Had An Impromptu Chat With @ushi418 About Fashion History The Other Day- Thought I’d Post It Here As

What to do if you are facing eviction

Eviction protections are expiring across the United States and Canada right now, and millions of people are suddenly finding themselves facing eviction with a pandemic still raging and the start of winter just around the corner. 

Not knowing where you’re going to live next month is an unbelievably scary position to be in, and there are a lot of people out there who are facing this for the first time in their lives. It’s okay to be scared. But it’s also important to start taking steps to deal with this as soon as you realize that might be at risk of eviction. 

As someone who has worked in homelessness and housing advocacy my whole career, here’s what I recommend you do:

Do not leave your home. Many landlords count on their tenants not knowing or understanding their rights, and take advantage of that to try to illegally evict them without following proper procedure. I have seen landlords attempt some flagrantly illegal things during my time working with vulnerable people. Many landlords have been ignoring and violating eviction moratoriums during this pandemic. Don’t fall for it. There is a legal process that has to be followed to evict you, even if your name isn’t on the lease - your landlord cannot simply slip a note under your door ordering you out by the end of the week, no matter what they tell you. Do not leave your home until a judge orders you to do so. You may have a better shot in court than you think you do, and seeing the court process to the very end buys you valuable time to figure out your next move. 

Get a lawyer. Many legal aid societies and law school legal clinics offer free legal assistance for people facing eviction. Having a lawyer can make an enormous difference - one study found that people without lawyers were evicted 65% of the time, compared to just 15% of people who had legal representation. Start calling and contacting legal aid services as soon as your landlord threatens or files eviction - these services often only do intake for new clients on certain days, so it’s a good idea to research these services ahead of time. 

Understand your rights. The protections you have under the law depend on where you live - it’s critical that you take the time to educate yourself about what those protections are. Your area will likely have a Residential Tenancies Act, a Tenant Act, or something along those lines. Look online for information specific to your area. There may also be special protections and procedures in place because of the pandemic. If you live in NYC, for instance, you have a right to free legal counsel if you are facing eviction. Find out what protections you have in your area.

Contact resources in your area. Again, depending on where you live, there are different resources available. There may be a tenant support agency that can connect you to free legal resources directly. You might be eligible for unemployment benefits or emergency income. Your state or city might also have emergency funding or eviction prevention programs in place. NYC, for instance, offers “one shot deal” emergency grants that cover rental arrears for people who are facing eviction due to unexpected crises. You should also look at emergency housing options, community food banks, or other resources that can help you survive this situation. In many cities you can call 211 or 311 to learn more or about resources, or you can go online. 

Attend your eviction hearing. Once you are given a date and time for your eviction hearing, it is critical that you attend. Even if you have not paid rent in several months and you think your case is hopeless, you absolutely must show up for this hearing. If you don’t attend, you will lose by default - if you attend, you may be successful in winning leniency, the opportunity to pay back rent with a payment plan and avoid eviction, or even just a few weeks’ extension on the eviction date so you have more time to come up with a plan. Attend your hearing. 

Have a back-up plan. Even with legal aid resources on your side, you have to prepare for the possibility that you might not be able to fight your eviction. Buy yourself as much time as you can, and use that time to start researching possible options. Is there a cheaper room for rent that you can afford with your unemployment benefits? Do you know anyone you can stay with? Are there any housing non-profits in your area that can help? Do you have any leads on employment in the future? Explore your options, and remember that it’s okay to ask for help right now - people in your life can’t help you unless you tell them that you’re struggling. 

Call your representatives. You are not the only person suffering as a result of expiring COVID protections - your elected officials need to know that letting these programs expire is having serious, dire consequences for real people that they represent. Call everyone. Call the office of your congressman, call your MP, call your state senator, your MLA, your local city counsellors. Tell your story, and make as much noise as you can. It doesn’t guarantee that anything will be done, of course, but it makes the problem harder for your elected officials to ignore.

Important Resources for Americans: LawHelp.org - website for learning more about local laws and finding free legal aid in your area  JustShelter - a database of community resources available to people facing eviction (might not include all emergency pandemic programs) Eviction Moratorium Database - a database showing where evictions have been legally paused or restricted because of the pandemic National Evictions Database - a database where you can look up what the legal eviction process is supposed to look like in your state  Tenant’s Union Resources - a website where you can find information for the tenant’s union or pro-tenant organizations in your area  Legal Services - a federal non-profit that helps connect low-income households to legal resources for fighting eviction 

Fannie Mae Renters Resource Finder - a database that will tell you if your rental unit is federally financed, and show you resources to fight eviction accordingly  Freddie Mac Renters Resource Finder - another website to show you if your rental property is federally backed and connect you to resources

Eviction Lab - a website that outlines information about pandemic eviction moratoriums and restrictions currently in place in your state The National Housing Law Project - a comprehensive database of resources for people facing eviction or foreclosure  Important Resources for Canadians: The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation - up-to-date information about eviction moratoriums in each province and territory  Affordable Housing Programs Across Canada - information on affordable housing programs in each province and territory Western Law Eviction Information - a website outlining the eviction process in Ontario and what you need to do to fight it Community Legal Education Ontario - a website that shows the proper procedure for eviction in detail and outlines steps that can be taken to fight it  Nova Scotia Legal Residential Tenancy Law Resources - detailed information about the eviction process in Nova Scotia and how to fight it Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta - resources and information for renters facing eviction in Alberta  BC Housing - information and resources for tenants facing difficulties in British Columbia  Saskatchewan Office of Residential Tenancies - information for tenants facing difficulties in Saskatchewan  Tribunal Administratif du Logement - resources and information for tenants living in Quebec. Available in both English and French. 

I just watched a kid break down in the bookstore because his books for the semester totaled $600 and that’s the american university system in a nutshell

hot artists don't gatekeep

I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard

Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.

Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.

Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.

Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.

SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.

SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.

Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.

Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.

Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.

Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.

Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.

stinky bug man, that’s why.

buds, this is the wrong article to put under an email gate.

i know we're all sick of self-care being a marketing tactic now, but i don't think a lot of us have any other concept of self-care beyond what companies have tried to sell us, so i thought i'd share my favorite self-care hand out

brought to you by how mad i just got at a Target ad

DEATH BY RABID SQUIRREL

Okay, okay, okay. So I’m at my D&D club at my local library with 11 fellow PCs and our DM. So our wizard is sort of a loose cannon and plays chaotic neutral and sort of tries to do the randomest acts of stupidity. So this session we are in this city and we’ve split the party ( I know, I know) My sorcerer is off awaiting the arrival of the king, our bard is at a magic shop, and the rest of our party is at a circus that we’ve been requested to act as guards for. Except our wizard.

Our wizard, he’s trying to rob someone. Our wizard decides to try and rob this middle class old man, so he goes up to him and our DM has him roll for slight of hand and insight. He succeeds his slight of hand, but fails his insight role. He starts searching through the old man’s pocket and in said pocket is a rabid squirrel that attacks him. The old man discovers he’s being pick pocketed and screams in the most insane-old-man-with-rabies fashion “ARE YOU TRYING TO STEAL MY SQUIRRELS!” Both the rabid squirrel and old man proceed to Attack our wizard... The squirrel gets a critical, the squirrel then deals near max damage to our wizard and he’s knocked into critical with one failed death saving throws. He fails another, succeeds one, fails his third.

So our wizard is now dead and his player is now notably upset considering that none of our characters have ever died since our current DM has only started DMing for us this session, and our previous DM had never DMed before, and never really wanted us to die since most of us were brand new to D&D. So our current DM is feeling really bad about killing our wizard and upsetting our player, but our necromancer, and previous DM, had a solution. She cast animate dead on our wizard and our DM allowed it and our necromancer now has the ability to command our undead, chaotic neutral, zombie wizard to do anything she wishes once per session. So, yeah, that’s the story of how our wizard robbed an old man, got killed by a rabid squirrel, and was resurrected from the dead by our necromancer.

Tumblrs of a few of my fellow PCs: @emo-little-shit-like-yeah @basementdregon101

The older they are the more eldritch they become

Something different from Beetlejuice? More likely than you think! These are angels!

i’m gonna drop an art tip here

i think an important thing to learn, especially if you start out with drawing anime, is that faces don’t necessarily have to narrow from top to bottom

i like to think of wide top, wide middle, wide bottom, and rectangle-like as the 4 main face shapes

what you should keep in mind about them:

you’re only halfway done: the jawlines, the width-length ratio, the amount of fat in the cheeks, the intensity or subtlety of the face’s curves are all important components you still have to decide on after choosing the shape itself

none of these shapes are exclusively feminine or masculine, don’t hesitate drawing them on any gender

most people in real life have some variation of the wide middle type

if you are trying to draw real people, getting the shape of their face down is the first step

i’ve seen tutorials say the shape of the face can tell a lot of the character’s personality - you don’t necessarily have to live by that rule. as long as you aren’t unrealistically drastic about their proportions, their face shape determines their inner qualities as much as it would in real life (not at all)