Florida Casinos | Updates 2021

My landlord is trying to take advantage of a horrible situation and doesn't care if I end up homeless with 3 pets (which she has said specifically and directly - that it "wasn't her problem"). The below is the story of the last 12 years of my life and how I ended up here and, if thrown out, with nowhere to go at 44 (today is actually my birthday in fact).
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I'm looking for advice at this point because I'm not sure I'm going to catch the one break needed to turn this around. Hopefully some folks will have some ideas and advice after reading the below.
This is my story of the last 12 or so years:
In January 2007, through every fault of my own, I ended up with nothing but the clothes on my back and $20 in my pocket (I had spent my 20s messing around but had decided when I turned 30 that I needed to straighten up and get my life right). I ended up in temporary housing and spent those first couple of months looking for work in my field (Information Technology) going as far as I needed to go (like walking to a bus stop, taking a bus to a train station, taking a train, then taking another bus, then taking again a different bus to get to an interview - then walking miles back to the bus depot so I could get home, bus to train to bus then walk, because it was going to be a long time before another bus came close to the interview location). I managed to get that job that I went so far to get and started on the bottom rung of the company\group making $36k\year.
Over the following year I worked really hard to set myself on the right track. I worked whatever hours I had to work to show that I was a valuable team member. I moved in to a roommate situation closer to where I worked and bought a car that I paid $800 cash for (a beat-up old Thunderbird that looked like hell and had crappy AC - but it still ran and at least had working heat). I even had a second job in the evenings working in a bar as the dj - it was fun and didn't pay much but it was something extra. Six months into my employment the company decided to close our office and move the few of us in Atlanta to working from home. This, of course, caused some consternation with my, as I discovered over time, loser roommate (as he put it he "didn't sign up for having someone around all of the time" - basically wanted someone to help pay the bills (his parents paid his part) but not be around. Really long story).
Well within about six months after moving to working from home I met someone and we decided a few months later to try living together. So we both moved to a completely new place and I thought here's the next step up. I continued to work hard for my employer including working as many hours as necessary during a difficult time for our division. Because of that I was promoted from just a support tech to an Implementation Specialist (eventually completing about 80% of all of the installations of our flagship product). But this also caused problems at home and eventually my relationship fell apart (I was working so much, sometimes 80 to 100 hours a week, that my partner felt neglected and ended up looking elsewhere).
Shortly after my relationship ended I found out that the landlord for my townhouse was involved with bank fraud with a bank that had recently gone under due to the financial crisis and housing situation. So now my townhouse that I was renting was going to end up in a bank's hands. I waited the situation out knowing that I would need to negotiate with the new owner\landlord. I continued to work hard for my employer so I could earn bonuses, raises, and another promotion - which came in a short amount of time when I took over the Cloud component of the tech group.
By this time I had been in my townhouse for a year on a new lease but the HOA for the townhouse complex wanted renters out (or significantly reduced since there were a lot of us due to the housing\mortgage crisis) and refused to allow my landlord to renew my lease. With that I started looking for a new home and found where I am today - it was actually a toss-up between a couple of places but my connection with this landlord and the location was something I couldn't deny. So I moved in in early 2013 and was pleased with my decision. At this point I had been with my employer 6 years and was very pleased. I continued to bust my butt and had one manager leave due to stress and the next one only last 6 months (working remote just wasn't for him apparently). So with the encouragement of my teammates I went to the director and explained that even though I didn't want the job others really wanted me to take it and it was in everyone's best interest for me to do so. So I was promoted to manager but still kept most of my previous duties (so three promotions within 6 and a half years - I took over as manager in December 2013).
When I moved in to my new place, my landlord and I agreed that I could pretty much do what I wanted to the place within reason and good taste as long as I left whatever I did when\if I moved out. When I moved in I had had the place painted at considerable expense and over time did other things as well (replaced light fixtures, had other things painted, had the backyard redone, made other improvements - even split the cost of new appliances so I would get nicer ones than they wanted to pay for). During this time I continued working for the same employer and continued to get high marks on reviews along with bonuses and pay raises. Things were finally where I wanted them to be after about a decade of really hard work and high sacrifice (romantic relationships, personal friendships, social interactions outside of work – the only friends I had at this point were work friends).
Two years ago, in March of 2017 (right before my 10th anniversary with my employer), I found out the division I was in was being spun out and sold due to a recent acquisition by the parent company and now our division represented a conflict of interest for our main company. Everyone was concerned but when the Director asked me privately I told her it sounded good and could be exciting if things went as they were being described to us (more freedom to innovate, new investment from the new Venture Capital ownership, etc). So we worked hard as a management team and helped them pull off the sale on time - and things started to not look good from the outset once that sale had been completed.
Within 6 months they cut benefits and started laying people off and within a year they had let go almost half of the staff on my side of the new company (including one of my own direct reports, who had been with the company through its many forms and ownerships during nearly 40 years, without even telling me). I knew this was a bad sign and sure enough in April 2018, right after my 11 year anniversary, I was told that I was being "transferred" (it was a termination and re-hire but with grandfathering of benefits and tenure) to a sister company also under the VC's ownership (another IT firm that did hosting and cloud specifically instead of our company which was primarily a software vendor). I was asked if I wanted to take any staff with me and I of course responded yes (otherwise they were going to be let go and I wanted to help protect their jobs - plus I knew I couldn't manage all of our cloud assets by myself). Of the two people one came with and one ended up being let go.
So with that I started in May 2018 with the new company but with the same service record and slightly more pay (finally just breaking six figures despite having worked in IT for the better part of 25 years). I thought it could be great - the CEO of this company talked about wanting to make changes and have me take over as VP of the Network Operations group. I was already making more money than before with significantly less responsibility (in the end at the previous company I was doing the job of 5 people and hadn't cracked 6 figures - it was rough). Things were looking up and I expressed that it could be exciting. Well a few months in the story starts to change - there's a new CTO who's going to be brought in as we combine operations with 2 other VC-owned IT companies (coming from one of those two companies). The CEO decides to go ahead and let the current VP of NOC go and hire someone else - to everyone's surprise. The new incoming CTO says they want me to be the head of security under the new organization (basically CSO) and the CEO confirmed this. On more than one occasion the CEO asked me how I was doing because he didn't want me to up and quit - which I told him that I wasn't going anywhere for the time being while we got through an important project (I told him I have more integrity than that) BUT that I thought the changing story was concerning. I told him let's just get through this big project and get to the first of the new year and see where we are - if it's not a good fit and we mutually think we should part ways then I have no problem with that with some notice so I can find something else (which he agreed with). During this whole time the CEO had been trying and trying to get me to relocate to Sarasota where the office was - and boy, as you'll hear in a bit, was I glad I had refused multiple times (even with relocation assistance). But I worked my butt off yet again to show that I would do whatever it took to get a job done - including canceling time off and working on a holiday (and at one point again working 80+ hours in a week). Once the project was completed on time and under budget I went ahead and got my time off back on the calendar for the Christmas\New Years 2-week time frame.
Just before Thanksgiving one of my 4 cats wasn't feeling well. I figured he had just picked up something respiratory because he seemed to get better after Thanksgiving and right before I went out of town to our Sarasota office for a week (they did a big Christmas thing every year and I decided to make sure my face was seen working in the office although if he still wasn't doing well I would have stayed home). I thought my trip had gone well and I made sure to be involved in everything they did - I donated to their toy drive, the socks for seniors drive, participated in the gift exchange and group\team games, group after-work dinners, and so on. When I got home I worked for a week and then was going to be out for 2 weeks for my vacation. Well that week after I got home I noticed the same cat that hadn't been feeling well before was again not feeling well. Over the first week of my vacation (Christmas week 2018) he went downhill quickly and stopped eating the dry food, which he loved, then stopped eating cookies (which they all loved), then finally the weekend before New Years stopped eating altogether (to this point he was still eating the canned wet food in the evenings). So that Sunday, 12\30, I called the vet close to me that specialized in cats, and came recommended by neighbors, to make an appointment to take him in right away the next morning (New Years Eve 2018\2019). We got there right when they opened and spent a couple of hours doing tests - his bloodwork looked fine for the most part although there were a couple of things the vet said were out of whack, he definitely needed a dental (bad tarter buildup apparently), but the xray showed something concerning and they wanted to do an ultrasound. So I said go ahead and see what's going on - this was my buddy and best friend and I wanted to try and help him as much as I could (despite having 3 others this cat was really my companion and cuddle buddy who always wanted to be and lay with me no matter what). So I left him there and went home to get a nap (I hadn't slept well all weekend keeping an eye on him). Well the ultrasound wasn't good and it showed a huge mass on\in his intestines that was going to need to be removed - they weren't sure what it was exactly and wouldn't know the extent until they went in for surgery. Well I didn't have the money for this and cried heavily because I didn't know what to do. I told the vet I'd have to try and figure something out and took him home - they told me they could do the surgery right away once I was ready. That night I cried for him but decided I had to try and help him (we're not supposed to have favorites but he was definitely mine) - so on New Years Day I took out a high-interest loan of $4k from a lender I had done business with in the past, and knew I would be approved with, and the next day called to let the vet know that I wanted to move forward with surgery on Thursday. I also made arrangements with my boss and employer to take an extra week off (flex time that I had earned working overtime) because I knew it was going to be rough and would be too difficult, and a disadvantage to them, for me to try and take care of the cat, run back and forth to the vet, and try to work - that just wasn't going to be good for anyone.
So that Thursday, January 3rd, 2019, I dropped him off and they did the surgery. While he was at the doc I found out that two of my former coworkers (a peer manager and a direct report employee) had both died recently (one the week before and the latter that week). That hit hard - the peer manager wasn't much older than me (in her early 50s). I vowed then that I was going to get my financial picture straightened out this year (2019) and get my life back in order (lose some more weight, start walking at least, etc - this was just too close to home). At the end of that day I picked my buddy up from the doc and they said they thought it had gone very well and were hopeful. They sent everything out for pathology so we would know for sure that we got it all and if there was going to need to be any additional treatment like chemo and\or radiation. I also had them do the dental he needed while he was under so it would be easiest on him.
So we got home and I got him upstairs where he would convalesce (away from the other cats who would most likely pester him and to keep him from going up and down the stairs). Well they didn't warn me that he was still so heavily sedated because as soon as I opened the carrier upstairs he lurched out, wobbled out of my office, and fell down the stairs (which are steep)! If I had known I would have put the gate I have up first so that wouldn't have happened – it’s an understatement to say I freaked out and nearly fell down the stairs after him to get him and keep him from getting hurt. From there it was downhill - he still wouldn't eat anything and just wasn't doing well. We went back and forth to the vet over the next week trying everything they could think of (at one point he was slobbering like a dog and they said it was probably nausea) - he had pain meds and steroid shots and fluids and on and on. I was up most nights, catching a nap on the floor of my office where he was or in my recliner downstairs when he was sleeping, trying to keep an eye on him and do whatever he needed me to do to help him get better - then sleeping during the day while he was at the vet. I tried their special vet food and bought every kind of canned wet cat food that I thought he might eat - all with little success (there were a couple of bright spots where I thought I had found something he wanted but then the next time I tried to give it to him he again wouldn't eat). Normally a very heavy cat I finally saw how light he had become and knew in the back of my mind that we were probably coming to the end (and he was only 10 years old - I had had him since he was barely 12 weeks when he could fit in my hand. Hence his original name Little Bitty Kitty (I know - we couldn't think of anything at the time and he started answering to it so we left it) and later that name morphing to Big Kitty (because he was big - not fat just big and muscle-y and about 20 pounds. And the name sounded similar and he still answered to it so it worked).
On the morning of January 10th, 2019, as we were preparing to go back to the vet (and he clearly knew it) he let out a sound I had never heard from him let alone any cat. He was clearly not doing well and was ready to go - he just looked at me with eyes that said please stop. So I told him OK no more I promise and he made a very soft meow while looking right at me. So I loaded him up and we made the final trip to the vet - all the while he was chatty and rubbing my hand through the carrier. When we got there he was certainly chatty and purring although drooling again and every time I told him "I know, I promise no more" he would rub and rub on me. When the time came it was the hardest thing I had ever done or been through to tell them I needed to let him go (and that includes having been in some tough spots when I was younger) - it was what was best for him and I didn't have any more money anyway (I couldn’t bear to see him continue to suffer just to save me pain). I chose a private cremation ceremony for him so I could always have him with me. As I said my goodbyes he just rubbed my face and gave me nose bites - and I told him I would see him again. I still can see his face after the end and will never forget those few minutes (even now I'm having a hard time just getting through typing this all out - I've had to take two breaks). It took me at least 10 minutes to gather my composure to shuffle out of the office and get in the car – I had completely lost it when they said he was gone and they took him away. I spent Friday and the weekend mourning my loss (barely eating or sleeping) but still caring for my remaining three - and preparing to go back to work on Monday. That Monday I spent the whole day catching up on emails and whatnot (I hadn't kept up with almost anything while out) so that Tuesday I could start fresh.
Tuesday morning, the 15th, an hour after sitting down I got a message from my boss asking me if I was available to chat - to which I said sure and confirmed my extension to him. When he called he immediately said hang on and I suddenly had a sinking feeling - and sure enough he came back on the line with the HR person (small company so there was only one). I WAS BEING LET GO, unceremoniously, with no notice, no severance, no thank you, no nothing - my last paycheck was the one I got that day (deposited overnight). I was rightfully angry but also panicked - what the hell was I going to do now? Fortunately I hadn't yet paid my bills and I knew I had some money in my 401k but very little – I never expected to just be cut loose. They told me that they wouldn't contest my unemployment claim (well duh - I hadn't done anything wrong) but that I would have to file in Florida (apparently they had never reported me to Georgia and only recorded me as a Florida employee despite the fact that I live in Georgia).
Obviously I made a few hasty phone calls that day not only letting a few people know I had been let go but also reaching out to contacts to put the word out. I filed my unemployment claim online with Florida the next day and when going through the process saw that they didn't pay as much as Georgia but also didn't have the rest of my employment history so my award was going to be a lot less than it should. So I also filed in Georgia for the missing employment info. I updated my LinkedIn and continued to reach out to contacts over the next several days - I was expecting this to be short lived given that I had received an inquiry for employment nearly every day for years. Boy was I wrong on so many levels.
I got a call from the Georgia DOL letting me know that I had done everything all wrong - and in fact filing two claims was illegal. The lady I spoke with was really nice though and told me what to do and that she would just cancel this claim so I wouldn't get in trouble. I then had to contact Florida and withdraw that claim, wait for it to be withdrawn, then re-file in Georgia with all of the info needed - obviously this delayed my claim unfortunately. In the meantime, I also let my landlord know what had happened and that I would be working it all out - and that I would still take care of February and so on (just trying to be as transparent with her as I could). I went through the claim process with Georgia and got that approved and started, then went and applied for food stamps, since I had no income, and was instantly approved (I would just have to wait for my card in the mail). I also went ahead and cashed out my 401k (wasn't much there but it was money - and I took a big hit to do it), and made sure all of my bills for January and February were straight. I also went ahead and finished my resume on Feb 11th so I would have it and got it uploaded and cleaned up on LinkedIn as well as the GADOL site and USAJOBS among others. I figured February was going to be shot but I'd find something in March.
By this time I had tried also setting up a GoFundMe to recoup what I spent on trying to save my cat (so I could use it to pay bills instead if I could get enough generous donors) and I even tried going to the casino to see if I could win some money (short story - nope). By this time (past mid Feb) I realized I still didn't have my food stamp card so I called in to try and find out what was going on - which was a monumental task unto itself. I finally got a person who could help me and was told that my card had never been requested or mailed. So they requested one and I got it within a few business days – but because of the delay my account was now marked for distribution at the end of the month meaning I got my initial prorated amount for February but wouldn’t see anything else until near the end of March. My landlord had called at the end of the month (February) and I told her I had the money for March but April was looking iffy if I didn't find something soon. Again, I had tried to be as transparent with her as I could which in the end was a mistake (as will soon become apparent). A few days later she called and said she had talked it over with her son, the co-owner of the house, and they agreed to allow me to have March and April and they would just take that rent and spread it out over two years with my other rent payments starting in May (and sent me an email to confirm). I protested because I wasn't sure what was going to happen and I might need that later but she insisted and said they wanted to keep me in the house, that I had been a great tenant, and that this would be what they could do to help me but no more. I thanked her and it was a pleasant conversation (this was March 2nd).
In the mean time I continued my job search. I was putting in at least 2 applications, on average, per day trying to make sure I was picking jobs that I wasn't over or under qualified for and were on the track I was supposed to have been on previously. All through March I had several recruiters say I had a great resume and a great skillset but then nothing came through (even the couple of interviews I had the response was they decided to go a different direction or look for a candidate with X specific skill - all-in-all a thanks but no thanks). So around mid-March I thought maybe I needed to try a different direction - maybe starting a couple of social media channels (like a podcast, a YouTube, and whatnot) was the way to go while also doing something like delivering newspapers and studying to play cards professionally. I still held out hope though and was really hoping for something in my field instead. During the month of March I had to pull some financial trickery on my credit cards just so I could be able to use them to pay bills and pull money out to try and use it at the casino (again hoping to just hit for a little - enough to make it a couple of extra months). Nothing was working and I couldn't figure out what it was that I had done to cause all of this to happen all at one time in short order. I had also thought about just taking any job but decided against it since $10 an hour even at 40 hours a week wasn't even going to pay the rent - and it would get in the way of being able to interview on short notice or start a new job right away.
On March 29th I had a discussion with my landlord that was apparently fateful. She asked how it was going and when I said it wasn't going as well as I had expected she offered all kinds of hollow platitudes. I also told her about Amex filing a civil suit against me and that I was waiting on service but that since there wasn't any money all they were doing was forcing my hand on bankruptcy. At that point she started getting really crappy with me and said that I had to make sure I paid the rent on time or would be out. I told her that I would most certainly stick with my agreement because at 44 I wasn't going to be homeless living out of my car with 3 cats and lose everything (not to mention that I had been paying the rent on-time, or early, for 6 years). She then quipped "you don't have any friends you can stay with?" to which I replied (and she already knew this based on previous conversations we had had over the years) "no, all of my friends were work friends and when this all went down they all disappeared". At this point she went on a rant about this was income for her and that she couldn't have me in there longer than agreed if I couldn't pay on time and that she would have to get the house listed right away in May and so on (which just really pissed me off and so I was giving curt answers and hoped that she realized how inappropriate it was to be tell me this when, despite my knowing that business is business, I had nowhere else to go and didn't need to be reminded of that fact). The call ended with what I thought was an understanding but I was apparently wrong on this too.
I spent the weekend making financial plans so that I would have the May rent on time. I also finally was able to get in touch with the newspaper folks and start that conversation. I had also managed to setup a couple of recruiter conversations for Monday April 1st and Tuesday the 2nd. On Monday I spoke with those recruiters as well as the newspaper person - and put that on hold as a just in case (she said to call her when I was ready to start) as I also had arranged a couple of recruiters for Tuesday (of the Monday conversations one wanted me to relocate to New Orleans which wasn't a starter and one said she was going to send my info over and should hear something back on Wednesday. The Tuesday conversations went well and they were going to submit my info as well). I had gotten myself together and needed to run some errands (I had finally run out of patience with eating what was on-hand in the freezer and needed some groceries).
So I ran my errands, had some dinner, ran another errand, and finally made it back home - with everything put away even and got the cats fed. At that point it was getting late and I wanted to get upstairs to get my call logs done (I have been logging my creditor's calls to show how they harass folks) as well as check my email and whatnot. And that's when I found it - at 749P ET an email from an unrecognized name with the subject "Offer from SMB your Landlord and vacating the property". I downloaded the attachment and read the PDF - and was in complete shock. The landlord now wanted to renege on our agreement! And I needed to be out in 30 days if I wanted any help from them (a partial refund of my deposit) AND that the house had to be not only in perfect condition but that I had to leave everything I had done to the house (all of the upgrades and everything). This was a complete reversal from our previous agreement!
With that I spent the night tossing and turning and in complete shock. I had no idea what I was going to do. The last time I moved it took me a month to find this place and then 2 weeks just to pack and move (and that was with a lot less stuff since my townhouse was smaller) - and it cost over $3k to make it happen. So I decided to write this all down and tell the whole story of what has happened in the last 12 years - just in case it might help me or at least show what happened in case I just decide to give up. Monday, April 1st, would have been my 12 year anniversary with my employer and I have nothing to show for all of my hard work - I sacrificed everything (friendships, relationships, my health) to try and get ahead by working hard and doing the right thing (unlike in my 20s when I dicked around and was in all kinds of trouble always moving from place to place). Even if I find or take a job today I still don't know what I'm going to do - how can I pack, find a place, and move in 30 days PLUS get this place ready AND work full time??? I’ve reached out to the couple of friends I have left and see what their thoughts are as well as tried to talk to the landlord and convince her to not do this.
I spoke with the landlord this morning, April 3rd, and apparently they had already been planning this previously (she says they were planning on getting rid of one house this year however I think my situation presented the perfect opportunity for them to get me out and get the house sold given this is the one house they own outright). She said she's adamant and nothing will change. I've asked for a price just so I can explore possibly trying to find an investor to buy the house so I can stay with a new lease.
And that’s my horrible story of one thing after another happening despite having done all of the right things that are expected of someone who is supposed to work hard and get their life together. Over these 12 years I’ve consistently worked hard, paid my bills on time, given to charity, supported creators through Kickstarter, and tried to support struggling new artists as well as authors and journalists – yet the above is what has happened and could happen to anyone. This is a true and factual recounting of events. If just enough people could get my GFMs to spread and only gave $10 (the amount some spend on expensive coffee drinks or fast food) then I could buy this house and refocus my career on teaching and volunteering (and just working part time delivering newspapers overnight to pay my recurring monthly bills). I’ve wanted to do this for a long time but unfortunately neither pays well (and I’ve discovered finally that the measure of success isn’t really the accumulation of wealth or possessions – but I still have to be able to pay the bills). The price the landlord wants for this house is $210k (which is a little high although I think I could get her to take closer to 200). I started two GoFundMes - one to try and recover what I spent to try and save my cat and the other to try and save my home but neither has really gone anywhere despite my trying to post it anywhere I could (Twitter, Fb, YT, etc - even tweeting celebrities).
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What I can't figure out is why everything comes down to making money? Even the one private investor I managed to find said "while your story is compelling, and I'd like to help, I can't do a bad deal". I'm still looking for employment in my field (IT) but so far zippo - everyone says I have a great resume and a lot of experience but then I don't hear back from them. My unemployment runs out at the end of this month and I don't know what the next steps are going to be.
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I appreciate everyone taking the time to read this and very much appreciate any thoughts, comments, etc. I really don't know what to do at this point or where to go from here. I've looked at other places to move but I don't have the funds to pack an entire house and move plus who's going to rent to someone without a job - and everything in the area is higher in price or is a complete dump (and I mean bad - and in some cases I'd have to move so far outside of the city that any job would require an almost impossible commute). I'm in danger of having my car repossessed and if that happens it's game over - there's no bus service out here at all. I'm thinking about contacting the pro bono legal help group in this area to see if they can help with my landlord situation at least from the lease side but I still need to figure out the money side. I'm afraid it's going to come down to the end and the only choices will be to either abandon everything and give up my pets OR just take my own life and everything with me - and I refuse to believe that's the binary choice available (like Captain Kirk said, I don't believe in the no-win scenario).
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I'm happy to DM anyone who wants more info including my LinkedIn profile, a copy of my resume (if you know of someone hiring IT staff), etc. Your advice and comments are appreciated. Thanks.