unable to afford basic human necessities AGAIN. She has lost $86,520 in disability benefits so far and this will continue until she gets a lawyer to hold the insurance company accountable.

The stability and security she has fought for since she was 10 years old was stripped from her. Naturally, she panicked, then she fought. For the past 28 months she has tried EVERYTHING to restore her rightful benefits and/or get assistance from California’s social safety net. She has contacted over 50 elected officials, government agencies, lawyers, non-profit organizations, churches, and media outlets. Her last-ditch effort was a 3-part series of letters to the Governor of California. She poured her heart and soul into those letters as if they were death row pardon requests. The Governor never responded. The State of California and LA County both failed her in her time of need. Being denied access to the resources she is qualified for has cost her around $35,000.

Enduring several years of multiple traumas and losses is difficult enough. Adding 28 months of fighting a losing battle for basic human necessities is a harsh insult to injury. But for Kristen, finding an eviction notice taped to her front door was the final blow.

Why She Needs Your Help:

As things stand now, Kristen has no money, nowhere to go, no way to move what is left of her life, no family, and the few remaining friends she has live in Illinois. Her 2 cats and 2 therapists are her life support. Meaning, she cannot be in a living situation that would separate her from her cats, and she cannot move to another state that would separate her from her therapists/doctors. She has therapy 4 days a week (max allowed by insurance) to hang on to her sanity through all of this. But ending up homeless or in a shelter/public housing with strangers, that level of vulnerability, is something that could push her poor mental state over the edge. Not to mention, she is a 94 lb disabled woman who cannot defend herself alone on the street. Her relentless will to survive will not save her this time. She needs a period of time in a stable home to recover from so many years of constant trauma and loss. And she needs a lawyer to get her rightful disability benefits back so she stays stable.

Kristen is standing at a crossroad right now. Either she ends up homeless, or she is blessed with the opportunity to heal and flourish. Her future is in our hands.

What She Needs:

Because of the repeated abuse she has endured and her resulting C-PTSD and agoraphobia, Kristen needs a safe, quiet home in a safe, quiet neighborhood. Because she is permanently disabled, she cannot prove “annual income” to a prospective landlord and will need to prove she has the funds to satisfy a 1-year lease upfront.

Why This Matters:

It is hard for us to see our vibrant social butterfly who loved dancing the night away become a crippled, isolated shut-in. But what we cannot bear to see is her ending up homeless due to a crisis she did not create. Beyond the circumstances detailed in her story, she is living at the epicenter of the housing crisis. In California, she will not be considered for housing assistance until she is already homeless, and she will remain homeless for years before she makes her way up the housing waitlist in LA County. She is trapped in a county with exhausted resources and cannot get help from another county because she does not live there.

It is up to us to save her. Despite Kristen’s dreams being deferred several times, she still has hopes and aspirations for the future. And that future is not on the streets of LA, it’s about 3 hours away in Central California where life is more affordable. There is a nice town she would like to move to that has a university where she can retrain for a purpose within her limitations, social service and legal resources that are not stretched to the breaking point, and a vibe more fitting to the “Midwest spirit” in her. It is a safe haven for her to heal, then learn how to channel all the wisdom she has amassed from her trials and tribulations into something amazing to help and inspire others.

Kristen has lost some things along the way: a spine here, a boob there, and maybe a few marbles she won’t miss. But she still has her unwavering resolve and unbreakable spirit, and we know she will achieve whatever she sets her mind to once she regains a sense of safety and stability. It’s time for her to leave LA behind and move on to a fresh start. It’s time for Kristen to have a life with purpose, possibly, and people again.

How You Can Help:

Kristen is not just a fighter; she is kind and optimistic. Whether you are a friend or a stranger, two-legged or four-pawed, she has always sought and found the good in us all. She believes that people still care and anything is possible. In her darkest hour, let’s prove her right. Let’s save her from becoming homeless on the streets of LA and move her towards her future. Please donate. Please share her story far and wide. If we reach or exceed our goal, we promise to share a video of her reaction. Knowing her, she WILL react like you just saved her from years on a deserted island…because, to her, you did.

Thank you so much for taking the time to learn about our very special friend, Kristen, and her extraordinary story of resilience. We hope it has touched your heart the way it touches ours.

#KristensCrossroad