Dear Reader,
If you’ve seen the recent news coverage about the housing crisis, you’re no doubt as horrified as I am. Skyrocketing rental prices, houses renting within seconds of being listed sight unseen, houses in the worst condition being thrown on the market so the owners can pocket fast cash, and the list goes on. Now, I’d like you to picture a person whom you love more than anything in the world and that is the person in need of immediate housing in this crisis. There is a caveat though, we have to add in a variable and that is your beloved is 75 years old & very sick on Hospice care nearing the end stages of life. THAT is the person being forced out, their landlord has issued a non-renewal of lease with NO given reason. They have to find affordable & safe housing in this cutthroat market. Not only do they have to find it, but they also have to pack contents that span 75 years, move it, unpack it, and start over in a new place. Did I say all within less than 15 days? YES! That IS truly unfathomable and impossible to imagine but the person facing eviction and homelessness for me is my mom, Sue. That is exactly where we are and I am in dire need of support to make sure the moving portion of that scenario isn’t hers. With the clock running out, we need to hire a lawyer to fight this non-renewal so I am asking, begging for your support.
I know this is quite lengthy but please take a moment to read on. I’d like to explain a little about my mom and her health. You will see that it is insane for a landlord who knows everything about my mom’s health to issue such a thing. My mom has never missed a single rent payment. She is the ideal renter!
We have until June 1st to be out of her townhome and my husband and I just found out 5 days ago on May 13th. My mom has memory loss and kept forgetting to show me the letter. My mom is physically & mentally disabled. She has successfully lived in this unit since 2017 with my husband and I caring for her if the need should arise. Following a 44-day battle with COVID in September 2022, (in which she miraculously recovered) she was transferred from hospital to rehab, and the staff pressed her to take a shower. She told them she was exhausted and was having a hard time breathing. They told her that was a lingering effect of covid and the fact she has COPD and emphysema. Mom was on 3l of O2 -24/7 on a good day, she was bumped to 6l and has remained. She’s not one to argue so she showered and had to call for help as she was very woozy. Her oxygen levels had dropped to the low 60s and remained there for almost 45 minutes while the nurses at rehab tried to raise her levels. Ultimately EMS was called as they were unable to get her above 70. In the 45 minutes of having damagingly low O2 levels, she suffered what is referred to as an Acute Traumatic Brain injury and she remained hospitalized for 2 additional weeks.
Once stabilized and ready for dismissal her doctors decided she was no longer able to care for herself and suggested mom be placed in a nursing home for around-the-clock care. That was mom’s worst nightmare and it had come to fruition sooner than any of us ever expected. Mom was devastated, we were devastated, and I couldn’t do it. They refused to release her and made me sign an AMA (against medical advice) waiver to leave. I promised she would not be alone and that I would find a live-in caretaker. I panicked knowing that could be problematic given her home’s current LIHTC status. The hospital signed a medical affidavit for live-in caregiving ME the right to be her live-in so we didn’t have to worry about breaking her lease agreement in regards to income requirements. Long story short my husband and I decided to move in with her and be her caretakers. I need to add that we are not paid or given any type of compensation for doing this. We love her.
Sadly the mother I see before me is a shell of her former self. Her short-term memory is non-existent, she does not remember what she is doing from the beginning of a sentence to the end. She will start making lunch and simply walk away as she is forgotten what she is doing and seeing the food in front of her does not spark memory, instead instills confusion and stress. She has to relive the horror of being told that they’ve issued her a non-renewal on her lease every time we speak of it. I can’t put into words how astronomically sad this is to witness. I don’t believe she could physically or mentally survive this move.
My husband ended up losing his job due to the amount of care my mom needed which has been catastrophic for us. Not only my mom faces eviction but so do we. We also face losing our single vehicle, our accumulation of personal items from our 25 years of marriage that is now reduced to 2 storage units. The only way to pay for help is to sell everything we have and hope we can do it fast enough. (We have started selling) My husband and I already lost our home of 15 years to foreclosure during COVID.
Please, I implore you. If you can gift even one dollar it will help. We are hoping to cover all expense which is $1670 USD
Thank you for your time and God Bless you.
https://www.paypal.me/Jensigg