Support Taylor: From Tent to Home

Hi, my name is Taylor/Taykout (34M) and I'm trying to find my way out of an increasingly troubling situation.

I broke my arm in two places while on the job a couple years back, and I ended up losing that job. Finding and keeping work while still healing and trying not to move certain things the wrong way was difficult, and that eventually ended in an eviction in 2023. Finding and keeping work when you're homeless is also difficult in different ways. The cycle continued.

I was at a shelter off and on for most of that time. I'm a little nervous to call it out, but if you've ever noticed people with buckets outside your local stores in December, you know who I'm referencing. Resources at this shelter have been subpar and getting worse since I first went there. The same can be said for how employees treat some of their clients. For instance, the most recent time I was there, a man tried to climb in my bunk with me for exactly the reasons you can assume. He's still allowed to be there. I was asked to leave and not come back for at least 30 days. I had a hard time wrapping my mind around that one, or maybe I still haven't. The point is, that doesn't feel like a safe reliable resource anymore, and it's really the only shelter resource for men in this county.

That incident was in January, and I had been at a campsite since then. I was lucky enough to have a couple other people from the shelter pass on some essentials to survive the cold, multiple blankets and a coat and things to make a tent I had previously bought more comfortable, and it worked. Dealing with the amount of rain we've already been getting this year was a little more challenging, but I was learning my way around that too. I got good at convincing myself that survival mode was enough.

I originally set this up towards the beginning of this month (April 2025) and what you're reading is a second draft. It was honestly a more whimsical attempt of self preservation, I'd seen others share these sorts of things in online spaces, and I thought "the worst thing it'll do is nothing, which is already what's happening, so what's the harm?" The response has been overwhelming in the best way, I truly did not expect to get traction with this kind of thing. It helped me turn a moment of last ditch effort into a surge of hope that I haven't felt in months or maybe even years. With this, I could clean up an eviction off my record, or get myself to a hotel or some situation where I had an address and a roof and could get a job and get on my feet again. It felt possible again.

On the evening of 4/22, I left the campsite on a dry day in between thunderstorms, to buy another tarp and tools to help keep myself dry. I returned to find three people had occupied and ransacked my tent. A verbal altercation started, but one of them had a firearm and they used it. I'm unharmed! But I wasn't interested in sticking around. I walked away with a backpack I was already wearing, five days of clothes, and the coat I mentioned before. I've been in a hotel a couple towns away since that happened, and I don't want to imagine going back there. Since I left, I've been in touch with one of the other campers, who said that police intervention in the campsite was getting more intense. When I contacted police about my own incident, I was told to figure it out for myself, so I can't imagine what else is going on to make them actively involved.

The shelter isn't safe. The homeless camp isn't safe. I can't secure employment if I don't know where I'm sleeping. I started this fundraiser to assist with that, but with the expectation of a somewhat slower pace, which was fine at first. My situation has changed drastically in the last couple of days, and I think I have a solution, but I still need help getting there.

In a bigger city a couple hours away from me, there's free public transit, more affordable hotels if I were to need one, and a rehousing program with much better resources and accommodations, with no affiliation to the bucket. My chances of surviving and thriving are significantly better there. Getting there by bus would physically be very easy with the little amount I currently own. If I was to go, there's also the complication of the shelter being a "first come, first served" basis, I can't guarantee I would have a bed the first day I get there. That's unfortunately the nature of many shelter programs, and it might be a logical reason to keep looking for other options, but right now it's my best option with the resources I've got. With this fundraiser, I would hope to get myself to this better location and make my way into that rehousing program, staying in a hotel if needed until I could find employment.

If you've already contributed and you're reading this, thank you. I'm alive and thinking clearly because y'all have helped me. That being said, this is time sensitive. I'm in a hotel until Sunday (4/27) and couldn't catch a bus until at least Tuesday (4/29) if that's the choice I wanted to make. Some of the proceeds have already gone towards renting a room for safety during inclement weather, or supplies for fortifying the campsite. Any contribution helps. Sharing this with strangers helps. A good chunk of the proceeds so far have come from people I've never met, because friends of friends spread the word. If you aren't able to contribute but you're able to share this, I very much encourage it, because it works. Thank you for reading, for helping me keep my head above water (literally, at one point there was a huge flood in the campsite that would've been dangerous if I wasn't in a room that night) and for being kind. The response has been overwhelmingly kind and positive, and that's giving me the kind of hope I need to hang onto.