Today I moved into my first stable housing since October 4th.
On that date I returned from a trip to visit a friend whom I had just learned had advanced cancer. My then roommate and close friend for two decades took the opportunity to declare that I had moved out. When I tried to come back I was shouted out with threats of calling the police and having the locks changed on me. The day before I left, I had explained why I was in such emotional distress by explaining the situation with my friend and my relationship with him. In the process I came out as bisexual. In hindsight this seems like the reason he acted so viciously towards me. I left my cats in his care while I was on my trip; he repeatedly threatened me with sending them to a pound (and then when I told him I had flagged them and he would be arrested if he tried it) or just releasing them outside. He dumped my possessions next to a dumpster and told me I had two hours to collect them. When I came for my cats he stuffed them into cardboard boxes and taped them shut with no air holes.
Since then I’ve been living in hotel rooms. I picked up a job as an amazon delivery driver. And even working full time only slowed down the rate at which my savings was getting eaten up. Finally I found this place, 30-60 minutes away from my work and willing to let me keep my cats. Because of the generosity of one of our comrades here “C” coming through with a couple very timely loans, I managed to keep my cats and keep from sleeping in my car all the way to now. I’m broke, in debt to multiple sources, but I managed to keep from being outside. And I managed to keep my family together, even if it’s only cats at this point.
The story doesn’t end here. I have a civil rights complaint that was accepted by the state’s civil rights department. I’m going to bring a civil action against my old friend as soon as I have the money saved up for a lawyer. I’m going to finish studying for my certification and find a job in IT before/after I’m done with that. But the part of the story where my existential security is at question is now mainly over.
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❤️ really glad you and the kitties have a safe, stable place
Same. It’s not perfect… both of them are currently in the living room hiding behind the same couch because there are already 2 dogs, 2 cats and a pot belly pig living here. They’ve never really been around other animals. But the rent here is pretty close to 1/3 my take-home pay and includes utilities. So I can at least be here for a while.
ppb house!!
happy for you comrade, sorry you have had to put up with so much bullshit.
we are not alone, as easy as that may seem to be
I’m happy that you’re more secure than before and seething with anger that the injustice that happened to you is even possible.
My best wishes to you and your cats.
Edit: I am working in IT. We’re on different continents and I’m just an ordinary guy who happened to stumble into a coding career but if there’s anything you would like to ask, please reach out to me.
im so happy for you and the kitties and i hope your former roommate dies a slow and painful death.
I’m glad you got yourself back into shelter. I don’t think I’d be able to survive like you. Hard to find a place to plug in your CPAP machine when you’re homeless.
Oh no, I don’t want to mislead you at all. I never had to sleep rough. It just got really close a few times. I probably came as close as you can get to homeless without going all the way.
Thank you all for the love and support. I literally would not have been able to do this without this community.
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You know it would actually be really messed up if the mods removed this for a bit.
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Speaking of which
Grats comrade, very happy you found some stability. Sorry this all happened to you!
I’m really happy for you. I’ve been homeless and I now have pets and I pray the 2 never come together. I hope the up swing in your situation continues till we hit fully automated gay space communism.
