For the last six months hunger, hurt, stress, worry, abject poverty, depression, thoughts of suicide, and loneliness have been constant companions of my Mother's, ever since waking up one morning last October to an illegal eviction orchestrated by her then landlord. What followed was thirteen armed Orange County Sherrifs Officers telling her, her son and her nephew they would not be allowed any time to collect personal items or food/drinks they must exit with whatever they had on and in their hands and nothing more.
At that time the CDC had just issued not a few weeks prior a federal mandate on a moritorium on evictions no matter the reason (neither eviction nor possessory action), this was done in an attempt to prevent millions of people from becoming covid victims and potentially causing untold millions of new homeless from becoming covid carriers and pushing the already strained hospitals, first responders and even economy into a certain collapse.
My Mother should have been protected from this eviction as all of us were protected from eviction, or thats what the CDC would have you believe. Local law enforcement knew nothing of this federal mandate, couldn't be bothered to read the paperwork, and even told her it wasn't their job to do so that their job was to evict people.
In less than an hour our family was not only homeless, but had every last possession from my father's ashes and her sisters ashes, all our clothes, financial documents, identification cards, birth certificates, wallets, EVERYTHING thrown away by hired thugs that were brought down by the landlord within minutes of the Sherrifs Officers leaving.
We were only allowed to get out car, which became our home for the next six months, with only a two month period of hospitalization after she caught covid. While we made certain my Mother got care for her covid fight I and her nephew, plus her service dog in training all covid "patients" ourself had little choice but to ride it out in the car least the only "home" we had left get impounded with the few meager possessions we had left.
During these six months there would be short hotel stays only made possible by exhausting her social security check, but it never would be enough to cover every need there was, invariably the simple act of buying food or having to take an Uber to get the food as our home on wheels quickly broke down and left us with a non mobile home on wheels.
We still struggle even now. While we are fortunate to have found an extended stay we no longer have our car, we've no more meager possessions but clothes donated to us when a good friend passed, and the money from social security just covers the extended stays bill and not much more. Rarely do we have enough money for food to last the whole month, let alone to cover Uber costs to and from doctors visits, grocery shopping, or any emergencies. My Mother has become nearly completely mobility disabled due to forced cancellation of a much needed knee surgery and as such needs near constant care/aide from myself for even simple tasks like cooking a microwave meal.
While it could be said we all deserve a real opportunity to gain our lives back, my mother more than anyone deserves that and so much more... These are her Golden Years she is supposed to be enjoying, gardening in her yard, or relaxing while reading a nice book, not terrified she and her last two loved ones will be forced to live on the streets, this time without even a car to provide shelter should some unexpected emergency arise.
Please if you can donate then anything helps, if you are not able to donate money then food, clothes, dog food, hygiene supplies, etc are just as needed. We thank you in advance
