In 1999, my wife and I moved from Germany to Metro Detroit after I was transferred here for work in the automotive industry. We built a life here. Our two daughters were born in Michigan — one in 2003, one in 2008. Our youngest was born with Down syndrome.

In 2015, a business venture I had put our entire savings into went bankrupt, and I lost nearly everything. It took years to recover trust, let alone finances. I found work again, but it barely kept us afloat. Then COVID hit, and I lost my job. To survive, I emptied every account we had left, including our 401(k).

By 2025, we could no longer keep up with our mortgage, and we lost our home to foreclosure. Since then, my wife and I have both been working part-time — she's a paraprofessional at a local school (with no income over the summer), and I work at Lowe's. Together, our income has not been enough to keep us stable.

My wife recently took our youngest daughter to Europe for a few months, staying with friends, while I try to find a way forward here. I am now facing a court-ordered eviction from our rental home in early August. I have no funds to move our belongings into storage, no funds for a security deposit on a new place, and at our income level, most landlords require several months of rent paid upfront — which we simply don't have. We also have two dogs who are part of our family and need to stay together with us.

Right now, I am asking for help with:

1. Moving & storage for our belongings so we don't lose everything we have left
2. Security deposit + first months' rent on a place we can actually afford
3. Boarding/care costs for our two dogs during the transition
4. A bridge toward health insurance, which we currently do not have

I'm not asking for a comeback fund — I'm asking for help getting my family through the next few months without losing what little stability we have left. Any amount helps, and I will update this page as things change. Thank you for reading this far, and thank you if you're able to help.

— Dimitri