This Is How We Homeless: A Comprehensive List of Our Needs

The Chronicles of The Emancipated Momma 

Book 1: This Is How We Homeless 

Chapter 1: The Guts and the Glory

Section A: The Guts Continued - A Comprehensive List of Our Needs

Welcome and welcome back 👋🏾! It's another amazing day in paradise 🤩. Thank you so much for being here. And thank you so much for staying if the title didn’t turn you away.

I know. I know. I was doing daily posts for a couple of weeks and then just stopped. Then, here I am posting a video of us dancing at the 2025 Sneaker Ball (which was last night, Friday, May 2) coupled audaciously with a post entitled “A Comprehensive List of Our Needs”. I"m sure you're like, "what in the world is this chic up to?".

If you want to know why, jump to the bottom of this post. If you came to check out what we need, whether out of curiosity or to see if you can help, that’s where I’m going to start.

Monetary Needs: cash provides access to all of these, gift cards are also appreciated

Basic Needs

~ Gas

~ Food (preferably healthy)

~ Laundry Services

Expanded Needs

~ Funds to pay up 2 Storage Units (it would be great to pay them forward by a month):

Durham - 3 months behind (around $175)

Raleigh - 2 months behind (around $225)

~ Summer clothes and undergarments for Wisdom - size 12

~ Shoes for Wisdom (he prefers Crocs) 

~ Wisdom’s Robotics class (this is the beginning of his second year and he’s starting to learn Python) - $1200 

~ Accessory classes - 2 @ $999 each (how to build an app, how to build a game [and monetize]; can ask for a discount if getting both)

~ Car serviced - 2002 Mercedes Benz E320 over 15K miles past when it should’ve been serviced (tried Door Dash to earn money but it was too much wear and tear on my car [60+ miles in one day] so I stopped because I can’t afford to compromise the place we sleep)

~ Iron and ironing board

~ Funds to purchase domain names on Namecheap and set up Google Workspace

~ Summer camps for Wisdom

If you don't mind sending cash please choose from the following:

Venmo and PayPal: @EmancipatedMomma

Cash App: $WiseMommy1213

Please feel free to specify where you'd like the funds to be spent.

Non-monetary: people who have expertise investing their time in helping us

~ Help setting up my CRM (IYKYK) and Google Workspace

~ A business mentor and group of youth to partner with Wisdom to launch C.C. Store and More (Wisdom’s business idea)

~ There's more... These are at the top of my mind!

Before I get to the explanation, I want to say "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun". A big HUGE shout out to Green Road Community Center, part of the Raleigh Parks system, for their annual Sneaker Ball. It was so much fun! We attended last year, danced and had a ton of fun. Then we slept in the car that night sweaty from all the dancing we had done.

Last night we were blessed to be inside. I was able to iron the dress I wanted to wear, which I had gotten for free, and felt beautiful in. As you can imagine, boys just wanna have fun too. And Wisdom did! From the bouncy house (he was the last one out) to the blow up Connect Four basketball toss to the face painting to even dancing with his momma (me), he had a blast!

I have found that I need to have... I require these moments, fun moments, especially since we are deep in our struggle. They regulate our nervous system. So I wanted to share what having a regulated nervous system looks like, even though we're living in our car. This is how we homeless.

Now the explanation for the rest of the post...

A LOT has happened since my last post, last month (YIKES!). Happy May! So much of it has been incredibly beautiful. God has been speaking to me and connecting me with others who hear His call, "It's time to rise!" 

Yet while all that's been going on, I've also experienced some things that really make me angry (yes, present tense angry). It's not a “destructive angry” though. It's a “messenger angry”. Those messages always lead me to change myself!

That might be the first time you've heard such a thing but that's what this quote by Malcolm X taught me, “Usually when people are sad, they don’t do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about change.” He said this in a speech at a rally in support of Fannie Lou Hamer on 20 December 1964, just 2 months before he was murdered.

I think most people read this quote and believe Malcolm meant that people bring about external change. I would agree. That's very true. But to bring about external change you really have to start inside.

It means changing the way you're currently doing things (because they are obviously not working) so you can bring about the change you really want. That's where I am! Taking another courageous step to build a new system, the system we are all seeking. 

In order to build that better system we have to figure out what's missing or what needs to be replaced. What I have found is the one key thing that's missing from the system that addresses poverty is the opportunity for upward mobility. To me upward mobility isn't just about getting a better job. It's about creating wealth, generational wealth. 

I hope you noticed some of the money we NEED is for Wisdom to continue taking classes that are setting him up for success in the immediate, not distant, future. I also hope you noticed that one of the two non-monetary needs is support for Wisdom to launch the business idea he began working on last year.

That's upward mobility. That's creating generational wealth on his terms, not mine.

Additionally, as a woman of God, I believe the Church, collectively, is primarily responsible for addressing homelessness. This isn't possible with the current state of affairs. In my humble opinion, that because the main thing that's missing from the church is the concept of “all things common”.

This phrase is only found twice in the Bible, both in the book of Acts. First in Acts 2: 

44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common;

45 And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.

And again in chapter 4:

32 And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.

Please Note/Warning: I'm about to go deep with this one so please hang on... 

This phrase, all things common, Spirit brought back to my remembrance after I was in a park a couple of weeks ago and watched these youth roll into the parking lot on their e-bikes. A question I feel is really yucky popped into my head, "what did they do differently that they should deserve what they have?"

I said it was yucky! And I already knew the answer to the question. They didn't "do" anything special or anything different. The problem we have in society today where we lack equity, equality, balance... whatever you want to call it is we've all been fed a series of bold faced lies and have bought into them for years without ever questioning them. 

What are the lies you ask? Well the first one is we are required to do "it" alone, whatever "it" looks like. We uplift those who pushed through and accomplished the thing while working two jobs and this and that... Yet I'm wondering, what do their nervous systems look like? Are they genuinely happy? Or is their happiness based on what they are now able to buy? 

Do they smoke? Do drugs? Are they going home every night to drink a beer or other alcohol? Or do they start earlier in the day? 

These spaces where people can work and there's beer and alcohol on tap are being normalized. But they are not normal. There's a genuine reason people drink, smoke and/or do drugs. It's not just for social interaction. It's because they need an outside substance to help regulate their nervous systems. Community helps regulate our nervous systems too. 

But I don't mean any kind of community. I mean genuine community. Community where we rely on one another to accomplish the things that will benefit the individual and the group as a whole. I don't have that.

Most of us don't have that even though I know A LOT of people. And I even have people I can call on. But I don't have community. I don't blame anyone for that. I can't. It is happening because of the dynamics that currently exist in our world. 

For me, the main reason for this dynamic is there are so many needs in our world. And people are doing so much to keep themselves from drowning and/or helping others that creating community is A LOT MORE work to consider. It takes A LOT of energy people just don't have. 

That's why I'm looking for and asking for help. The time it will take to do "it" on my own is not worth the story I'll get to tell. And honestly, the thought is exhausting. I'd rather tell a story that is so deeply founded in community that we are compelled to intentionally focus on building a community that addresses the needs of the whole.

If you can help with anything I've listed, thank you in advance. If you were just curious, thank you for taking the time to read. If you need help, please reach out to me and let me know how I can support you and I'll see how I can meet your needs or connect you with someone who can.

Thank you again and in advance for being here. A new system is on the horizon. One where we each are recognized for our infinite and intrinsic value and we have all things common because we Love ourselves, Love God and Love one another. That's why it's still another amazing day in paradise. Enjoy the amazing day you're creating 🪄✨. ☮️...

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