Frankly, things are bleak for our family. I’ll go into detail with our entire story below, but let me start with a short version: I’m Quill, a transmasc nonbinary person with a family of 5 who have fought tooth and nail to not reach this point, and now thanks to the government’s inaction, we have no choice. I know 25k is a tall order, and I don’t remotely expect this to work, but desperation has made this a necessary attempt and it’s about the amount of money we’d have saved right now had the government acted during the pandemic like every other well off country. Here’s the detailed stuff below:
A few years back, my SO Gabriel got hired on to a pretty decently paying job. Problem is, it was in the super homophobic and shitty field of plant work. It paid well tho, which at the time we desperately needed. We were able to actually move into a decently sized home, which became necessary because around the same time, my teenage siblings more or less became homeless. Their options were to live with my neglectful mother, where they regularly starved (I can also back this up as someone who grew up with her and regularly fainted from starvation), or to live with their creepy and abusive father. Clearly we weren’t going to let this happen, so we took them in. At the time, this wasn’t a difficult choice. We had more than enough income to support them and give them a life I wish I had when I was their age.
Then, Gabe got fired. Because his hair was a little too long (it was actually because he was Super Left and Super Queer in a really right-wing, homophobic work environment and they had been looking for a reason to fire him anyway). Suddenly we didn’t have the income that had been supporting us, several pets, and two teenagers, despite him having the job for a couple years and doing amazing at it.
Since this happened we have basically never recovered, and it has been a daily struggle for the last couple years. We are trying so hard not to lose this house, and thus have to send the kids back to live with their completely unfit parents, probably rehome several pets, and be homeless ourselves. Recently we’ve realized we are poly, and have an additional person (our partner) living with us, but she is basically in the same boat of not having many options. It’s basically work and get coronavirus or don’t work and stay safe.
We had a solid plan for getting back on our feet, and then Coronavirus hit. It threw a wrench in our plans, but in the beginning it was somewhat manageable since we had access to unemployment aid. Now, that aid has run out and the government refuses to pass more, or a stimulus check. We have NO INCOME besides what little two artists in the home can pull online in commissions, but it’s impossible to survive on alone. We can’t go out and get jobs, because we can’t risk having coronavirus run through the house and potentially kill someone.
Our mortgage has been on forbearance since May, but that forbearance period ends in January 2021. We have no clue if they will let us extend it, or pretend the virus doesn’t exist anymore like so many other companies and expect us to pay up. We can’t. We’ve been barely surviving on commissions and donations, and haven’t had the resources to save up the 20k they will need when they come to collect on the mortgage payments they’ve been putting off. (Oh yeah, did you know that a forbearance period is completely useless? You still owe the full amount at the end of it lol.)
So basically? We are squatting. We are so close to losing our living situation that it is palpable, which will throw several people, teenagers and pets into a mad dash to finding a place to live, with NO MONEY TO OUR NAME. We can’t wait anymore for significant stimulus relief, because bills need to be paid now. I understand if there are people out there who think of us as “people who bit off more than they could chew”, but the reality is we are queer and lost our very decent income because we are queer and have been suffering ever since. At the time, with our jobs, we were very comfortable and not living beyond our means at all, teenagers and pets included.
The 25k I am asking for will be used as a down payment on a cheaper dwelling, as even if we were to pay off the backed up mortgage payments we owe, we can no longer reasonably afford this mortgage anyway. It’s time to move on and I accept that, and my main goal is to buy something cheap as possible so at the very least our housing situation isn’t threatened at every turn.
Why do I need money for a down payment instead of rent? Because in the end, a mortgage is much cheaper monthly, and would provide us with the best shot at becoming more self-sufficient in the future. We have too many pets and too many people to reasonably afford a Rental situation. It would easily run us 2-4k a month to find a place that suits our needs (trust me I’ve been doing the math for months trying to figure out what we can possibly do). With a mortgage and significant down payment (looking in the 40-60k range for a cheap mobile home situation), this price could be below 1k a month, which is possible for us to cover.
Any extra money over the 25k goal would be amazing but it’s expected. It would just go toward a bigger down payment, or even outright buying a property. More money now means more self-sufficiency in the future.
If you have any more questions or need clarification on something, let me know. I hate to ask for this, but frankly the last year has given me more than enough practice having to beg for help online, so hopefully y'all can understand.
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