We had rented a single family dwelling which was used primarily as an office with the help of a partner who lived there for a little under year until we took over and finally after 8 years of living in trailers and 6 years off generators we were able to move out and into a home. Over the past 4 months we have worked tirelessly to transition our lives over to this new location and adjust / transition from nearly a decade in the cramped conditions of travel trailers on our property and working entirely out of our outfitted barn (pre fire), shipping containers and sheds (post fire). 

Everything we have worked for and dedicated our lives to over the last years has just been taken from under us. We randomly got told on the morning of July 9th that our landlord is terminating the lease because according to him his son wants to move in. We used this space as an office for a year with another person and took over officially 4 months ago taking on full responsibility of the rent, bills, maintence etc. This literally happened just after we invested tens of thousands of dollars into equipment building our lab, paying over 15k in rent, furnishing the office and photo setups, studio etc, fixing everything up to custom specifications and we had put all our eggs into this basket and every penny we had into this place. We have taken amazing care of this place and acted in interest of protecting and keeping it nice as possible the entire time we have been here with the aspirations of one day being able to purchase it. We have saved the well multiple times from expensive damage, put zero holes in the wall / hung anything, kept the place in pristine condition and treated it as if it was our own. The landlord knew our situation- that we are/were fire victims and lost everything twice, did non profit work, were desperate for an option and he took full advantage of us and grossly overcharged for the unit given the condition it was in and the problems it had (2900 a month which is way over compared to other properties in the area). The walls are poorly patched / not color matched, hardware on doors, showers and faucets have been damaged / broken since day 1, main features of the house such as the jacuzzi tub, central Vacuum system, surround sound and heating have been poorly maintained and haven’t even worked since day 1. 

 Despite this, we went through with it, didn’t complain or press the issues, fixed damaged hardware and appliances from our own pockets, protected outdated appliances from damage and failure on multiple occasions  and foolishly thought that by demonstrating our responsibility and commitment to maintaining, up keeping and caring for the property we would open him up to making a deal or at least be a decent human being. We have spent nearly $40,000 on rent for this place, always on time, always in full. 

We took over completely from our the original leaseholder (our old partner) about 4 months ago and he was only fully moved out about 2.5 months ago. We literally aren’t even fully finished fully moving everything, setting up and getting settled.  The landlord knew all this, has been taking our money, misleading us and giving us the run around allowing us to do all this work and upkeep only for him to screw us over. He conveniently waited until we paid rent to throw this on us and with only 30 days despite us being here for over a year. Our deposit was supposed to be for the last months rent as specified in the lease. They did the yearly walkthrough 2 months back- and were raving about how nice everything was- despite this they claim the deposit will only be returned after move out which leads me to believe they are going to move to steal it as well. 

In retrospect, We should have anticipated issues as this landlord has been nothing but rude, money hungry and constant problems from the start. But we went ahead and agreed with the other party involved due to the poor housing market and conveniences this place offered for what we do. Half of the stuff was not working / broken upon move in- much of it wasn’t even fixed until we ourselves took over the rent completely and demanded it to be fixed. The landlord has consistently gone against our wishes and sprayed harmful pesticides, cut our plants, not allowed us to garden or make any exterior improvements, not fixed / delayed issues fixing major issue brought up, left us without water for days multiple times, refused to replace old barely working appliances responsible for essentials such as running water and constantly treated us like we are human garbage. Despite all of this- we have been great tenants- the carpets, walls, appliances everything have remained immaculate. We have respected the landlords wishes and gone above and beyond as tenants. 

Our initial goal since the start was to either rent to own or purchase. This was mentioned since day 1 and we brought this up again a while back as we wanted to get our from under him after seeing how he operated. He refused to give us a price or any information unless we came with an escrow company and realtor off the jump (without even giving us an asking price) while we actively lived in the unit. We spoke with the property manager about a new lease once the previous one expired and went to month to month- put forth every effort to communicate everything with all parties. They made it seem like we were good to go- they knew ours plans, what was going on / happening, that we were putting our money into this- and waited until we did everything to spring this on us at the last second out of greed and spite. 

They all but threatened us saying we have 30 days to figure something out and somehow get all of our stuff out or they will take it all (which I know is illegal but they think we are stupid because we are young). This alone is an extremely difficult ask with the lab we just set up, all of our equipment and our area being in a housing crisis for years which was made worse due to the fires. We don’t have any liquid cash left over as in addition to the 3000 a month rent, utilities and other basic expenses we invested tens of thousands for all the costs associated with setting up the lab, studio, office, and entire business over the last 4 months once we had full control of the unit. 

Option we have been considering:

The House next door has the exact same floor plan, layout, space and acreage and just went up for sale. they are asking 610k which I believe is very reasonable for acreage and a single family dwelling in California and would likely be open to a strong offer. This obviously would be the best scenario as breaking down and moving all the expensive breakable laboratory / glass / studio equipment would be extremely difficult, costly and risky especially on such short notice. At our current income range if we remained consistent with zero growth we would have it paid off in 15 years. That’s factoring that we stay at the same level and do absolutely nothing to expand. expansion was always part of the plan and we were trying to make that happen here and finally in the last stages when this happened. 

I have already called to set up discussions about a mortgage with local lenders but due to the nature of what we do as it’s technically an off the books non profit we don’t have tax returns that back up our ‘income’ so that ends all discussion. They make it practically impossible for people who choose not to participate in the traditional system to own anything. I myself can’t even bank for god sakes because they have debanked me. we are tired of renting and the uncertainties that come with it, we are both 30-33 years old and want a home so we can start a family. 

We grew up in a time period of great economic uncertainty and dwindling opportunities. Everything we have had to do to survive has been non traditional and we have had to self make everything and fight for survival against a machine that increasingly widens the gap between the haves and the have nots. Our generation was left with limited economic opportunity, no education  on financial literacy, housing prices that are far beyond our predecessors, a minimum wage that hasn’t changed for decades, and we have watched the markets crash and burn consistently since birth. Both of us have had to grow up watching our families struggle, being foreclosed on because of the housing crash, bouncing from place to place & never having any certainty in our lives. We are working our butts off to not be another statistic.

We have had overcome homelessness multiple times, restarted our lives from nothing multiple times, gone against a machine that actively works against us. We have overcome and fought back against the platform designed to oppress and keep us from owning anything so it can force us into debt slavery as a means to increase the wealth of a select few. We are tired of it. 

Our financial situation is dire after losing everything twice in the last 6 years and investing so much over the past few months on growth opportunities but our income is consistent and our recent investments (if we can actually have a location and utilize them) give us strong growth and earning potential. We both have jobs beyond what we do with plant healing, my wife works as a caretaker for the disabled and volunteers for the community grange association- I sell / flip things online and do events with my multiple side hustles. We have a lot of inventory (Collectibles, Gems, Crystals, Coins and more) which helps us slowly bring in funds. We do have some physical assets and a small retirement fund and portfolio but nothing too crazy as we had lost our entire savings in the 2023 fire (close to 200k saved over 10 years). Being unable to bank and having a strong distrust of the financial system given the economy we grew up in- we have kept a diverse portfolio of mainly physical assets and have a strong distrust and disillusionment with liquid currency. This unfortunately came back to bite us and me being foolish believed that a fireproof safe was truly fireproof so I had kept a large amount of our cash and assets within one which burned in the house fire in 2023. This was money that was to be used on building or buying a home for us. The fire burned so hot that there was nothing left. Our digital assets are quite spread out and have been dwindling since then as expenses and survival has come up. We do have some decent physical assets in the form of precious metals and collectibles but the market is currently very volatile and it is not the best or most strategic time to sell. These assets would serve a far better purpose and financial blanket if they are given 5-10 years to appreciate and markets correct. 

We don’t cost taxpayers money, we are upstanding citizens, don’t use any taxpayer funded endowments, never taken hand outs from the government.  Even when they owed 60k for disaster unemployment after the fire that thanks to scammers during Covid- we never collected. Nobody could get ahold of ED and I lost it despite calling every day for 3 months & not being able to get through. We didn’t take a PPP loan, or try to pull shady tactics to defraud the government and taxpayers like so many others did. The scammers and fraudsters got to capitalize while people who actually need these services get screwed. The system is designed to reward evil and punish / stomp out / break down honesty / good. We give everything and hardly have taken anything from the system- anything we have taken we have given / continue to give back tenfold. But there are people who give nothing, contribute nothing, make things worse who seem to get blessed and rewarded with everything. 

We are tired of asking for help. We are over feeling in debt to everyone else. Done putting everyone else’s security and peace of mind first / allowing them to take advantage of us. We are tired of building everything up then having it snatched away by someone who is looking to capitalize, a government agency, a landlord or faceless corporation.  It’s just a vicious cycle and we honestly don’t even want to participate anymore. Every 3/4 years since 2017 this has happened where we have to start from scratch- 3 times now- each time is directly tied to the greed of others. We want to finally own something and not have to answer to the machine every time it wants to harvest the fruits of our labor. 

A Donation is great and highly appreciated, it will give us an opportunity for a back up plan, to rent another place to find another temporary fix to a permanent problem- but what we are really looking for here is a chance. 

Someone who has the ability and stability to make a loan, take on a property and rent to own it to us, make a contract or agreement that will help lift us out of the debt / poverty cycle and bring us the stability and ability to continue changing the world and impacting lives for the better. I know this person is out there somewhere, and I just hope we can reach them in time. We are willing to do whatever it takes, willing to sign our life away, contracts, collateral, to offer our entire existence and soul and whatever it takes to make this happen so that we can bring about meaningful change and get to our core mission of healing the world.