How I Survived Being Homeless for 28 days

So my family and friends hated that I was using the term “homeless” to describe my situation so I’d love to share the definition before I share my heart.

According to Merriam Webster,

homeless: having no home or permanent place of residence

The only way that I have overcome anythings is to always be 100% honest with myself. I didn’t choose to be homeless but I just kind of ended up with the short end of the stick (the best way that I can describe it without being super negative)

So if you remember in November around Thanksgiving, when I came back to my “basement style” apartment, my bathroom was covered in poop. Backed up drainage… It was the smelliest and nastiest site that I had ever seen.

I jokingly made a statement on Instagram that I believed something good was going to come out of this. The majority disagreed with me on the poll that I posted.

And they were right, unfortunately!

It actually got worse before it got better. The landlord and her team took their precious time with the clean-up process. I was unable to stay in Birmingham which inconvenienced me more than she’ll ever know. I had no other choice but to stay temporarily in Florence with my mom & step-dad. Which let me go ahead and thank them for all that they did during this time of chaos.

In her defense, the landlord did return portions of the rent to compensate me for my “troubles” but this then motivated her to rush me back in the apartment, even though it wasn’t really ready for my return. There was much more work that needed to be done. I even had to clean up the bathroom myself because the company that she hired did such a poor job. While cleaning, I continued to smell poop so I went digging around and found out quickly why I couldn’t get rid of the smell. I’ll spare you the details but just know that there was still poop in places. If you want a visual, check out my Tik Tok video.

@bnicoleinspiringsouls
Look at this 💩 #waituntiltheend #sewageblockage #shittedonem #storyofmylife #justmyluck #sewagebackup #SpotifyWrapped #TheSplashDance
♬ Did It On’em – Nicki Minaj

I’m annoyed and frustrated but I continued to remain respectful. When I returned in mid December (after I was assured that everything was “ready”), the workers continued to return to work on something. Sometimes I was notified that they’d be coming, most of the time I would just be able to tell that someone had been in my apartment because they would leave behind evidence.

Phone Charger
Food/drink left in my refrigerator
Footprints near doorway (tracks of mud)
Dirt on rug in living room
Poop in my bathroom toilet where they’d forgotten to flush

One morning, I fell asleep on my couch with only a top on and my underwear to be woken up by the one of the workers walking in after using a key that I assume the landlord gave him.

At this point, my frustration grew. I finally shared that with my landlord in December that I was disappointed in how they were conducting themselves by not properly notifying me of needing entry into the space and leaving my space untidy after their shift. I simply asked for a 48 hour notice so that I could prepare for “outside” people to be in my space and to ensure that I would have cardboard boxes laid out to catch the dirt tracks.

The response that I was given from my landlord was that she didn’t know any work was needing to be done. This really made me feel uncomfortable because you don’t even know when workers are showing up to your property and gaining access to a home occupied by women???The lead worker was super apologetic and stated that he would be in communication with the other workers.

So I knew from all of the above that my time there was winding down. Anytime you start leaving a fake toothbrush out in the opening and hiding the real one, it’s time to bounce. I was hopeful that I could stick it out until May.

Welp I paid my rent early on December 27 for January. On December 29, I received a text from my landlord that my month to month lease would end at the end of January. After staying there for 2.5 years and never missing a rent payment or causing any damage to the place, a text thanking me for being “gracious and understanding” while also kicking me out in the paragraph above it was so hard for me to process. We’re in a pandemic during the holidays and I’ve already spent my check being a cheerful giver.

Venmo Payment to Landlord

I was in shock. I had no plan. I had no “moving” money set aside. I had nowhere to go…

I started looking immediately for apartments within my budget. Now mind you, I was only paying $625 in rent for my basement style apartment. It was a 2 bedroom that included everything except cable. FYI: I haven’t had a cable bill though since 2017.

I don’t watch TV like that (my mom thinks this is weird when I go to visit her)
I do have a Netflix subscription

There’s nothing “safe” in Birmingham with a price like that.

I didn’t know if I should blame myself for speaking up or if I should be proud for communicating that they were crossing my boundary lines.

Before I knew it, it was the last week in January and I had no plan in place. I felt so defeated. I legit didn’t have a clue what the next 28 days would consist of.

I definitely didn’t know that I’d end up “homeless” on some of the coldest nights of the month.

I’m a very private person but I did share with a few people what I was up against and they opened their doors with no hesitation. Until the first night I reached out to someone and got no response…

Mentally, I was already battling quite a bit. I didn’t have it in me to “beg” anyone for a place to lay my head. So I did what I always do, I just figured it out on my own.

I slept in Florence on some nights and drove 2.5 hours to work.

I slept in my office on some nights if I had late/early meetings.

I slept in a hotel when the opportunity presented itself.

I even slept in my car a few nights during the month of February.

The hardest part about sleeping in my car was that I would see the same cars from the previous time. In my mind, I knew that this was short term for me. It brought tears to my eyes that for someone else this was their “normal”.

Now, I’m not sharing this blog for a pity party. I’m not sharing this for you to share with me what I should have done differently. I’m not even sharing for you to count my coins and wonder why I didn’t just stay at a hotel the entire time.

I’m sharing because I want to remind you that God is faithful.

On 2/19, I came across a Facebook post that was made on 2/18 from a mom sharing that her son was looking for someone to sublease his studio near downtown Birmingham. In all honesty, the pictures that she shared didn’t do the place justice. I reached out immediately even though other people were showing quite a bit of interest on the original post.

The original Facebook pic

On 2/20, the mom responded to my DM and stated that it was still available.

I knew then it was mine.

I knew that God was about to show me why no other door in Tuscaloosa or Birmingham opened. (Reached out to so many who claimed to be looking for a sublease and no one ever responded. no one.)

I knew that my prayer about living near/in downtown Birmingham was about to be answered.

Crazy story: During the month of January for about 2 weeks straight, I drove to one apartment complex every night after work and prayed that God would give me something similar. It was a new complex. It was located in downtown Birmingham near bars/restaurants/parks/etc. It had the best views, especially at night.

I finally went and looked at it on the weekend that I was scheduled to move out. They had one left. I thought oh Lord, you’ve done it again. It was a studio and it was the tiniest studio I’d ever seen for $1300 which didn’t include anything.

I felt defeated again. I moved my belongings to storage that Sunday and drove to Florence feeling like I missed what I felt like God was showing me.

Except God heard every single prayer. I was just praying in the wrong parking lot. (insert crying emoji here)