Story

Hello to everyone who might take the time to read this!

First, thank you for your time and consideration and all of the help you may have already provided to others on this platform. One of the hardest things to do as a person is to ask for help, the second hardest thing to do is to get help.

I am not sure how this platform works but I do know if there is any help available I and my family could use the help. As the title of my campaign reads I need help to help my. I am currently living in the state of Ohio but I am originally from Chicago, back in Feb. 2024 I lost my job with Fidelity because they changed the requirement for on-site versus virtual which I had been working for almost 2 years, the problem that I had was the job site was in Kentucky and I live in Dayton, OH which at the point of this requirement I no longer had a car because I had to give my car back to the dealership because my rent had gone up by 30% in two years but not my salary because in the state of OH, the landlords can go up on the rent as much as 60% because the state has no laws for rent regulations. Due to these events happening almost concurrently and not being. able to replace the lost income or car I lost my job. While waiting on the long process to get unemployment which was 1/4 of the salary I was getting from employment I fell further behind on rent and other bills which ultimately resulted in my family and I being evicted in August of last year and the state of OH if you have an eviction within the last 5 years no one will rent to you.

Fast forwarding to the present day, I have been in a state of homelessness for the past 7 months living in survival mode so to speak. I have in the course of that time had another job but by the time I got it, it was less than what I was making and I was too far behind to catch up because of the eviction lost that job because it was a work-from-home job. So from there, it was trying to get help from a few friends to stay in hotels while trying to find work and paying for storage to keep the few things we had left, which was not that much because I had no money or help when the eviction happened so all of our furniture was lost with no way to get it back, trying to keep the cell phone on while looking for work. Well, the help begins to become less and less over time because people, I believe, give you a certain amount of time before you are considered the problem for your situation and not the situation itself so the help stops and you are pretty much left to figure it out on your own.

So while I have not been able to find a job for months nor a place to live I spend my days from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. sitting in a local McDonald’s on my laptop trying to find a solution to my ongoing saga and from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. the hotel in which I frequent and have developed a relationship, with the staff allows me to sit in the lobby on nights that I can’t afford a room, keeping in mind that is most nights and during this process I am separated from my wife and children.

So recently I received my income tax return and thought that it could be spent to give me a short-term sense of stability by staying in a hotel for maybe a month or two or I could try to hire myself by starting my own business for which I had been longing to do for many years and take a leap of faith on myself because at this point no one else would hire me including my ala mater forand the job which I have 3 degrees and am in debt in student loans to the tune of $100k, and the job I was turned down for was a customer service position. So maybe about a week or so ago, I started my company GRAY IMPERIUM MANAGEMENT & CONSULTING LLC which I have an office (virtual) with phone and fax, an 800 hundred number,  EIN, and all of the things needed to be a legal entity because the idea is to hire myself since no one else will. Well, all of these things cost money to maintain and I haven’t even gotten money for equipment, website, etc to become fully functional as well as apply for any type of business loans and grants because all of these things are requirements to have.

So when I found out about this site I thought what would I have to lose by trying to find help through this resource which happened to be a night when was able to get a room in the hotel to get some sleep after 8 days of just being up all day and all night, which is a normal occurrence for me. So it is my plea that if someone has it in their heart to help me so I can help myself get back on track and get my family back together please help as much as your heart and finances will allow.

Sincerely,

Derrell Gray