I’m a single mom with two young children currently facing housing instability. I left my marriage at the end of 2023 due to escalating domestic violence and have continued to navigate post-separation abuse, including financial and legal abuse. My focus throughout has been keeping my kids safe and supported.
One of my children experienced significant bullying at school, including by a peer and an educator, and the school was unable to keep her safe. She has neurological developmental delays and attends regular therapies and nervous-system support (common for children navigating domestic violence and chronic stress). Because of her needs and the school realities, I transitioned to homeschooling so she could heal, feel safe, and be a child again and finally got her into various supports we'd been waiting on for (hooray!)
These unforeseen realities this past year required me to shift my career so I could be present for her care while continuing to support my family as endless meetings and emotionally heavy cases were not conducive to having healthy bandwidth for their needs and complexities of these realities. Also, from the time of requesting services for her needs and the time of being seen resulted in a lot of missed work and cancelled meetings, so now that we know this is an ongoing thing, I chose to shift to something more aligned with the realities of single motherhood without a village.
So, I invested in building a small business designed to better support my children and me—especially given that traditional systems haven’t always been safe, accessible, or appropriate for domestic violence survivors. We are getting close to being profitable, but not quite there as the business launching has been a bit delayed with these various adjustments that needed to be made for my kids' immediate medical and developmental needs. But, we are getting there. It’s been a rough year, but I’m confident we’re on the right track and I’m actively working to stabilize things.
I’m currently facing an eviction for non-payment after partial payments weren’t accepted, and the home is also being sold, so we’ll need to relocate by the end of February regardless. I have court early January (self-represented) related to parenting time and child support (requested by my ex, not me). Once that’s resolved, along with this housing situation, I’m hopeful we can move into the next phase of stability. I also am very aware we don't qualify for traditional rentals and the waitlists for assisted housing is wild. Plus, this truly is temporary.
I’m looking for leads on:
• A driveable RV someone may be willing to loan, make payments on, or donate (I don’t know how to tow a trailer),
• Property where an RV could be parked short-term ,
• RV park options (I’m aware of Coburg and Creswell and willing to learn), or
• Private landlords with January or February vacancies who may be open to working with a family in transition.
We also have a well-behaved dog. I’ll be selling many of our belongings in the coming weeks and can contribute cash toward the first month or two.
Ideally, we’re looking for a 3–6 month bridge while income stabilizes. I’m also willing to help with property upkeep as I previously owned a home with property and understand how that goes.
If you have ideas, leads, or know someone with something unused until summer, I would be very grateful.