Lost my job to AI - help me keep my home and cats

I'm Carmen, a writer and editor from Cape Town who lost her job to AI. 

On the last day of July, the day before my first work anniversary as a content editor for an American company, I was told that I no longer had a job because a Claude skill had been developed to “do 70% of the editing work, so there is simply no work for you to do.”

I was not given any warning; no effort was made to find me another position within the company, and I did not have time to find a new job. I was left devastated. 

I was widowed in 2024, and during that relationship, my partner Rudy and I incurred a lot of debt, which I was left to pay off by myself after he died. I have steadily been paying off my debt over the last year, but unfortunately had nothing left over to save, so I have no cushion to fall back on while I try to find clients for freelance work. 

The company that fired me has still not given me my severance pay, and I have been unable to pay my rent this month. My landlord is understanding of my situation, but I can only test his patience so much. ...