A single mother of three children shared in a viral TikTok that they were kicked out of the homeless shelter due to a rise in COVID-19 cases. Her first video received over 1.2 million views and an outpouring of support.
“Homeless Shelter Kicked Us Out N Now We On McDonald’s Floor Outside,” user @dsdt__draco wrote on the TikTok, shared on Dec. 27. The video shows her three children sleeping on the ground.
While comments on the user’s videos are now turned off, she made several follow-up videos responding to the criticism as well as the support she received.
“For the people that say I need to give my kids away because I’m in a tight spot and shit like this, little do y’all know, my kids done been through way worse with me, and we always manage to bounce back. But that’s only cause God always had my back,” she says in her second video.
She also explained why her family was kicked out of the shelter.
“People in the homeless shelter started getting COVID. So while they’re getting COVID, they’re putting people in rooms, separating people, and it just so happens I was one of the last people to get separated and there was no room available for me. So we had to go,” she says.
She assured viewers that her kids are bathed and fed, and in the video, she took them to the park to play. However, the woman was adamant about not taking any money from supportive viewers.
“Once again, I do want to say thank you everybody for the positivity,” she says. “I love the positivity. I don’t want y’all money. I don’t want no handouts, none of that. Anything y’all could give me, God can give me 10 times more. I do appreciate it and I will appreciate anything, but I don’t want it.”
She insists that she wants to work for it all.
“I’m not the type of person to just take from people,” she says. “I’m gonna get it. Because I feel like if you can get it, I can get it myself.”
One comment asked how she became unhoused, so she responded with her story.
She explains that used to live in North Carolina, but mold in her home sickened her youngest child. She says he was hospitalized for three weeks. Because of the financial impact of those bills, they had to move back to Florida to live with her mother.
While she found a job there, she says that she had to put her children in daycare so she could go to work, and it cost $500 per week. Her mother soon kicked her out as the woman’s brother was returning from the Navy and needed a place to stay, she explains.
In her most recent TikTok, shared late Monday evening, the user expresses her gratitude for the support she received from viewers.
“I never had nobody support me like y’all supporting me, and it’s crazy cause y’all are fucking strangers,” she says. “And my family won’t do the bare minimum. All my family tell me is, ‘give your babies up, just give them to somebody else and do it by yourself. Struggle by yourself.’”
Almost in tears, she shares her desire to protect her children regardless of their circumstances.
“But I can’t do that,” she insists. “I’m not going to let my babies down. I’m not. And God is just testing me. He’s not going to give me kids and then put me through these tests if I wasn’t built for it. I’m built for this shit.”
She thanks fellow TikTokers for sending positive thoughts and prayers her way.
“I’m so appreciative, and I hope that God bless everyone one of y’all that blessed me and my kids,” she says.
The Daily Dot was unable to contact user @dsdt__draco for comment.
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