#be understanding

okay so I was homeless like more than a year ago

It was awful and terrifying and now I have more trauma to add in my big book of traumas'

Almost got raped

Being homeless is scary as heck

Please stop treating people who are homeless as crap

They're people and they deserve to be treated one

We were homeless because before my dad left he didn't pay the rent for months and we didn't know until like 7 months later when the landlord told us. We also been paying the rent after he left. She seemed understanding of our situation. At least we thought. Around my first week of school first week of me being a freshman in highschool she said she's going to kick us out until we pay the missing rent the rent that my dad didn't pay that we didn't know about and when we found out she said it was OKAY THAT SHE UNDERSTOOD. She said we have until the end of October to move out. We begged her to understand my mom is a single mom, my sister had to drop out of college to help pay the debt my dad left. It was impossible for them to be able to pay that large amount. She then said we have until the end of December. She kicked us out on November 15th 2022. We had almost everything packed. We found a place we just needed to settle a few things. We were almost there. She kicked us out more than a month early. The house we were going to rent said no at the last minute. We were at the streets. A month later we found a shelter at this hotel. They had a section for the homeless. They gave us expired food. I got food poisoning multiple times. My immune system is non existent at this point. They rarely had halal food but at least they tried. We had a court case. And the land lord god that effing woman won because she's rich. Literally the only reason. She unpacked our things and messed it up to show how we're bad people. No one cared that my dad was the one who created this mess. Who cares right he's a man. And we're 3 girls and a child and we're poor, brown, south Asian, and muslim. She kept almost all of our things even things that we just had for memories. She took everything, every belonging she took and gave us empty bags and boxes. This lady by the way has 3 houses in the Hamptons, but who cares right? Ramadan was a nightmare the amount of days we didn't get food. I don't even want to remember. Then in the middle of Ramadan my county shut down that shelter since it was "hindering the hotel's business". So they shipped us to the only shelter in my county. I got sick a lot but I still had to go to school cause I was sick every couple weeks. They never had halal food and the masjid when they had leftovers the workers there wouldn't give it to us. Only one of the shelter worker cared for us and when she could she gave us the food. I pray for her everyday. We never really got food. I had little brother too I would give we would give most of the food we got to him. The my mom sister and me would share but I know they gave me a little more. Then around the end of Ramadan our social worker at the shelter was able to get us an apartment. It's been rocky since then but at least we have somewhat stable housing. We're definitely really lucky and fortunate. We thank Allah(God) every day.

I'm telling you this story because you don't know what people go through. You don't know the reasons why people are homeless. You don't know what they go through. So please help and understand and give us at least human decency.

And open more homeless shelters. Make them safer. Give food that you would give everyone else. Make food accessible for people with allergies and religious restrictions. Make it easier for people to go find work and education. Don't restrict their rights. It's all I'm asking

“I don’t understand this.” “What does this mean?”

The person obviously THOUGHT they were communicating what they wanted to say. Honestly, getting that feedback tells me NOTHING about where I went wrong.

Comments that DO help? “Is this a typo for XXX?” “Did you mean XXX?” “I think you’re either trying to say A or B. Can you let me know which it is, and I’ll help you make that clearer?” “Is this referring to (previously mentioned thing)?”