2025 has been the hardest year of my entire life. After moving to Portland in 2023 in search of a better life than Florida, I've been left homeless, abused, and struggling constantly just to get by despite trying my absolute best. Last year, with what little inheritance money I had, I purchased my dream car to help me escape homelessness and give me an opportunity to find more work and get out of the city after nearly 2 years of only being able to go where public transit can take me. She was a 1999 Honda CR-V with around $6k worth of modifications done to her to make her perfect for camping/living in. A solar panel, an extra battery, very good condition, lifted for better off-road travel, she was exactly what I needed in case everything fell through for me again and I had nowhere else to go. Then in July she was stolen and all of that was stripped off. When she was found by a facebook group, she had been completely gutted and left in non-working condition and my dream car was gone. I was thankful to at least have her back and after scrounging together what I could from my money that wasn't going towards rent in my current small studio, I got her back in driveable condition. I even had to buy a new climate control for her because those were deemed worth stealing too in the dead heat of summer I guess. The police did absolutely nothing to help, nothing to catch the people who did it despite me getting security footage from my neighbouring building and doing their job for them, and I've been just traumatised by the whole situation frankly. I had just gotten the original stereo from the previous owner only a few weeks ago when I woke up yesterday on the 1st and saw that she was gone yet again. I panicked, found she was in some impound lot online, and realised she had been towed from a location 30 minutes away from me. So she was not only stolen again, but this time she had been towed and now my car, which was stolen from me, is being held with ransom by a towing agency hired by the city. Yesterday it was $309, today it said $341, and when I called to set an appointment to come get it just now, they quoted me at $369. I currently only have $360 and need that for my rent that I'm already late on. But if I don't get her today, they'll just keep raising the price as usual. I don't know what more to do. Evil taking even more from victims.

I hate asking for help, I've dreaded it everytime I've needed to in the past because I so often feel like a burden, but I've been treated well by incredibly generous friends, loved ones, and strangers, and it's clear to me that I need it again. I need to leave Portland, this city is simply too much for me and I can't survive here. My partner and I are struggling to get by every month and this exact kind of crisis is one we've been desperately hoping to avoid, but here we are weeks away from Christmas with everything falling apart again so soon. We are all struggling and I don't pretend to be special, but any help I can get means more than I can hope to express.

With the money, I plan to get my car back in working condition, enough so to drive back to my home coast and find a place to live in the northeast. I have family to stay with there and can focus on rebuilding with my partner and loved ones after losing everything here. I need help getting back on my feet and any I receive is appreciated beyond measure.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.