Moss Martin

I am Moss Martin, an EvCC Honors student who is 34 years old, non-binary, neurodivergent, and unapologetically queer. This is my third attempt at my associate's degree, and it is finally paying off. I am finally graduated. I have been admitted to the University of Washington, School of Social Work for the term of Fall 2025.  I never thought I would get here to this place of graduation since my whole life has been such a struggle for basic necessities.

 I became homeless as a youth because I was neurodivergent, queer, and lived in an abusive home with parents who could not understand me. I made some questionable life choices as an unaccompanied minor with nowhere to go. I am not alone in this story; many youths become homeless due to abusive parents. Many youths, like me, refuse services due to the fear that parents will find them and so fall through the cracks of society. 

 I have spent my life battling a shortage of basic needs. I am not alone in this fight for the basic dignity of our lowest level of Maslow’s hierarchy. Many of us struggle while attempting to secure better lives for ourselves by attending college. With this survey, I chose to investigate insecurity in food and housing experienced by students at Everett Community College. I wanted to see how many of us are struggling with this injustice. 

   In Omar Marquez's class, "Power & Privilege," in the spring of 2024, I learned about how systemic oppression functions within our society, often within the confines of the law and the defunding of social welfare programs such as those designed for homeless interventions, including but not limited to, low-income housing. The combination of lived experience and the skills I learned from my DESJ classes have given me the confidence to effect change on a local level and strengthen my community from the inside out. The lessons in collective action are a necessary reminder that we have more power as a group than we do as individuals.