I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve moved in my adult life. Part of poverty is housing instability, and that means lots of moving. I’m honestly so exhausted from moving over and over, and I’m dreading moving during another birthday for the second year in a row. But the fact remains that we must get to a place that is more affordable.
Seattle is exorbitantly expensive. The city comes in at the 13th most expensive city in the country, and everything is costly – from rent and food to transportation and everything in between. We live in a studio and rent is over $1200. Our combined food budget is about $500, but with rising food prices, this amount doesn’t stretch to cover a months’ worth of food. Even the paid laundry machines in our building have increased from $3 to $3.25 (so $6.50 to wash and dry one load of laundry). Over the past ten months, we have been struggling a lot to get by in Seattle.
Some people may be asking, if Seattle is so expensive and we knew that, why did we move here last year?
Last year, my partner was diagnosed with a terminal illness without a cure. A flare-up of this illness was caused by mold in our apartment, so we had to move. The best option was to get to the nearest city with good medical options (both of us are on state medical insurance). We had to move quickly on short notice, and what made the most sense was moving within the state. Moving out of state would have been even more expensive and challenging.
Last year’s move was a mess for a lot of reasons. We had to get out of our previous place quickly, both due to mold and roommates who were escalating conflict. This left us living in a hotel and motel for six weeks, something we did not plan for at all. Altogether, we had to move our belongings multiple times, from our old place to a storage unit, from the hotel to a motel, and then up to Seattle. This was not to mention the fact that one building never followed up with us, so we had to find another building while between homes.
Ryann’s sister visited for his birthday last year. She lives in another part of the country, and when she saw how expensive everything is here in Seattle, she was shocked. We talked about how much more accessible and affordable it would be to move closer to where she lives. Not only would this place provide better affordability and being closer to Ryann’s sisters, it’s also a better location for medical access than Seattle.
I don’t want to specify where we’re going this time out of concern for our privacy, but we’ve been planning and working out details for several months now. Our budget was larger, but we were able to work it down with some initial support. We’ve launched a fundraising campaign to cover what remains.
Baking and painting:
- I originally intended to help the fundraising along with a bake sale, but a follower pointed out that it’s very risky to sell homemade food from a home kitchen due to laws and regulations. I removed that detail from the fundraiser.
- I am still helping the fundraiser along by selling paintings. My gallery has been updated to include pricing and information. I’m open to negotiating details, including international shipping, if you’d like to buy a painting or commission one.
I will be reducing the goal amount based on direct donations and proceeds from selling paintings.
Lately, major social media sites have been altering their algorithms to suppress fundraising. We have to be careful not to use certain keywords and not to link to gofundme in the posts themselves. This is frustrating, but I’m still going to be sharing as much as possible. It helps a great deal, if you can’t donate, to spread the word. It’s especially helpful if you explain in a post or email why you follow my writings and support my work.
Thank you all so much for your help. It means more than words can say to have your support and care.