LET'S END HOMELESSNESS IN OXFORD COUNTY

I was brave enough to leave my abusive relationship. I had no money because he controlled my finances, and I lost almost all the people in my life because of him. I had nowhere to go so I wound up homeless and at the doorstep of Domestic Abuse Services Oxford (DASO) with my toddler son. Once I was there, I was stuck trying to process the trauma of what I had been through while dealing with the instability of not having a permanent place to call home. All of this was then used against me in my court case with him. The system is really designed to prevent people from leaving dangerous situations out of fear of ending up in an even worse one. It's truly broken.

My landlord locked me in my room and when I went to my Dad’s for help, he essentially told me to jump off a bridge. I was at my lowest point living at the Inn [emergency shelter] while working a decent paying job. Now, my girlfriend, our baby and I have been living in a Woodstock motel paying $1700 a month while seeing two-bedroom houses advertised for $1200 and can't get a call back when we apply. It's just all so frustrating.