I had enough savings to hold to keep me going from March 2020 to February 2021. Fortunately, I was living below my means before Covid.
For the first time ever in my life, I sought services for housing assistance. I was referred to VA programs by 211. After 3 weeks of submitting all of the requested paperwork, ID, SSN#, tax statement, bank statement, proof that I don’t receive unemployment, and getting excited, I was informed yesterday that I was not in the military long enough to qualify for housing assistance.
The only assistance I was offered is free MST (Military Sexual Trauma), which is the only reason I did not complete the 4 years in the service, to begin with.
Since I have an honorable discharge and was released through no fault of my own, I had hoped that VS could offer assistance, but all they could offer was to pay my cell phone and car insurance.
I am so grateful for that assistance, however, I am shocked that for the first time in my life that I asked for help, no agency can do more. I have given back through volunteer work for the past 15 years. I have met so many homeless men who ARE NOT WORKING, but some agency was paying for them to live in a hotel or placed them in an apartment and paid the rent for 1 year.
I am in shock, because I have applied for Crisis, Ramp Charlotte, Hotel Committee, and every agency 211 offered for Mecklenburg County residences. I just don’t understand why no one has helped me or offered me a reason why they haven’t helped me.
I have no children, never married, never received section 8, food stamps, medicaid, or welfare. I have a perfect MVR record and no criminal record. I passed a drug test in order to receive counseling.
All I need is financial assistance or someone to provide housing for me and my grief support pet until my hours pick up at the bank. 1 month would mean a lot, but 6 months would be great. Since Covid arrived, my hours gradually reduced at the bank.
Since all of the agencies who did an assessment over the phone made it clear that if I have no income, it will be difficult to receive help, I have been working at Home Depot in which I am removing the carts from the parking lot 8 hours a day.
There is a reason why you seldom see women work this job, as it is brutal and takes a lot of strength to bring in 7 carts with each hand as I normally do, rather than push all 14 and attempt to keep straight. They don’t have one of those machines, so I connect the baskets, 7-10 each, then pull 14 in at once.
The arduous work has strained my neck and my entire body is bruised. I am not a complainer, but God knows that my body can’t take any more pulling and pushing the baskets for 8 hours a day. It has aggravated an old injury. I’m mentally hurting, but this job has me physically hurting.
I am in counseling which Monarch has offered, as I am classified as PTSD. I know that I need counseling. But right now, I am so focused on finding housing and securing another decent-paying job like the one I had at the bank, that I feel irritated when I go to counseling. At $12 an hour, 31 hours a week, missing hours due to counseling appt, doctor appt, interviews, etc., I am only averaging $300 a week.
As you can see from the letter, the hotel will not renew my stay here, which is fine, as this location has shady characters living here, roaches, loud music played in the parking lot, and no security. I would like to relocate to the south side close to my storage.
I need housing, money for cell, insurance, credit monitoring, legal shield, car insurance and to pay on my credit card.
Everything was fine until I moved out of the most perfect apartment near Piper Glen in June 2020 – with the intention of saving money. But it didn’t work out. The elderly couple that I moved in with had a crack/heroin/crystal meth-addicted son who returned to the house AFTER I moved in.
Although I never dated him, as he sells his body to men for crack, I was terrorized, along with his parents, until a domestic violence program placed me in housing. By then, he had kidnapped me, pulled a gun on me, threatened to kill me, thre the dog off the porch, stolen my car, broke every window, and sold it for $300 worth of drugs. The two warrants and protective order were a waste of time. He has never served even one day in jail for what he did.
My lab died of cancer, so I didn’t have a pet at the time I was housed by a domestic program agency. But now, in order to receive their assistance, I would have to separate from the only thing that loves me, my grief support animal. My pet has kept me off of antidepressants.
I can’t find an agency that will keep my pet if I go into a shelter. Even if I were to give away my plants, I have no place to keep my clothes, books, food I have boxed up, shoes, tv, etc. My storage unit is packed.
I currently owe this hotel the first 14 days of March. I owe $$2800 for the last two months at the apartment I last rented. I am anxious to pay this so that my credit will not be messed up. I’ve never had an eviction and I’ve never been late, but my high credit card usage has reduced my credit.
The ideal situation would be to have enough money to put a down payment on a house so that I will not have to return to an apartment, ever again.
I had enough savings for 1 year, which ran out in February 2021. The $7000 in debt that I have is due to charging car work, rent, medical, etc.
My parents, grandparents, aunt, uncles are deceased. I have no husband, boyfriend, children, or companion who can assist me.
I would like to leave charlotte and start a new life in a new city, as there is a lot of pain associated with this city with the assault, the domestic violence situation, having a gun pulled on me, being choked, kidnapped, losing my income, giving up my apartment to save money to no avail, and now the humiliation of begging every agency in Charlotte to help me.
I live such a private life, but to submit all of my personal business and show the police report, protective order, and warrants, my bank statement, is humiliating because not one agency has offered to pay any rent.
I don’t get it. I have no drug or alcohol problems. I have worked all of my life and paid taxes into the system and made sure that I did not get pregnant or depend on government assistance to help raise my child, yet I can’t get any help.
I’m not asking for a handout, I just want help. If I were to receive enough funding to leave my career altogether, I would focus on my project in which I make homeless kits for men and women and give them away. Each one contains socks, a t-shirt, toothpaste, sanitizer, washcloth, soap, cologne or perfume, etc. I’ve been homeless before and can recall all the items that would have been nice to have while I was on the streets 20 years ago when my mother abandoned me.
The only other hotel that is affordable that will allow pets, is located in Ft. Mill South Carolina, exit 90. I would be grateful if someone could pay ever how many months they are willing for me to stay there until I can secure another good-paying contract and save enough to get an apartment.
My goal is to pay down my $7000 credit card debt, pay my $85 monthly storage 6 months in advance, pay for my stay in a hotel because earning $12 hr will take me a long time to save up $1500 monthly rent that hotel charges. I would love to have the braces and dental implant that I needed.
If I receive enough of a donation, I will leave Charlotte. If I receive enough to pay rent, I will move to Ft. Mill. If I receive enough beyond paying rent for 6 months, I will get the dental work that I need and pay enough on my credit cards to bring my credit score up. Paying off $1560 would increase my credit score.
What I find most shocking is the inordinate number of men – and women who say to me, “you’re a pretty girl. You can’t get any of these guys to help you?” So in other words, I’m supposed to do what millions of women feel pressured to do and compromise my self-respect and integrity – simply because I’m vulnerable and alone?
This is why I am online seeking assistance, anything to avoid having to resort to a loss of the character I have worked hard to maintain.
With what I owe in rent and credit card, my debt is $10,000. $5,000 will move me to another state. $10,000 will give me closing money on a house, $2,000 dental, etc. I will set a goal to ask for $30,000, but I will be grateful for the $1500 I need to move into a new hotel in a different city. I am tired of looking over my shoulder, fearing that I may run into the paranoid schizophrenic again.
Salvation Army offered me a room, but I would have to separate from the only love and comfort that I have in my life, my pet. It would be traumatic for both of us. Please help me. Thank you in advance for your consideration and concern.
P.O.Box 241812
Charlotte, NC 28224