As many of you know I shattered my left femur about 16 months ago which left me permanently disabled and unable to work. I was on my own at a very young age and have been working since the age of 12. My mom passed away in 1982, right before my 10th birthday, from a Glioblastoma brain tumor leaving me categorized as a ward of the court until I reached the age of 16 when I was officially emancipated. I have always been able to support myself and my family in some way but since breaking my leg finding work or working doesn't come as easy any more.
Not many people know what has happened to Larry and I and the boys(Pepe and Paco our 2 chihuahua brothers) since September 2021. It's been a series of life changing events completely out of our control.
We worked in property management off and on for 25 years and were working for a company based in Vancouver, Washington just across the bridge from Portland, Oregon. We gave our previous employer 3 years of exemplary employment as on-site property managers only to be discarded, abandoned and discriminated against to the point where our personal property was damaged and our lives seriously threatened by neighbors, tenants, coworkers, vendors and eventually by the owner of the property. When our employer found out Larry and I are a long term couple over a span of 30 years things changed almost instantly with them.
For 9 months we told our immediate supervisor in person, over the phone, through text messages and via email that things were escalating on the property we managed but he disregarded us every time. After months of harassment, death threats and damage to our vehicles and other personal property Larry and I decided our safety was more important. With no help or intervention from our employer we felt it was a blatant disrespect that wasn't going to change, even after turning their worst property into the highest money maker out of their entire portfolio. If it wasn't for a small inheritance i received a few months earlier we wouldn't have had the ability to start over in Portland. Little did we know that we would be jumping out of the frying pan and into boiling water.
I rented a very small duplex in NE Portland which is where we moved to directly after fleeing our job in Vancouver. Unfortunately, the tenant that lived in front of us was a very well known anarchist who was responsible for starting some of the rioting in downtown Portland in the height of Covid. The anarchist in the front duplex harassed us and stalked us the whole year we lived there, including working with the landlord to find any way to evict us once they found out Larry and I were a couple. Our lease ended August of 2022 but we tried to get an extension from the landlord till September 2022 because we were out of money with nowhere to go, and no jobs readily available but he denied our request by filing an eviction against us. The eviction court Judge gave us till September 30th, 2022 at 6pm to vacate the duplex.
Our move out day arrives and at about 5:15pm the landlord shows up with his 2 cohorts harassing us and literally making it next to impossible to be out of the duplex by 6pm. A little after 6pm I go to close the door on the uhaul truck and I fall off the back deck of the moving truck, shattering my left femur and the landlord walks across the street without calling the paramedics. Larry hears me yelling for help as I lay on the driveway with my left leg detached with a compound break. 82% of people who break their femur in this manner die so I feel very lucky to be alive. After a 11 hour surgery, where my surgeon installed a titanium rod in my left leg that goes from my hip joint to my knee, I spent 8 days in the hospital, not one person we knew came to see me or support us and to top it off we had no money, were homeless and Larry lived in my jeep with Pepe and Paco for 6 days at the hospital parking garage as I recover from surgery. That first night there was an attempted burglary of our moving truck but luckily Larry heard them as he was sleeping in my jeep with the boys the night of my accident in front of a friends house 2 blocks away from the duplex we lived in. Larry thwarted the thieves from taking everything we owned.
Once I was released from the hospital I recovered from surgery in a motel 6 for 10 days in Wilsonville which was paid for by a small amount of money I raised on gofundme. Thank you to all who helped with that.
Our time at the motel 6 was coming to an end and we were without money once again. Larry made the executive decision to go back to Eugene, Oregon where St. Vincent DePaul offered to put us up in a shelter for awhile so I could heal from my accident. Before I knew it we were back in our home town Eugene, Oregon and living in a motel again. The program through which we were housed was offered by SSVF which is a department of veterans services in Lane County that help veterans and their families become self sustainable after a year in their program. Everything was fine at first but 2 months went by in the motel, then 3 months and in the 4th month of living in the motel, with really no help from our worker to find a place we discover our worker had started discriminating against us and harassing us saying we weren't in compliance for finding permanent housing when in actuality we find out later that they were profiling people and had no intention of helping us get into more permanent housing. There was no program but just a bunch of people chosen by St.Vincent DePaul to hand out emergency funds and they had no clue what they were doing.
After breaking out of my fog from the accident, pain management and healing enough to walk around on crutches I found a place for us in Eugene off River Rd. St Vincent's made us sign a 47 page contract when we first arrived October 15th, 2022 (i was 2 weeks post op)which stated along with many other promises that they would pay 6 months or up to a year of our rent and all of our move in costs upon meeting certain criteria. We matched all of the criteria but to our surprise St.Vincent DePaul only paid our move in costs and first months rent. That was it! Not only that when we asked for a copy of the contract(which we asked for many times) they refused except finally sending the very last page of the contract with all of our signatures the day we took possession of our 1bedroom townhouse. They set us up to fail which led to our eventual eviction in February 2024 when the organization that promised to pay our rent for November 2023, December 2023 and January 2024 didn't pay the rent.
Our families, friends, schools and churches have been donating to St. Vincent DePaul in the Eugene area for decades. We can't believe the despicable behavior we experienced from their organization. Yes, they helped us but only because thats what they are supposed to do. The discrimination and harassment we faced from them is beyond ridiculous and I hope they face the consequences of their actions sooner rather then later.
The property management company we rented from, Real Estate Connections, evicted us, leaving us homeless once again. They took alot of our furniture including 2 queen beds, dressers, cabinets and more without giving us enough time to retrieve it after we moved out. Larry and I had 4 days to move with no help from anyone. It just about killed us.
All the while we are waiting for SSI benefits to kick in but if SSI finds out you have been working at all they deny your claim all together.
We are waiting on a settlement through HUD from a Fair Housing complaint I made against our previous landlord from the duplex in NE Portland for discriminating against us and wrongfully evicting us.
We also have yet to find an attorney to take our case against our previous employer in Vancouver where we have proven beyond a reasonable doubt to an OAH judge, who appealed my initial denial for unemployment benefits, that our previous employer discriminated against us, put our lives in jeopardy by poor building maintenance, breach of contract and more. Statute of limitations runs out September 3rd, 2024. We have 170 pages of contemporaneous documentation proving that our previous employer is in fact responsible for what happened to us and neglecting us after 3 solid years of exemplary employment. This case is potentially a multi million dollar lawsuit but finding a lawyer to help us has proven difficult due to 6 months to a year of back log from the Covid Era.
We are currently living in a Penske moving van after we were in a small fender bender with my jeep, which was my fault, first accident since the age of 16. I have a 1,000 deductible I have to cough up or I lose my 2020 Jeep compass that I've paid over 30k for with on time payments over the last 4 years through my credit union. I worked many years to be able to afford this vehicle and if I lose it it could be very detrimental to the already frustrating and stressful situation we are in.
Due to some close friends helping us with cash here and there we have been able to pay for regular bills such as storage unit rent, car insurance, jeep payment, rent, utilities and other basic needs but we are now without that help and in desperate need of help otherwise we could lose all of our possessions currently stacked in a 10x10 storage unit in Eugene and be forced to return the moving truck if we can't pay for the 257 a week it costs to rent it and keep us from sleeping on the concrete until the repairs on my jeep are completed towards the middle of May. We have been doing Doordash and I'm a commissioned notary in the state of Oregon through 2026 so I've been doing that as well but it isn't nearly enough to cover the high price of basic living these days.
We have never been this bad off before but feel we have done everything humanly possible to stay afloat till our settlements come in but I don't think we are going to make it.
We know this is a tough time for everyone financially due to the fall out of the pandemic. 5 grand would cover the deductible for the Jeep, pay the filing fee to sue our previous employer so we get our lawsuit filed before the statute of limitations runs out September 3rd, 2024 and then give us the ability to find more permanent housing. We are considering purchasing a camper trailer or high top van to live in till such time as our settlements come in because rents here or elsewhere are not affordable to us. We are generally very good with our money, always pay our bills on time and rent on time. Everything is so expensive but we always find a way to save money on app specials, coupons and we don't eat junk food too often though it is easier then finding a place where we can use our Airfryer that Larry's mom got us for Christmas last year.
Thank you so much for listening! Our experiences over the course of the last 3 years have been severely difficult. I feel my healing time was greatly interrupted by all of the diversity we faced and still face. We haven't had the best luck but we are trying to stay positive and even when things are really bad we are so grateful to be here breathing another day.
Our plan once our settlements come in is to pay off our debt, including any borrowed money since this nightmare began and settle somewhere near Palm Springs/Palm Desert area either by buying a home or custom building one. We are also planning to start a non profit to help those in need who have experienced what we have.
If you want to help but don't like helping through an app such as this you can contact Larry or I by mail, email, text or phone call. Our contact information is below.
Thanks again in advance for any help or suggestions you may provide.
The 2 paintings pictured are artwork we are trying to sell. The big one is Thomas painting 55"x38" it's on Craigslist and various other online classifieds for $2,500. The ocean scene painting I've owned for just over 20 years. Asking $800. 35"x35"
Lawrence Gregson: 971-212-9095
James Hardin: 541-228-1954
Our address is 2 fold:
PO Box 70031
Springfield, OR. 97475
3148 Gateway St. #70031
Springfield, OR. 97475
