Fundraiser For Unhoused Judi B.
12-26-18 update: Judi's psychological distress at having to continue to stay at the house where her daughter is at reached a breaking point today where Judi was apparently prepared to sleep outside rather than continue staying at the house tonight. So I had enough of my credit limit on my one credit card to fund a stay in a motel just for one night. Judi will sell her truck soon so that she can stay in a motel for a little longer and to put money back in the campaign fund which is now $95 in debt. Any donation at all would be much appreciated at this point. Thank you.
12-24-18 update: This campaign has slowed down a bit over the past month. Mostly I just need to have more people view the campaign page before I can get more people to donate. So if you could please share and or forward the link, that would be much appreciated. Judi does have access to an indoor place to sleep, but staying there long term continues to be very stressful psychologically so she really needs to move to a better place such as a motel.
The I Can’t Have Any Friends Who Are Unhoused Or I Will Be Evicted Fundraiser for Judi B.
Hello folks,
It is not for lack of trying or lack of the ability to pay reasonable rents that I make the following fundraising pitch for CouchHosting.org on behalf of one Judi B. To the haters out there who want the unhoused to pay something for their housing, I get that, and Judi has been doing that, but she keeps getting evicted for various reasons unrelated to her ability to pay. So now she and I are embarking on this GoFundMe campaign to raise enough money so that she can stay at the one place that she both likes and that will take her in on a fairly consistent basis, and that is one of the cheaper motels in Eugene, Oregon.
If you need to know the grisly details about what led us to this course of action, I have been authorized by Judi B to disclose both her name as disclosed here and the following details about the multiple train wrecks that make it seem like her life is cut from one of the Final Destination series of horror movies, that have happened to her over the past year.
I met Judi as part of my work with CouchHosting.org when I advertised that I was willing to have one unhoused person at a time stay with me for one week per month at my studio apartment in Eugene, as is permitted under the terms of my lease. Judi stayed with me for that one week at least, but when I attempted to add her to my lease so that she could stay there longer and start paying me rent, her application was denied by the management at Valley Ridge Apartments in Eugene. The official reason given on the paperwork was that her credit wasn’t good enough. But off the written record I was told that she could not stay there because she had been kicked off the property previously when another tenant scammed her out of $300, saying that management was cool with her parking her van on the property and sleeping in it when in fact management had not been informed at all. I was told that if I allowed Judi to stay with me that I would be evicted. That is only one reason why I chose the title that I did for this fundraiser.
At that point, I became highly motivated to find Judi a permanent place to stay that she could call home. She eventually settled on staying at a Studio apt on W 7th near downtown Eugene. I helped her out in getting into that place by giving her a big loan that covered about half of the move-in expenses for both that place and a different place that fell through at the last minute, but that we never got our money back for. That place on W 7th Ave seemed to be going well, except that she lost the key to her mailbox and we didn’t find out until the last day she was allowed to stay there that she had been given a 30 day notice of no cause eviction from that place after being there for only 3 weeks. The reasons for the eviction amount to what I said in the title: She had too many unhoused friends over, sometimes staying overnight, when she was allowed only one overnight guest for 3 days per month. The lease also wasn’t clearly stating if the 3 day clock resets when a new guest stays overnight.
During this time right after her eviction from the 7th Ave location, CouchHosting.org was just starting its football eating game art card sales to help the unhoused, using the website NationalTurnoverLeague.com. Art card sales were used to help Judi stay in various motels for a short time, and we networked with some volunteers to let Judi couch surf at their places for a couple of weeks, until she was able to move into the Phoenix house for women, run by Shelter Care. This opportunity also ended in failure. Because one of the roommates at the Phoenix House was treating Judi poorly, she decided to stay with her daughter at a house in Eugene for awhile. During this time, she lost contact with the people at Shelter Care because she lost her phone. When she finally got in touch with Shelter Care again, they had ended up dropping her from the program. She stayed at her daughter’s location for a month or two afterwards. The daughter and the couch that Judi slept on for part of this time are featured on the first CouchHosting.org art card in the photo gallery on the home page of CouchHosting.org.
Judi eventually felt compelled to leave from her daughter’s location because she couldn’t handle the chaotic living situation and drama that went on there. She bought a truck and started sleeping in it on the street, first near 4 corners and then over by my apt in Eugene.
We both thought we had found a possible solution to our woes when Judi moved into an Airbnb rental on November 4th, 2018. I disclosed to the host that Judi would be staying there by herself while I had to take a trip out of town. The host and I both accepted the Airbnb booking reservation without asking further questions after I figured these key points were covered by a written exchange of e-mails. While I was on the train to Los Angeles on November 8th, 2018, I was informed by the host that she had just found out that Judi was homeless and that because I hadn’t disclosed that although Judi is my best platonic female friend (which I did correctly imply when I booked the room) but that I also had a professional relationship with her as my homeless client of CouchHosting.org, because of that reasoning alone, the host had the perception that I had lied to her about my relationship with Judi and therefore Judi had to leave immediately. I tried to reason with the host by reminding her that another member of her roommate team had been staying there for 9 months after becoming homeless because his house burned down. Her response was that the other roommate was not homeless.
So now Judi is once again sleeping in her truck, with occasional visits back to the house where her daughter is at when the weather gets to be just too cold, but she can’t stay with the daughter long term because the living conditions at the house are just too chaotic. In November 2018 I decided that even though I was out of town, I have the ability to do some fundraising to help Judi be able to afford to book a room at a motel. For every person who donates $5 or more to this GoFundMe campaign, and who sends me their USPS mailing address by sending an e-mail to [email redacted], I will send them one of the first version of the CouchHosting.org art cards that features the dog on the couch plus the human and dog on the couch as a thank you gift.
Since it is close to the end of the year, there would be no tax penalty nor any potential for losing either Judi’s or my SSDI benefits if the goal of raising $1000 per month is exceeded, up to a total of $2,000 received by December 31st, 2018. In 2019, the goal will be to raise at least $1000 per month. If in 2018 more than $2000 or in 2019 more than $12,000 is raised, that’s fine. The excess above those limits will go into the CouchHosting.org general funds as part of the fundraising I was already planning to do in 2019 for building a 3D printed apartment building (or multiple buildings) featuring at least 10 studio apartments per building that rent for $300 per month. The first such building will be called the Roy Howard Thielking House, named in honor of my late father who passed away on Octobeer 18th, 2018, after being the victim of a pedestrian vs auto accident in Chapala, Mexico on October 17th, 2018. More details will follow, starting in January 2019, including more specific details about projected construction costs and locations of the new buildings. At first blush, 3D printing is expected to be so cheap that 10 studio apts could be put on a newly purchased quarter acre lot for a total project cost of $150k or so. Stay tuned and thank you so much for reading.
Sincerely,
John Thielking
CouchHosting.org
Is it really true that John Thielking can’t have ANY unhoused friends or he will be evicted? Well, not quite. He just can’t have unlimited unhoused friends of his choice who he helps out on an unlimited basis. The maximum number of occupants allowed overnight in my apt is only two people. Judi is banned by the management from staying overnight, but she is not banned from being on the property or visiting me during the day. I currently have a formerly unhoused room mate who the apartment manager is fine with having him stay with me indefinitely.
Please check out my newest GoFundMe campaign titled
Unhoused Are Paid To Write Blog Posts
https://www.gofundme.com/unhoused-are-paid-to-write-blog-posts
If this fundraiser is successful and transitions Peacestickers.net and
CouchHosting.org to paying unhoused and others up to $100 for their stories of being homeless and/or other stories that they write, that will be a great day for me indeed. Please share if you wish. Thanks.
