Help Me Save My House

My Situation

My name is Carl, and I need to tell you something that's hard for me to admit. I'm about to lose my house, and I'm asking for help. This is incredibly difficult for me because I've always been the person helping others, not the one who needs a hand. But I've run out of time, and I need a miracle.

The Jackson County Health Department in Illinois is requiring me to replace my entire septic system at a cost of $20,000 because of a broken outlet pipe that's two feet inside my neighbor's yard. Here's the thing - the pipe leads to a leech field that's on property I don't even own.

How Did This Happen?

When my house was built back in 1953, all of this was one piece of land. Decades before I ever bought this place, the previous owner split the property into two parcels and built a rental house on the parcel where the leech field sits. According to the health department, there are no records of them being involved in that property split, so the owner was never required to move the septic system onto what is now my property.

All these years later, that pipe breaks, and somehow I'm the one being forced to pay $20,000 for an oversight that happened before I even lived here. If I don't fix this by December 5th, I'll be fined $500 per day and forced out of my house until it's repaired. That effectively makes me, my 19-year-old son, and my 18-year-old daughter homeless.

My Daughter Just Got Back Home

This timing couldn't be worse. I just got my daughter back home a couple of months ago. She had been living in a different city, and she kept it from me that she ended up homeless there. When I discovered what was happening, I immediately drove there and brought her home. Her condition broke my heart. It still upsets me when I think about how she looked and smelled when I picked her up.

She's doing so much better now. But if we get kicked out of this house, she goes right back to that situation. All three of us do. I can't let that happen to her again. I can't let that happen to any of us.

Why I'm Broke

I'm in this financial situation because I had to close the business my best friend and I started in 2019. We opened an automotive performance shop, something I'd dreamed about for 30 years. I left my career as an Amtrak conductor to pursue this dream. I was set for life at Amtrak, but I believed in this business. I thought it would be great for my family and something I could hand down to my children.

My son, his friend, and I worked six days a week, sometimes seven, with a four-hour round trip commute to the shop. We did this for a year and a half trying to save the business. But the economy, the labor shortage, and the cost of doing business were too much. We couldn't keep it open.

The shop closed in January of this year, leaving me with ruined credit, a lot of debt, and no income. Since that first day, I wake up every morning and apply for every job I qualify for and some I don't. I've only had one interview - with Republic Services for a garbage truck driver position. The interview went well, I did a ride-along, and the manager said he's trying to get approval to hire me as a second driver. But that hasn't happened yet, and it's been about three weeks since I've heard anything.

I've also been building directories and some software to sell. That's going well, but it's time-consuming and won't get me where I need to be in time to save the house.

YouTube Terminated My Channel

I had a YouTube channel called Auto News Network that I spent three years building. It was finally monetized earlier this year, and I had earned about $1,000. Unfortunately, my channel was terminated along with an estimated several million others by YouTube's AI system. Thousands of people are complaining about this on X (formerly Twitter) and other platforms.

I'm fighting to get my channel back, but I don't know if I will. They terminated it right before they were supposed to pay me what I earned, so I never received that money. That would have been a decent stream of income if I can get it reinstated.

I Haven't Seen My Three Youngest Kids in Over a Year

To make everything worse, in August 2024 while I was working at the shop, my wife took my three youngest children and left. She has concealed their location and refuses to let me see them. My only option was to file for divorce and custody.

That case is ongoing. I have no money for an attorney, so I'm representing myself pro se, which is a monumental task. The odds are stacked against me, but I've been working tirelessly - filing motions, going to hearings, doing everything myself because I have to. I haven't seen my kids in over a year, and there's nothing I've been able to do about it legally yet.

How You Can Help

Please understand - I am not asking for money. If you feel moved to donate to something, please give to a worthy charity instead.

What I'm asking costs you nothing and takes almost no effort:

Use my Amazon affiliate link when you shop. That's it. You're already shopping on Amazon. Just click my link first. Anything you buy within 24 hours of clicking earns me a small commission. It doesn't cost you a penny more than what you'd pay anyway.

You can also help by:

Following me on Facebook: I'm monetized on Facebook, though just for stars right now, not content or ad revenue yet. If enough people follow, I might get that monetization, which would also help this situation.

Subscribing to my YouTube channel: Subscribe here. I'm trying to rebuild after the termination, and every subscriber helps.

Why This Is So Hard for Me

I'm the guy who helps other people. I've always been that person. Asking for help myself feels wrong, like I'm failing somehow. But I've tried everything else. I've sold almost everything we own just to survive and depleted what little savings I had. I've applied to hundreds of jobs. I'm working on business projects that will eventually pay off, but time has run out.

I need a miracle, and maybe that miracle is you taking 30 seconds to click my Amazon link before you buy that thing you were going to buy anyway.

Thank you for reading my story. Thank you for considering helping. And thank you for being the kind of person who cares enough to be here right now.