My fiancé & I, with our 2-year-old little dog, have been homeless since November 2024. We lost our jobs..me as a chauffeur and her as a teacher after 15 years. After doing all we could, we left our home. We lost our car due to repossession after the transmission went out on it and were scammed out of our remaining money trying to get a new car. A promised home we thought we had fell through, leaving us living in a U-Haul until it was taken, sleeping at the park, in a storage unit, and in motels when we were blessed to, couch surfing and even splitting up where I'm in one state & she's in another.

For eight months, we've tirelessly sought help and employment, even in other states, just in hopes of finding help, exhausting nearly every resource starting the day we became homeless. We've been repeatedly bounced around, being told the same things and being denied assistance because we don't fit specific criteria:

1. We have no children,

2. We're not veterans,

3. We're not senior citizens,

4. We're not youth between the ages of 14 & 22,

5. Contacted AlphaHealth & they couldn't help because we're both HIV negative,

6. We're not mentally disabled,

7. We're not physically disabled,

8. We're not on parole, etc.

We even applied to a car donation place hoping we could at least get a car because then it'd be ours and not have the fear of it being taken away like the U-Haul we were in, but we have heard nothing even still!

This ordeal has severely impacted our mental and physical health, especially given her severe asthma, back issues, anxiety, and depression, all she's suffered with since her teenage years.

We're doing everything possible to stay positive. We've called an emergency help number given to us, we've asked for motel/hotel vouchers but were told they didn't offer it or didn't have funding. Thankfully, with us not giving up, I found work and started early this week on Monday. We secured an apartment and just got approved. They told us about the website Rhino that helps pay for the security deposit and breaks up the security deposit into small increments monthly, but neither she nor I was approved through them. So, our dilemma now is not having the funds (security deposit) to move into our place, and of course, we don't want to lose it due to not having the security deposit given we've worked so hard just to get to this point after almost a year.

We also reached out to multiple organizations that "help" with move-in costs/security deposits, but some of these organizations are similar and are the same ones we reached out to for help before becoming homeless and thereafter, so we are unsure if we will hear from them or if they'll be able to help. We urgently need assistance to regain stability and we are so close. This was very hard for us to come to the decision to put this up and ask for help because most people have no idea, but this is our truth and our situation, and anything will help.