My girlfriend and I have been without a permanent residence for two full years now and a new blow has left us needing to ask for help to get through the end of summer.
Folks who know me are familiar with the lore, but we both ended up unemployed around the same time, lost our apartment and have been living out of hotels ever since. Over that time, we have been grinding to get out of it, but every time we get close, something goes wrong and sets us back significantly. Last year we were close to moving into a new spot and then she lost the job she had and it took nearly a year to find a new one. Both of us have rough credit so finding an apartment without both of us working at the same time has proven difficult.
But a couple of months ago, she finally got hired for a remote contract position that felt like a huge break for us. Last week, the contract ended early and now we're back to square one.
The good news is she's already gotten interviews lined up, but the bad news is that's now a big chunk of income we're missing and staying in a hotel is costly and causes all sorts of other expenses that living somewhere real and normal do not incur.
Additionally, I am still working at the same place, but my boss was fired back in March, our management "team" is literally just me. one limited guy they've forced into helping me and an acting general manager who is about to be gone almost all of August.
During this tortured search for replacements and help, it has been made clear that I am not getting promoted or compensation for how much more I am working, but I am unable to fit a second job into an erratic and all encompassing schedule. I have only successfully called out one time since this status quo change and it was to take my girlfriend to the ER and I was saddled with the repercussions of missing that one shift for days after. It's been wreaking havoc on my physical and mental health for months and is about to get even worse, with no new help coming untll September at the earliest.
This ongoing situation is untenable to continue and I have some better options I'm working on making happen, but for the immediate future, we have nowhere else to go but this hotel room, both because of logistics and the difficulty of securing an apartment, but also because my Maryland ID expired last year and I'm in the process of trying to get a new one in Virginia, since we've been here long enough to be able to prove residency.
This fundraiser is to help raise money to help pay for the room through the end of summer. I am still working, but I have had to rely on BNPL services in emergencies, and the upkeep of regular day to day expenses being more exorbitant living without a kitchen, without a car and other elements of every day living that would be easier in a real apartment. We're trying to get enough to pay for the room week to week to fill in the gaps her missing paycheck would fill. We both hope she'll find something new soon, but have to be pragmatic and assume that we have to find something better than this whether she does or not.
We really just need help to get through until my working situation eases up enough for me to do more on the side that I currently do not have the room to do. Anything helps even just sharing this. We're not the only ones struggling so we understand if you cannot donate or engage with any of this. But if you can, just sharing it helps a lot.
Thank you to everyone who has helped us so far.
