Zoe is a woman who is currently struggling with homelessness in Southern California. Zoe grew up in Gainesville, Florida with her parents and twin sister. Her mother worked as a medical transcriptionist while her father worked at a plant nursery. “I had a really magical, stable childhood,” Zoe recalled while describing memories of traveling to Disneyland, Jamaica, and Maine. From a young age until high school, she was involved in gymnastics, ballet, cheerleading, and horseback riding. At 13 years old, Zoe hit a major obstacle in life. Her father fell ill with a stroke and her parents filed for divorce. Her father moved back to Jamaica, leaving her mother to provide for her and her sister on only her income. For the first time in her life, Zoe felt insecure about her housing situation.
Zoe overcame that initial hurdle through the support of her mom and twin sister and graduated high school in 2004. Zoe continued to live life to the fullest. Around 18 years old, Zoe became exposed to the club scene and began to be recognized by other regular club-goers as a well-known dancer. “Dancing is my passion. My time at the clubs was the beginning of my journey of becoming an exotic dancer” Zoe recounted. In 2006, Zoe gained the opportunity to be a backup dancer for T-Pain and embarked on his three-month nationwide tour. After concluding the tour, Zoe began college in 2007. However, after a bit of trial and error, Zoe decided to drop out of college and follow her dreams of becoming a model. Zoe moved to Jamaica, lived temporarily in her parents’ home, and began to model there. She was featured on buses and billboards and also continued to dance full-time during the summers.
Life moved steadily forward for Zoe until 2014. At this time, Zoe’s parents’ home went into short sale and she had two weeks to pack everything they owned. This was the first time Zoe’s belongings were placed in storage, a cycle that would continue throughout the years. After placing her belongings in storage, she moved up to Wisconsin for work, where she lived in a woman’s basement with a few roommates and a couple of suitcases. Zoe began to do travel dancing full-time for several years, living in places such as Tampa, Guam, and Jamaica. During this time, Zoe’s belongings sat in storage as she didn’t have a permanent residence. Eventually, she moved to Florida and got an apartment with her boyfriend at the time but quickly found out he was cheating on her. She promptly ended the lease and moved her belongings to another storage unit in Tampa where she moved in with her sister.
In 2021, Zoe fell into another relationship with a man she had met in 2014. Zoe had the most successful eight months of her life as an exotic dancer. Because of this, the couple signed a lease together, packed up their possessions, and drove from Florida to Wisconsin. To celebrate new beginnings, the pair went out the night they moved into their new apartment. Horrifically, that night, Zoe’s boyfriend was murdered in front of her. Zoe ended her new lease five days later and drove back to Tampa, returned her baggage to storage, and moved back onto her sister’s sofa. Following her boyfriend’s murder, Zoe wasn’t able to work for two years and started to work with vocational rehab to help her secure a job for people with disabilities. She partook in this program for five months but unfortunately, it did not help her situation.
In November of 2021, Zoe began to post her journey on TikTok. “I was looking for other people who had gone through something similar to try and find some type of support, and I couldn’t find it,” Zoe claims. However, she does recount how she has received countless messages of support and how she has helped others. Being a model since 2012, Zoe was used to being in front of the camera. She liked creating a space where she could create something, talk about something she was going through, and get support for it and cited it helped her with her PTSD, fear, and trauma.
Fast forward to the summer of 2023, Zoe, her twin sister, and her niece moved into a three-bedroom apartment in Tampa, Florida where she lived for 10 months. During that time frame, Zoe began to date someone in February of 2024. Due to her lease ending soon, she decided to get an apartment with that person. She signed a lease on her birthday in June, but Zoe recalled the relationship to be “toxic, tumultuous, and unhealthy,” so she ended the lease the following month, leading her back to her sister's couch.
Her ex-boyfriend was an Uber Eats driver. His profession inspired her to become a DoorDash driver and, by August, Zoe worked 14-hour days as a DoorDash driver. By the first week of that September, “I was very burnt out and lost a lot of weight.” Zoe recalled. Zoe stayed up applying for jobs on Indeed for three years straight and had not heard back from any of them. Furthermore, vocational rehab still didn’t help her gain a job and, while she continued to make content, the most she had ever made from social media was $300.
In September of 2024, Zoe couldn’t find an apartment in Tampa, so she stayed with her mom in Maine to rebuild her life. While she was there, Zoe got back on TikTok Shop, receiving products and making content. However, she still wasn’t generating any income. “I started getting into a space of feeling very stagnant,” Zoe recalled. Her mom lived in a very rural town of about 100 people, “it didn’t fit my personality, but I didn’t want to go back to Tampa,” Zoe claimed. Consulting her sister for advice, Zoe decided to move out to California.
After living with her mom for five weeks and creating content, Zoe packed up her belongings once more, brought her dog, and booked a flight to San Diego where she stayed with a childhood family friend and a hotel. In San Diego, Zoe began to work as a DoorDash driver again. However, she wasn’t making nearly as much money as she did in Tampa. Refusing to give up her California dreams, Zoe relocated to LA to continue to work as a DoorDash driver and stayed with a photographer friend as she gained her footing. Zoe began to generate income in LA, and instead of returning to Maine, Zoe began to create a life for herself in LA. She continued to work and apply for jobs, primarily those related to content creation and TikTok.
When it was time for her and her dog to move out of her friend's place, she sought refuge in hotel rooms. Unfortunately, the cheapest hotels were equivalent to what she was making daily at DoorDash, leading to her spending the majority of that first month in LA sleeping in her car. “I felt like I couldn’t survive DoorDashing all day,” Zoe stated as she recounted her struggle. During this time, Zoe began to apply for jobs and finally began to get interviews. The day before she had an interview, Zoe would check into a hotel for two nights to clean up and film content.
In November of 2024, Zoe reached out on Facebook explaining her situation, and inquired about finding a place to shower. She was met with several responses and helpful advice. One response, in particular, was from a girl who offered Zoe clothes for her to wear for her job interviews as well as an invitation to film TikTok dances with her. Zoe accepted her kind offer and met the girl to hang out. Following their hang out, the girl offered Zoe her couch and for a week Zoe slept in this girl’s home. That same week, Zoe received a job interview and after years of hard work, Zoe received the job offer. Furthermore, Zoe’s newfound companion offered her a second bedroom for Zoe to stay in. Everything fell into place for Zoe that week - she started working and wasn’t living in her car anymore. Unfortunately, the girl unexpectedly kicked Zoe and her dog out of her home in the middle of the night, leaving Zoe back to square one. Ever since then, Zoe has been residing in an Airbnb, where she continues to work at her job and create TikTok content.
Zoe’s story is one of pure resilience and strength. If you are or know someone who is struggling with PTSD or traumatic experiences, Project WHY encourages you to contact The National Mental Health Hotline at 866-903-3787. To watch Zoe’s content or find ways to support her, click this link!
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This story was written by Project WHY's Journalism Intern, Mya Oro.
Zoe's story highlights the near impossibility of surviving (particularly in such an expensive city as LA) as an exotic dancer, food delivery driver, and Tik-Tok content provider. While it is wonderful that several people have reached out to offer her temporary help, of course this is no substitute for "a room of her own." Zoe seems like a talented young woman who is capable of developing more marketable skills that will provide her a steadier income and a more stable living environment. Our heart goes out to her & we wish her the very best of luck on her continuing journey towards independence.