#chronically homeless

[chronicallycouchbound]

I can’t live in over 99% of housing.

This is not an exaggeration.

“Less than 1 percent of all units are equipped with features that would allow a wheelchair user to live independently.” HUD.gov

My experiences of homelessness are inherently tied to this.

[chronicallycouchbound]

Grant’s Pass vs Johnson is among upcoming 2024 supreme court votes that would criminalize all homelessness federally.

Source

[againstme]

can someone please help me with getting a hotel for more than one night. i’m homeless and disabled and my phone is dying and i’m carrying all my shit with me trying to find a place to charge my phone, just want to be able to have more than one night in a place that doesn’t have sketchy vibes or bedbugs

paypal.me/chxseallen

venmo is chaseallxn

[crippledpunks]

being homeless while disabled is an even bigger nightmare. you're expected to carry around all of your belongings, either from couch to couch, hotel to hotel, shelter to shelter, bridge to bridge, or wherever you're headed, you have to do a lot of heavy lifting, walking, climbing stairs, finding safe places to stay, navigating underpasses: finding shelter. even when you're not doing heavy lifting, the fatigue gets to you. you can be in an exhausted fugue for days. depression runs rampant. it's impossible to keep your brain healthy when your body is suffering. nobody's patient with homeless people who hobble or have a hard time walking or use a wheelchair or powerchair. nobody cares if you're hallucinating or having a panic attack or psychotic episode or flashbacks. nobody cares in general, but it's even harder when you're disabled. if you're also disabled and homeless, i love you. stay safe

[pots-sibly]

I think that every time I see a bus stop without a bench I should get to explode a politician with my mind

[chronicallycouchbound]

Fun fact: in the United States, most cities and towns have public land property records available online.

And a lot of places have squatter’s rights, often with some sort of stipulation, such as you need mail to the address, a utility in your name (actually very easy to set if you have the funds) or verification that you have been there every day. A photo with the daily newspaper every day can establish residence. After that, they have to do a full eviction process. Where you can have even more rights as a tenant.

Not all heroes wear capes

[kiragecko]

Just realized another cost of being unhoused.

-

I have eczema. At my severity, management isn't very expensive or difficult. I had to find the brands of soap, shampoo & conditioner, moisturizer¹, laundry detergent, deodorant, and toilet paper my skin could tolerate and use them consistently. I have to bathe every second to third day. And I have to keep my stress levels down.

The brands I can use aren't even expensive, other than the shampoo! I can't usually use store brand, but it's all widespread stuff like Dove or Purex. It's the quality/type of stuff I'd be getting, even if I didn't have eczema. The shampoo is maybe twice as much as the cheap stuff and needs to be bought at a health store, but is STILL way less expensive than anything you'd get from a hair salon.

-

And, as long as I keep up this routine, I can live life normally and comfortably. I can even use restaurant washrooms, as long as I'm not doing it too frequently!²

Without this routine, my scalp gets scabs and open sores. My hands are covered with cracks/scratches, are red and stiff, and burn constantly. My forehead and neck get covered with a layer of greasy white dead skin, with the skin underneath thin and raw. Everything gets infected easily, and the infections often look like outbreaks of greasy acne. It's painful, uncomfortable, and unpleasant to look at.

All of this can be avoided if I'm in control of my environment. But even staying at a relative's for a week can mess me up. Their sheets, washed with the wrong detergent, can cause a flair-up. My tub being clogged for a few days, and me missing a bath, has left my scalp burning.

-

Someone who's couch surfing isn't going to be able to choose which toilet paper their friends are buying, or easily lug around laundry detergent to every new location. Someone on the streets isn't going to be able to control which shampoo the YMCA dispensers is stocking, or what they're using in the shelter's washing machines. Even if the food bank DOES have pads, it's unlikely that they have the one hypoallergenic brand that someone is able to tolerate. (Especially since that one product is different for most people!)

The difference between health and suffering isn't always about money. Often it's about being able to make your own decisions.

That's a really limited resource when you're unhoused.

-

¹ I haven't actually found a moisturizer that works, so I just deal with the dry skin. But since eczema is the dry skin disorder, that DOES leave me with less tolerance for any other stressor.

² People with more extreme eczema may have to carry their own soap everywhere, and/or do cost/benefit calculations every time they they consider washing their hands. It can SUCK.

[alwaysinbetweeninsaneandinsecure]

This queer family has had a harrowing journey with becoming political refugees of an anti-trans state and then becoming unhoused. They managed to get housed BUT their new home is majorly inaccessible. They need help to add a stairlift so that members of the family can safely and easily access their basic needs. Please give what you can and please reblog! Alternative ways to contribute to this family's well-being (and avoid GFM's fees):

V*nmo & C*sh*app: SoundsFromGinen (organizer of this fundraiser on behalf of the family)

V*nmo & C*sh*app: BlackTransParent (the parent of this family, Tae)

[scretladyspider]

please don’t scroll; I really need your help to reach my gofundme goal of $3500 and not become homeless.

Im Elle, a queer, ace, disabled person with ADHD, depression, and two cats. In November, I lost my job without warning. I have no savings as the job already had me living to the last dollar of every paycheck. I was denied unemployment and food stamps. I cannot work away from home, a physical job, or something with strict hours due to some yet-to-be-diagnosed illness.

this is my story — what’s going on & how I got here. (Smaller text used because it’s a lot of information/a long post.)

In early 2018, I was doing regular walk/runs. In 2019, I stopped being able to run, so I went on walks. Running took hours, then days, to recover from. My body couldn’t produce energy to do it consistently, so, walks. In 2020, I kept going on walks and tried to do aerobics. I was not able to keep doing aerobics. My body took hours upon hours to recover, where before it hadn’t, I was alone for almost all of 2020, and never developed COVID symptoms; it was what happened with running all over again. In 2021, it started to take more time to recover from walks. Then I started to need to take a nap immediately after I clocked out from work— and it was a work from home job. In 2022, I began to go from my sitting desk job straight to my bed most days, laying down exhausted right after work, even sleeping through lunch to get some rest.

On New Year's Eve 2023, I spent 30 minutes cleaning, including vacuuming my living room. I had to rest the rest of the day.

In the last five years, I've gone from running to being exhausted for hours by taking my garbage to the curb.

Imagine you were someone who enjoyed recreational exercise. Now imagine doing 1/100th of that and feeling sick for days. Thats me.

There are other symptoms also. More vulnerability to infection and more trouble fighting infection. Shooting, sharp muscle pains in large muscles such as the thigh or forearm, like a pinched nerve, that come and go at random. Pulse rate that skyrockets upon standing, to go back to normal soon after. Stomach inflammation. Inflammation without major swelling. Headaches. Complete inability to tolerate heat, leading to excruciating migraines that only go away with things like cold showers, electrolytes, and hours of rest in the dark with ice. Muscles that literally don't feel like they're getting oxygen. Random rashes. Face flushing. Being much more easily out of breath, yawning over and over, like I can't get air correctly. Weight gain, no matter what I eat or don't eat.

And just being so, so tired.

In summer of 2018, something… stopped working in my body. I felt sick all the time. I had a low, unexplainable fever nearly every day. Shooting nerve pain would wake me up at night. The doctor said I had a cold. But months went by and I didn’t get better. When my blood work and thyroid hormone level was normal, I was referred to a rheumatologist.

I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia after he made me wait 45 minutes, came in and asked “are you tired?", poked me hard, said I was tender, and left without running tests. This sort of “uhm the standard blood work came back normal, have you tried exercising more? I know you’re here because your body can’t recover from it but have you tried more of that? Also going to sleep at night?” has been the response over and over and over for five years. It got to the point where I even started to wonder if I was somehow making it up. I see a psych nurse. She thinks there's more than just depression, ADHD, and other things - though we both agree that managing those is vital too. She used to be a cardiologist, so this is reassuring. But when I have tried to see other doctors, it goes differently. Most of the time they see I have ADHD, a long history of depression, and hypermobile joints, and say that explains everything. I can't count how many times I've been told "well, you have depression” when the labs, if they even agreed to run them, came back normal. My standard blood work sometimes comes back with anemia, but I take an iron supplement. No improvement had come of it. I’ve had my thyroid hormone levels tested over and over, but never the antibodies. No imaging or referrals have happened, outside of one to a second rheumatologist. He ran no tests either; he just saw my joints are hypermobile and I was “sure taking a lot of mental health medications” (two at the time), and… that was that.

I had given up on actually even getting help until my SIL recommended a doctor she knew. For the first time in five years, when the standard blood work and TSH tests were normal, she told me we would keep looking. I actually cried with relief at that. It’s amazing to be believed after all this time.

Because of …. All of this, I'm trying to figure out how to either work for myself or find a work from home job that has flexible hours I can choose. I literally wouldn't be able to work a retail gig where I have to stand for eight hours, or even a 9-5 where I have to be there for those exact hours, because my body cannot do that right now. I want to get better but it's a long way off. First I need to know what's even wrong. I'm praying for a diagnosis soon. And treatment. At the least, management.

I have heard of EDS and I have been evaluated. I apparently don’t meet enough criteria, hence the diagnosis of JHS instead. It’s in the same family. I have also heard of POTS. I am pursuing testing. Same with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, MCAS, fibromyalgia… yeah. The thing is nothing outside of the standard blood count and thyroid hormone level test, no other lab tests have been done. There are so many things this could be that have never been checked. Lyme disease, for example, is extremely common where I live (it’s actually just extremely common worldwide) and matches much of my experience, but 1) in the USA the initial Lyme test relies on a strain of bacteria cultured in the 80s 2) there are over 100 strains of Lyme disease in the USA 3) in spite of decades of research there are doctors who don’t believe chronic Lyme exists 4) no doctor has ever checked and I only recently learned anything about it so I never asked. But… there are a lot of things to check that I’ve never had checked is my point. Fingers crossed someone can help me get there.

I do not have a partner who can try to support me through this, and my family already supports me however they can. My severance (which was low as I found out I was being paid much less than the rest of the team later) paid only my January rent.

Since my ability to work is severely limited right now, and I've been denied unemployment and food stamps, and I would need a diagnosis and to be awarded disability benefits in court (which can take YEARS that I don’t have), I have nothing in savings because of years of underpaying jobs the cost of living and being disabled and going through prior periods of unemployment due to this and other factors, I am left in a tough spot without help. Without this help, this gofundme... I have nothing.

So... here I am. A queer nonbinary disabled neurodivergent writer, trying my best, living with some undiagnosed illness that's severely impacted my ability to function, who got fired without real reasons (in America they can just do that to you without even telling you why), asking for your help to pay my February rent and January bills so I don’t repeat the trauma of being homeless. Or for you to reblog this.

Thank you for reading all of this.

It’s been on my chest for a long time. Even if it wasn’t for the gofundme, it feels good to talk about and be honest about my health. It reminds me you’re not supposed to feel like this all the time when I tell other people and they tell me I should get help and deserve answers. It’s reassuring to see competent doctors who finally believe me. I hope we figure it out.

no donation is too small— they add up. If just 100 people gave $35, the goal would be met. Sharing is also giving— it means someone who can help is more likely to see it.

You can also help via my venmo — secretladyspider

CashApp — secretladyspider

or find PayPal in my tip jar in my linktree

Goal is $3500 or over. Funds needed ASAP. If it goes over, that’ll help with February.

Thank you for anything and everything.

[chronicallycouchbound]

I often think about how quickly my health took a nosedive while homeless that led to be becoming physically disabled and unable to walk and I had multiple doctors orders to be on bedrest and I had no bed to be in. I couldn’t even lay to rest on benches in town because they’re all hostile.

I got a simple infection, which led to permanent disability.

We know that homelessness and disability are very linked, and we know homeless people are often disabled or become disabled.

I wonder what my health would look like today if I wasn’t forced to always be moving, and to never be able to rest. If even I could’ve safely laid down for a few hours every day. Maybe I would’ve made a full recovery. Who knows.

"Le repos du fakir" (2003), Stéphane Argillet and Gilles Paté

[chronicallycouchbound]

I can’t live in over 99% of housing.

This is not an exaggeration.

“Less than 1 percent of all units are equipped with features that would allow a wheelchair user to live independently.” (HUD.gov)

My experiences of homelessness are inherently tied to this.

•

[ ID: Red capitalized text on a cream colored background reads: “I can’t live in 99% of housing” the “99%” is much larger than the other text. Below that in pink small font reads: “Less than 1 percent of all units are equipped with features that would allow a wheelchair user to live independently. HUD.gov” End ID. ]

[dewiduzthings]

We found an apartment and got approved but we currently need $1700 for all the deposits and move in fees. If we can't get this by Thursday, we will lose the only place we've found that we can afford. I'm begging for help at this point..

Please reblog and share this as much you can. We need this desperately..

Cashapp + Venmo: DewiDuzThings

[chronicallycouchbound]

When I was 16 and sleeping on the streets as a trans youth, I went to my local library. They denied me access to a card, and repeatedly kicked me out. All I did was sit and quietly use the computer, read or charge my devices. I never broke any rules. I was just a visibly homeless person.

Public libraries often have rules that target and discriminate against homeless/unhoused people.

Here’s the actual bathroom rules from my local public library:

(I don’t have the ability to do an ID atm, I can go back and add one later!)

Library posts on here have me so conflicted.

On one hand, libraries can provide a lot of value to a lot of people, and it's good to inform people of this. Like, I was recently talking to a friend (grown man in his 40s) who didn't know that you could read books for free at a library. The more people are informed about this matter, the better.

And of course, some libraries also provide other services such as movies, board games, internet, printers, 3D printers, cheap coffee, meeting rooms, courses, etc. Talking about this is also good, because many people can benefit from these services! Especially people who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford them.

But (and here comes the but), I feel like some people on this site are really insistent on claiming that all libraries offer all these services for free, always. And that no library has any flaws at all. And that anyone can access a library at any time. And if you don't, you're a traitor for not supporting your local library.

And like... there is so much wrong with that. First of all, not all libraries offer all these services. And if they do, they might not be available in minority languages. (Spanish in the USA, Turkish in Germany, etc.) And if they do, they're not always free. And this can vary greatly on region and country, too. Not the whole world is the USA. There's places where libraries are rare and spaced very far apart. There's places where libraries are "mobile", meaning they're a car filled with books. Or sometimes a donkey. I think it's great that mobile libraries exist! It's great that people in villages near me can get free books that way. But also, it's absurd to claim that they have the same type of access as someone from a big city. It's absurd to claim that they're class traitors and it's their own fault because they didn't "create demand" and "support their local library." They do not have a "local" library. Not everyone has a local library!

And even if there is a library near you, it's very possibly inaccessible! Most countries do not have laws regarding accessible design, and if they do, they're rarely enforced. Before you go on praising how all libraries are perfect and wonderful, ask yourself, how many are accessible to disabled people? Which disabled people? Wheelchair users? Blind and visually impaired people? Immunocompromised people? There's so many of us. Yet we are so often left out.

Some countries have libraries specifically for disabled people, but most often you need to qualify and prove your disability. I have a membership in such a library. A lot of them will only accept visual impairment and no other disability. I was lucky I was in occupational therapy at the time of my enrollment, because my therapist could approve my paperwork for me. Otherwise I might not have been able to join. It's online only and costs money. It's not free. A lot of books are region-locked since I'm not in the USA. And yet I am so grateful everyday for this opportunity, for this access to books. I know many disabled people aren't so lucky.

My point is not that libraries are bad, but that libraries are very diverse. Pretending like all libraries are not only perfectly alike, but also perfect, helps no one. Libraries can provide vital services, but they do not provide these services equally around the world, and they do not provide these services equally to all people.

If you truly love libraries so much, fight to make them better, fight to make them accessible. Don't silence those of us who are left out.

[spacedocmom]

Doctor Beverly Crusher @SpaceDocMom I'm continuously dismayed by the fact that local governments in your era are more concerned with hatefully preventing homeless people from lying on a bench than providing good benches for disabled/chronically ill folks or even abled folks who are tired. emojis: black heart, blue heart, masked 11:30 AM · Nov 9, 2023

[puppyknucklezzz]

hewwo, haha, i feel so stupid doing this, but i'm a homeless physically and mentally disabled black queer stuck in Oklahoma. I was taking care of my mom from 2019 - 2021, and then she passed from covid, and I've been in and out of shelters since then, as i sort put my life on the backburner and moved back in with her, and lost my job during all this, but it was fine bc i had ebt and shelter, despite the bitter context. i am trying to get back on my feet, put my life back together and shit. im currently in a temporary shelter. im currently seeking funds to establish a foundation that i could rebuild from. to put down a deposit on an apartment, and maybe cover rent while i receive help from my recently acquired job coach and caseworker to transition into more indepedent and stable living, and any further assistance should i be lucky enough to be a popular gofund or something would go to a stretch goal of buying a cheap vehicle so i could always have somewhere to sleep should life ever be so turbulent again, and also i could have more job opportunities, and could move to a better state with more mental health accommodations and less bigotry. any assistance is greatly appreciated. my cashapp is $crotchpopacop, my fwend liv set up a gofundme for me, bc she's the sweetest 😊!

https://gofund.me/d3f6a00b

again, anything you can SPARE is appreciated, please don't put yourself out for me. im still figuring this stuff out, lemme know if the cashapp gives any issue or anything like that.

🐕👽🐾 #keepbeachcityweird ⋆☾╶⃝⃤☽⋆

(also someone sees this that maybe does fundraising, give me some tips? am i doing this right? i hate asking for help like this, i don't wanna also be doing it wrong, lol, i am a little dumb tho,,, that is,, im intellectually disabled,.and i don't know if im doing things right sometimes.)

[rainfxrde]

While this is meant to be a personal blog, apparently it needs to be used to vent right now.

I’ve never felt like more of a failure than I do right now. Not only to my partner but to myself and my family. I can’t tell if I’m choking on my pride or not but I’m too scared to tell my family the real situation and ask for help. I had to move out due to homophobia and I just can’t bear to ask for help.

I went from graduating with honors and high hopes from all my teachers and family to this.

Facing homelessness again for the second time in two years. So embarrassing. I feel like I’ve failed everyone around me.

I shouldn’t be itemizing my limited important items. I shouldn’t be about to sell my most prized possessions because I’m too sick to work.

I really fell through the cracks of the system with this one.

I don’t know what to do anymore.

Wish me luck, all. At least I have my service dog.

Any help, love, advice, asks, or kind dms are greatly appreciated. Going to try to keep my journey logged here so I stop losing the days. At least you all may hear me.