they don't care about your religion, either--hope you have services nearby!

Right now.

Over the course of the last day it has devolved into a nightmare. For over 24 hours the person requesting help has not responded.

All we have left ate DU'ers trying to fix something that may not be fixable.

Please everyone.

Walk away.

But if it makes you feel better.

Can you contact an organisation that could advocate fir you for free such as an abused renters defense one? Im sorry I cant guide you. I suggest that because here in France wr have powerfull ones such as Droit au Logement (Housing Right) that helps legally renters from being evicted.

could take care of your dog if you need to go into an emergency shelter? Once you are safely housed you can seek their counsel about what next to do.

I'm so terribly sorry you are having such awful trouble. My husband was the Director of the Homeless office within our city's Human Services division. He still serves as the voluntary head of the Homeless Commission for the city. So there are services available in such city governments that see folks like you and help. Churches are often part of that network, too.

Friends I don't have anymore. Working nights and weekends for a long time has a way of making you lose your friends. It was my family that was the most vicious blow. Not a one of them will offer so much as a piece of floor for me. Not a phone call, not nothing from any of them. I'd never dream of doing such a thing to any of them. No way would I let a family member be homeless. I can't stop crying about that all by itself, but I have to push it aside right now like so much else to try and save my own life.

on Holy Week. It has to be a reminder to them for MORE charity, not less...

along with getting the car fixed and seeing about a few jobs. My saintly mechanic whom I've known since I was a kid said he wouldn't charge me to fix whatever the hell is wrong with all my tires.

Even the "find help" link they give goes to a blank page. Everything else is donation driven.

Is there something I'm missing on this site?

I didn't get a blank page.

It instructs you to enter your zip code and go from there.

You said, "Not a one of them will offer so much as a piece of floor for me. Not a phone call, not nothing from any of them."

You don't say that you have asked them to help and they have refused.

It is terrible that they haven't offered to help you. They are your family, and they should reach out to you. But you can't just wait for an offer. You are at a point that you have to ask. Drowning people don't just silently sink into the water hoping the lifeguard will notice. YELL! Hopefully your family will do the right thing.

If they won't, you really need an exit strategy. Continuing to stay where you are is dangerous. If your landlord is as crazy as you say, she might hurt you or Yoshi.

You need to move someplace that is much less expensive. As you apparently have no ties there, why not move? Cost of living is pretty low here in Arkansas, and there are some jobs. I'm sure other DUers have suggestions as well. Pick a place, and I am sure DU will pitch in to facilitate your move.

For a long time I've not been particularly close to my siblings. For a number of years they've been doing family get togethers always scheduling them when they knew I couldn't go because I had to work and never giving enough notice so that I could rearrange my schedule. I've been feeling deliberately shut out for a long time. We all talk through email as a group about this and that, but even then I felt like I was being shut out... very seldom did anyone respond to anything I said or laughed at my jokes or funny photos, etc. I have no idea how this came about. Years ago I used to have REALLY long conversations with one of my brothers on the phone where we'd laugh about everything and nothing. Then somehow that just didn't happen anymore.

Still, the worst thing in all of this is that not a one of them cares a wit that I'm I hair away from being homeless. One of my brothers has not said a word. Another actually yelled at me on the phone for making him worry. My sister (who I've never gotten along with very well since she's just not a very nice person) told me her best advice was to put Yoshi in the car and drive as far south as I could because at least I wouldn't freeze to death living on the street. Another brother said he knew someone that might have advice about eviction proceedings since they did some kind of work with that. I asked him to find anything out for me that he could and let me know. He never responded and hasn't said a word since. The last brother I talked to on the phone who listened to my situation and helped a lot looking into various government resources that might help me. In hindsight I should have used that time to look for a job instead. Every one of them has been totally useless.

Never ever ever did I imagine my own family would abandon me. Last night I put out another distress call about this latest disaster with the hearing and the judge and what I found about about what this judgment meant, etc. The only response I got was from my sister saying that I was being rude mentioning that I'd never ever ever let a family member of mine be homeless. She also said that they've all been discussing me all this time none of which I knew anything about and basically comes down to their talking about me behind my back.

This is not the family I used to know, and I have no barking idea what the fuck happened. Ok, my sister was always a jerk, but I never would have expected this from my brothers. Actually, I never expected this from my sister either despite her being a jerk.

Christ, I have to push this part away or I'll never be able to salvage anything to keep clawing away. This blow from my own family already came very dangerously close to wiping me out. I can't let it. I've still got a few days for a miracle, and I have to focus everything on that or I'm finished.

Excuse me for a minute I have to call the police yet again. Oh holy shit!

Get that in under 3 hours. I'll throw in the first $50.

I had looked into gofundme a bit before recently when I came begging hat in hand for help here and thanks to DU's wonderful generous people the only reason I can eat, feed Yoshi and keep the electricity, etc. on is because of that help.

Can you or someone help me out with setting up a gofundme account? God, I feel like I have to be steared around by the nose for anything now... I can't even bloody think straight anymore!

Is there any way that this could come back to bite me concerning getting a job? I can't do anything that will hurt my job prospects.

I'm also worried about the judge. He's obviously a complete asshole (figures he's a Repuke!) and I'm worried about saying anything negative about him.

Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but life already bit me on the ass hard for not being paranoid enough concerning my slumlord.

Could you help me with what to say once I set up an account. The slumlord also cruises social sites, and I'm really worried about her finding mine. Apparently, people can leave whatever comments they want and I have no control over them. This woman already scares the shit out of me.

I also need to find out how fast you can get the money and how all that works. Since I only have a few days left it has to be fast enough to "beat the clock".

I'm sorry, but I feel like my brain went to mush weeks ago and I'm feeling like I just want to hide in the back of a closet (not that I have any closets I could do that... these houses are about 100 years old, and I guess they didn't know about closets then). Believe it or not, even toilets were an afterthought, and there used to be outhouses in the back yards!

is explain your story to the folks. Exactly what you described in the OP is perfect.

Omaha Steve was kind enough to link to the original post. You can decide to put it together.

And your #1 goal in the meantime while we are helping fund you, is to find a job that works for you. It doesn't matter if it's flipping burgers or Uber or whatever, just find a job, and fast. You will need it for your next place of residence to prove that you can fund your residence.

You need the following:

1) Security deposit, plus first month's rent in another apartment that you can afford if you make $REASONABLE_AMOUNT, and pet friendly for Yoshi.
2) An attorney specializing in eviction prevention - tenant law is what it is called - call around and find out what it would cost to retain one. Many will offer free initial consultation.
3) Lots of support to help you around - you got one of the biggest ace in the hole - the police by the park - and with continued documentation, and support knowing the slumlord is already harassing you. She has no right to do that.
4) Research on eviction law. Your landlord may have violated several aspect of that law trying to kick you out within short time. I have never heard of such evictions on a very short notice - usually a minimum of 14 days, up to 60 days in some cases with average at about 30-60 days. That's why I mentioned #2.

I'll be happy to donate on Friday when I get some money coming in. It won't be much, but it'll help in the long run.

Set up a gofundme acct

Now

You need $$:help now. Above all else.

Set up an account asap

Set up a gofundme account...you will be amazed at how wonderful the DU community is. And I will have a chance to pay it forward

stay in a place that is, according to you, almost totally uninhabitable, and with the worst landlord of all time. I do hope you get all this resolved, as no one deserves such misery.

Does your local legal aid office never have anything to do with similar landlord disputes? Is there any chance they can refer you to an attorney willing to help you pro bono?

But you should be focusing almost all your energy on getting a job, any job, and looking for another place to live, almost any other place.

Oh, and I'm going to guess you weren't given a copy of the inspector's report simply because you're not the owner of the place. Sucks, but there it is. You might try calling the office that did the inspection and ask for a copy. If it's part of the record in your case, you should be able to get a copy, although you may have to pay for having it printed up. Not sure.

She got me fired from my job. Like an idiot I kept paying her with all my savings that I was also living off of while looking for another job until there was just nothing left. At first because she knew it was her own fault that I lost my income she was working with me to get back to being able to pay the rent. By that time I wanted to get the hell out of here but with no income and no money I can't rent so much as a cardboard box. Then out of the blue I get the hearing notice on my door and had about three days to gather evidence for it (there were two more days but they were weekend days where I couldn't do much of anything other than get prints of the photos and I'd already done that). I also had to look up all the laws and talk to random landlord/tenant attorneys on the phone just doing free consults for clarification of the laws, etc. I had to call legal aid who were no help at all and still aren't.

All of this eviction stuff happened in a matter of days and was so dire I had to put off the job search to deal exclusively with it. Not that it mattered since the judge ended up trampling all over my rights, the state law and wouldn't even allow me to speak at the hearing! I'm still shocked by this. Jesus, he's a judge for heaven's sake! What the hell kind of judge just railroads over someone's rights, totally ignores the law and doesn't even let them speak in their own defense??? He's the only judge and the pinnacle of the district court. He can do whatever the hell he wants and there's no one to do anything about it.

I just hung up with another really nice officer since the one last night told me to call them with every incident of her harassment. This latest was the landlord going ape shit on the phone again, I told her that I'd talked with the police already (as they said I should do) and that if she doesn't stop harassing me she can be arrested. Right now I can go down to the district court and file a criminal complaint because of the harassment but I'd have to pay a filing fee I don't have and this would be before the same asshole judge. I'd actually rather that she did something they can arrest her for.

This last nice officer I talked to said that if she shows up at the property or tries to enter with her own key to call 911 and they can arrest her at that point. Like the two others I talked to this one also said to not worry about my dog and if he eats off her face trying to barge in that's her problem and to be happy I have Yoshi to protect me if she's nuts enough to try. And she is. There have already been close calls of her just barging into the backyard right up to my back door and thank heaven Yoshi just didn't happen to be lose in the yard those times. I had put the chain and lock on the back gate mostly because of her invasions. She's never understood that it could be dangerous for her to just enter the property willy nilly even if it's the back yard, so it wouldn't be surprising that she would just barge into the house with Yoshi here. Except now I'm discovering the hard way just how batshit crazy she is, and I wouldn't put it past her to either barge right into the house or send in innocent people like the plumber or other workers.

This was why the plumber called to warn me and that he knew about my dog and wouldn't have himself or any of his workers come in without my securing him first. I also had to warn all the agents at the code enforcement office that I had a big dog and she can't just let people in using her own key for their own safety. They were the ones that told me she isn't allowed to come in or let anyone in herself anyway without my knowledge and permission. Because of her being crazy I told them she's already lied to the plumber about permission I gave to let them in to do work that I knew nothing about and that if she ever says that she has permission and knowledge from me she very well may be lying and putting them in danger because of Yoshi and to always check directly with me to be sure. They were very appreciative of the info and promised that any agent will check with me first before coming in to make sure that I've given permission and secured the dog.

This last psychotic phone call she said she was coming over with workers on Saturday to fix some stuff the township is now forcing her to do. I told her Saturday was not a good day for me and that I needed to know when workers would be coming, what they'd be doing and how long they'd be in the house. She still thinks that because she owns the property she can just come in willy nilly whenever she likes. She's never once arranged convenient times to fix things with me even when I WAS working. Though some things I had to take off work for because they were emergencies and she never actually fixed forcing me to use my own money to get someone competent and take the price off the rent.

I'm hoping she does show up sometime on Saturday and tries to barge in so I can call the police and get her arrested. They think that at some point she'll escalate to that.

for sure... and hire an attorney specializing in evictions ASAP.

Just tell us the retainer fee, and we'll raise it, and halt the eviction proceedings.

Keep documenting the calls, and record them if you have to (evidence, evidence, evidence!!!!)

Let her know that because of her psychotic behavior, and documented police report, you are retaining an attorney and will give her hell.

Attornies costs slumlord money, and they don't like to spend on fighting a tenant... but a determined tenant have rights too.

You were railroaded by an incompetent judge. Appeal the eviction, of course.

The thought of paying her this fraudulent judgment makes me literally sick. But the clerk at the county courthouse told me that to file an appeal I have to pay the full amount of the judgment plus a $285 filing fee. An attorney retainer on top of that I'm guessing would be about $500. Then of course they charge for every little thing they do, so I'd have to be able to keep paying them.

If I can somehow either pay the judgment which I REALLY don't want to do but it's a whole lot cheaper or appeal I have only a few days left to do it.

Ok, now I'm going to go figure out how to set up this gofundme account...

Oh crap... I just realized I have to sign up with my real name. Is it possible that this could come back to bite me like especially with looking for a job? I'm nervous about saying anything about the judge either... would there be any kind of trouble that could get me into? I don't even know what, but I'm nervous about that. He's also an attorney at a private firm with more money than God and an elected official (yes, Republican!) that likely cares more about his votes than anything else. Shit, I really don't know what to do about that. Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I've already had my butt kicked for not being paranoid enough. Should I talk to an attorney first?

I know I can't think straight right now. I haven't slept and barely eaten in the past couple of days with this slumlord going psycho on me on top of everything else.

am I confused?

if I am remembering correctly.

There was something about it that made me nervous. I'd read some complaints people had made about not being given their money and some other stuff I don't recall... something about some uncomfortable terms you agreed to when signing up. In any case that time I just used paypal.

I've always been paranoid about using my real name anywhere on the internet. I have a rather unusual first name that makes me pretty easy to find. I've had two stalkers in my past one of whom took about four years to finally shake, but it's probably made me particularly paranoid about anything. Ever since then I've never felt at all safe without the big dog though even with one I think in the back of my mind I'm perpetually too wary.

Strangely enough I actually felt safe with this landlord for years. For a long time I thought she was great, and looking back she purposely worked at that. Now I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that she's female. I also had a landlord in my past (married guy, too) that terrified the shit out of me. Thank the gods I had the big dog then even though he was still not yet full grown. Kato saved me from him. As far as I know he's still in jail though I doubt it was because of that particular incident. I still haven't gone back to that town ever since. I actually thought I'd forgotten about him until very recently when the memory came back to haunt me because of the psycho landlord I have now that I had no clue was this batshit crazy until the harassment crap. I guess I dealt with the incident with that guy by not dealing with it. That was actually the place I rented to hide from the bad stalker. I ended up jumping from the frying pan into the fire though.

Damn, it's only been in the last week or so that I've so much as thought about any of this. I never did tell anyone about the violent guy landlord. It was pretty soon after I moved in, so in a lot of ways I'd not even really unpacked yet. I was really lucky then that I'd just gotten a good job I really liked at the time and had a home opportunity that popped up at pretty much the same time, so I packed back up and left. I just pushed all that away and went forward never even thinking about it again until about a week so ago when it came creeping back into my head.

I liked the place I moved to. Nice landlord, and I had the first floor of an old Victorian house for dirt cheap. Free heat in the winter, too. I even had a fireplace though I never used it. After about a year and half the landlord decided he had to sell the place though. Whoever bought it plowed it right down to the ground and built some really ugly squat house in it's place. They also cut down the two ancient huge oak trees and just plopped pots of nasty looking plastic flowers on the bare stumps. Hideous. If that landlord hadn't had to sell I'd likely still be there now.

OMG, I just realized that the inside of this place reminds me a bit of that old apartment! There's the same archway between the living and dining rooms, the same old radiators making strange gurgling noises that once you get used to are actually kind of comforting, the same kind of old decorative moldings that are a pain in the ass to dust and clean, etc. Maybe I was a bit drawn to this house because of it being a little reminiscent of that old apartment. Wow, that never once dawned on me before.

Cripes, I have to get Yoshi back inside and try to sleep again.

and you're right. You didn't use Gofundme. You used Paypal.

So why not do it again?


Also, I have sat here reading through that thread and this one, scratching my head in puzzlement over the fact that a grown adult person would not come up with a Plan B to get herself out of a situation that will, in all likelihood, only get worse.

I'm disturbed by the appearance that everything that's happened has always been someone else's fault.

The landlady got you fired. No hot water so you couldn't go to work and you got fired. Nobody in your family will help you. The judge is against you. The landlady is psycho. There was a previous psycho violent landlord guy. etc., etc., etc.


Some people have expressed skepticism over your story and they've been blasted, as if there's something wrong with being skeptical. Especially when good people want to help out a fellow human being but maybe have been screwed over in the past. I don't know about anyone else here, but I live on a fixed income. I like to help whenever I can, but I don't want to be fooled so that some other deserving person or charity doesn't get whatever I could have donated.


Also, and most importantly...

Before I would donate, I want to know what plans the person I'm donating to has for getting him/her self out of the situation s/he is in.

What are your short and long-term plans for extricating yourself from what you yourself have called an intolerable situation?

a charity, business plan or an entreprenurial gofundme request, but is not good when someone is in crisis mode like TTW.

It is unrealistic to expect someone in an extreme crisis to have the time, energy, or mental capacity to focus on developing longer range plans than ones that what will get them out of the immediate crisis situation (former crisis line volunteer here).

Why don't you come back after TTW has been helped out of crisis mode by other DUers to see if you can get more info in order to decide if any money you give to her would be a good "investment." Of course by then, you probably will justify not donating because she won't be in a crisis and therefore not worthy of your money.

I know from her other OP on this from February that she was doing just great there for 9 years until all of a sudden last year the landlord just refused to fix things.

That's when things started going downhill.

So in March of last year she wasn't in crisis.

Nor April. Nor May.

Nor June, July, August, etc.

Plenty of time to assess the situation and, without being under pressure or in crisis, to come up with a Plan B.

Did that happen? No. Or it sure doesn't sound like it anyway.

Instead of contacting DUers about that situation (whereupon she would get some very good advice about documenting living conditions, withholding rent and putting into escrow or whatever else is legal in her state), she waits till the last minute and is suddenly in crisis.

Once...OK.

But twice???

This situation did NOT come on overnight.

People are giving some goddamn good advice in other parts of this thread and it looks like most of it other than collecting cash from DUers is getting pooh-poohed.

"Here, do this"

"Oh I can't do that because....blah blah blah"


"OK then, here's a suggestion"

"No, that won't work because...blah blah blah"

How many times does someone have to "be in crisis" before people get tired of being enablers? Enablers think they're being so damned noble but they're not. They're merely making it possible for someone to stay stuck in the same dysfunctional behavior patterns.

Those who donated during the last "fund drive) asked for some sort of progress report or an accounting for where the money went.

They never received an answer.

Maybe others are afraid to say it. Your story doesn't ring true. Judges don't evict without an eviction notice and 30 days notice and even then it takes a bit more time to force evacuation. Plus you're required to let your landlord in to make repairs. It's not at your convenience. That's just for starters but enough for me.

I don't understand that.

It started with the sewage pipe and from there it was one fiasco after another. The sewage pipe, the leak in the ceiling, the toilet fiasco, and the last straw with my old boss was the hot water heater that I couldn't make the beast fix for a year while it had a small leak and eventually blew up all together last year in March.

By the event of the water heater blowing up (last year in March) was when when my old boss got fed up with all the house falling down issues and sacked me. Though I surely miss the income I sure don't miss the job. I had to take it though since it was reasonably full time and I needed a job. This can be a really shitty business. Places close without telling anyone, or change ownership or management that sack everyone across the board and bring in their own hirelings you have no way of knowing anything about. I've not been one of the lucky few that get to work in a nice place that's fairly decent to its workers. My old boss was a coke-head who inherited the business and had not a clue how to run it. Basically, it was a really tiny dump that was pretty much a 7/11 for the buyers and sellers of illegal drugs. During the day it wasn't so bad (when I worked) since it was mostly blue collar workers. Very few people at all though during the day most of the time though.

I love the job in general - working as a bartender I mean. Even in this dump I met a number of very cool people and laughed a lot. I still miss some of those customers. I think the one I miss the most was the giant guy that was in construction that had worked as a bartender in his youth and taught me some great bar tricks. Most of them were pretty rude, but funny as hell. 101 gross tricks to do with a basic square paper bar napkin.

I have to try getting some sleep again. I can't seem to shut my brain off though it's probably turned to mush my now.

house issues have anything to do with your job?

And staying put despite the fact the "slumlord" caused the firing.

and water is flooding your laundry room or house or whatever it's not like you can just head off to work. It needs to be dealt with.

I recently had bad spigot in my laundry room that flooded my kitchen and dining room. I got up to make coffee and get ready for my day at work and I was standing in 2 inches of water. I had to call in to get a plumber out and someone to suck up all the water that had collected underneath my faux wood flooring.

you do what you can and if there's nothing you CAN do about it, what the hell is staying around to watch the devastation going to help?

Even if you have to stay home and shut off the water valve, it takes all of five minutes or less. You call into work and tell them you'll be a little late, take care of business, and then go to work.l

If the landlord wants to send someone over to take care of the problem while you're out, s/he should have a key and then be there to supervise while the work is done.

Her hot water heater wasn't working and so she said she couldn't take a shower. This resulted in her not going to work and getting fired.

I remember this because at the time I was stunned that it didn't occur to her to boil some water in a kettle or pot and have a wash that way.

No matter what - you go to work.

Not sure why she didn't look for a place then, she had only a month to month lease. Or joined a gym to use for showers if she was dead set on staying there. Seems like she is still dead set on staying there, ignoring all encouragement and help to get her out.