Zachary's Fight Against Homelessness

Hi, everybody!!

My name is Zachary, commonly known as Zoh. I’m from California and currently living in a shelter in South Central Los Angeles.

I’ve been an incomplete quadriplegic since 2020, coupled with CRPS and other neuropathic and musculoskeletal issues.

All of these have quickly become chronic, and recently my symptoms are becoming a little more debilitating. They have been getting harder to manage overall, especially coupled with stress and my physical and emotional responses to it.

First and foremost, my housing situation has taken a hit, and my attention and nail-biting are solely pinned down over my homelessness situation. I’ve entered into a shelter program and have been navigating it for 11+ months now, being shuffled from one place to another. There have been assaults. There have been numerous instances in these places that I don’t particularly want to go into now; however, I fear for my safety every day. I don’t get any sleep.

* I’m working towards getting approved for Section 8 covered accessible housing and saving up the money that I can from what I earn and hopefully raise!

I am quite honestly terrified of having nowhere to go. There have been a few social workers that told me inevitably they end up quitting their job because some of the disabled people they end up working for in the homeless community end up dying before they actually get them placed. I’m trying to keep a positive attitude, and I’m actually really grateful that I’ve even come this far in this situation! But I’m getting really tired. I need a light at the end of this tunnel. I’m really hoping this might help change that.

The stress of recent financial and environmental problems continues to worsen as the small benefit payments from SSI (under $700 monthly) I get is now the ONLY source of income I have left. The amount I’m getting isn’t anywhere close to the bare minimum cost of living for a single disabled adult ANYWHERE, and especially in LA. I’m open to the idea of moving out of LA, but right now I can’t do anything. I am waiting to gain Section 8 coverage, which is the only way I’m going to be able to afford my own apartment. But I have to supplement with shelters and the kindness of friends and certain family members in the meantime so I can avoid being on the literal street. I’ve been working with caseworkers and social workers, and it takes forever because the crisis is so large. I understand they have to meet with so many, but it could be a very, very long time before I’m out of a shelter situation, and I just don’t know how much more I can take. It’s been close to a year, just under a year, and I am terrified every day. The system shuffles you every few months, and so it’s near to impossible to kind of settle somewhere and figure out what to do to move forward with employment, if at all, knowing that I’m gonna be shuffled at any minute to someplace else in another part of California. I know it appears as though there are so many programs that the government helps us with, but truly it’s a nightmare, and it’s not particularly set up for you to prosper. But I’m keeping my head up.

I need as much money as I can manage to raise in order to keep myself safe and move forward into the next chapter. I just want to feel safe and secure in my own environment in order to begin living. It has been such a difficult transition going from an able-bodied person to an incomplete quadriplegic with CRPS. Without having the security of a roof over my head, the stress has gotten increasingly more difficult.

Your donations are going to go toward public housing expenses, motels, and other temporary housing costs for myself, as well as hopefully covering some infusions I need for my CRPS, and any deposits and moving fees in order to get a small studio somewhere safe. Every single dollar is going towards my immediate safety and care.

My mom, who had been covering half of the cost of my rent these past few years, and I were both barely able to scrape through our bills even during that time. (There were multiple months where rent came up short even then.)

Now it’s become impossible, as after pushing through the pain as long as possible, her own medical conditions have worsened and cost her her job. She rents a small room from a friend in their house on the third floor; otherwise, I know we would be trying to navigate this together. She helps me every day as much as she can, but now without her working, her own rent is at stake.

I also need to be able to receive some serious medical treatment so I can ease the symptoms of my CRPS, and my mental health issues are not being addressed as I need. If I’m ever going to be able to work anything normal, I need to be able to keep myself safe and housed and have my basic needs met.

I’m living in panic right now, trying to scrounge any resources I can together, and it’s not looking good.

So I’m asking for some urgent help. I have been clean and sober for nearly 2 years, and up until the last 11 months, I have had very good luck and help from my mother and good friends with keeping it together. But being shuffled from shelter to shelter, recoup to recoup, I have been assaulted (more than once) and generally just living in fear daily. I don’t see any way I can safely navigate this having the body that I currently do. I really have been putting so much effort into keeping myself above water with my health, and a BIG part of that is my sobriety. I am now having to deal with all of the triggers that sometimes (often, sadly) come with the homeless situation and risk losing like I have in the past.

I think my foundation is strong, but being without a home has chipped away at it before, and it just scares me to continue being shuffled around the homeless crisis as so many of us are.

I’ve worked way too hard to get to just the starting line of being able to make a decent life for myself, and I’m really scared of losing it just by being unhoused. I want to work, I want to keep myself clean, I want to find a way to make a good life for myself as a disabled person, and I just don’t see how any of that is going to be possible if I don’t have a roof over my head.

So everyone who sees this—friends, family, strangers—if you guys can chip in anything so I can get myself housed and out of this seemingly impossible situation, then I have a chance to make things better. I would be eternally grateful.

Thank you guys for reading, and thank you for your help. Love you all.