Support Idalis in Overcoming Homelessness

Hi. My name is Idalis, I'm 22 from New York, and I have been homeless since May 1st, 2025. Last year, my family entered a sublease agreement with the mother of my close friend of mine who no longer needed the space. We decided to enter this agreement due to us living in a very small living room that was shared between myself, my mother, and my then 1 year old sister. This was not sustainable for any one of us, and so we decided to move in. I took care of rent for the first four months of the lease, then my parents took over for the next four months, and after that we continued to split rent while I also took on the utilities, phone, and internet bills all on my own. Despite this agreement and me paying a majority of these costs, they failed to keep up with their payments or have any savings, which put us in an impossible situation where their portion of the rent was not met and I would have to make up their share on top of my own and the extra costs we had, or explain away why rent was not met to our subleaser.

This issue all spans back to the pandemic, when I had started college and was convinced by my mother to take out student and personal loans as well as opening a credit card to help us stay afloat after the passing of my father, my newly pregnant mother, and an ongoing global pandemic. I was a freshman, completely debt free with a full ride to college, and a fun part time job. I had no reason to take out any form of loans on my own accord, but as a family oriented person, I believed that I was doing the right thing in helping my mother. I was promised assistance in paying these expenses off once payments on the loans began, but have yet to receive a dime as she now denies any involvement or responsibility in taking advantage of me and the resources provided to me as a freshly 18 adult and new college student. As a result of all of this, I dropped out early in my sophomore year, picked up a second job, and began to pay off these things as well as providing financial assistance to my mother and stepfather even though I had not received much on their end.

It is now near impossible to save, rent an apartment on my own, pay these debts that total to around 14k due to interest, and keep my own credit in check. On top of this, I have also been loaning money to my stepfather for things such as baby essentials, transportation, and food, but almost never see that money back, even after applying pressure to the situation at hand. There is also money owed to my friend, who paid a portion of our rent one month when they could not afford it and to this day has not been paid back, as well as the woman who leased our previous apartment to us, who still has not received their part of the rent for our final months there.

I do not wish to speak poorly on anyone's situation, but I also cannot continue to be taken advantage of financially or emotionally, as the involvement of my younger sister, now 3 years old, has been used over my head as a key factor to why I shouldn't move out on my own or withhold money from my parents, and shows how heavily reliant they are on me and the resources that have been available to me in the past few years and the little bit of a paycheck I have leftover from paying the loans taken out so long ago with borderline predatory interest rates and no chance to lower them.

My mental health is at an all time low as a result of my homelessness, my lack of financial stability or freedom, and ongoing mental abuse within my immediate family. I have put off crowdfunding as an option because I know the reaction from my family puts me at risk, however I am at a point where I have nothing to lose and it can't get worse from this point on.

I work full time, but any money I make goes straight to a bill or living expenses, I have been denied every form of government assistance, and most grant programs, both government provided and resourced by the company I work for, require proof of purchase or receipt or rental agreement, which I cannot provide since I don't have the financial standing to do any of that to begin with having to pay off thousands in loans monthly and only being able to afford the minimum payment if at all. I have been working as much as my job allows, I have sold over half my clothing and belongings, have applied for every grant, housing lottery, loan, and every form of relief you could possibly think of, and I have been jumping back and forth from my aunts to my girlfriends house. This in itself presents its own set of issues. I am not their responsibility, nor do I want to be. I want to be independent, but it would take years of my life trying to pay off these debts alone, and after years of trying to receive any help from my family even though I have done nothing but give back to them and play head of household, I cannot keep going down that road of disappointment.

Any donation received would be going straight to clearing this debt and escaping homelessness. Thank you.