Help Us Get Back in a Home!

hi family and friends,

I am writing you because we are at the end of our rope; we lost our home last October; it was an old house, so it needed lots of repairs like roof, foundation and more. (More about that below) I had been expecting that, after I graduated from MSU in December 2009, I would get a job that would allow us more leeway to get things done that were needed. Unfortunately, just before I got a job in August 2010, I had a heart attack that showed I needed surgery, so I couldn’t work before the surgery. Then after my open heart surgery in August 2011, I was told I was not able to work anymore; this put all the financial pressure on Lisa until I got my Social Security Disability in October 2012. This set us back a good ways, so it took awhile to start getting our head above water, which we almost had if it weren’t for the house repairs.

Then Spring 2014, things got worse: May 19th, 2014 was the last time Lisa worked; the university let her go because they deleted the class she taught, CIS 101, which was a basic "How to use the programs on the computer/computer literacy" class. She had been told the university would hire her back for a new class, but then the Department Head forgot his promise, so she was out of a job. Not that I’m even sure she would have been able to do the job because of her increasing health problems. At first during Spring 2014, Lisa was using a cane, and then two canes to walk. That changed after Easter weekend; her RA flared up big time, after which she was using my walker. At the end of the semester, I had to buy her a wheelchair; during those last couple of weeks she was finishing up the semester, she got to where she could not walk. It was all she could do to make it to the bathroom, or just barely out to the car. Now living here in the motel she has trouble getting to the bathroom, hasn’t been outside. She has also has fallen a lot, including tonight again. Once we get out of this situation, she will be going to the doctor to see what can be done; at a minimum she will apply for Social Security Disability.

This was the final straw as far as our house was concerned. Due to the house needing so much work so badly, and since we only had my SSDI as an income, we could barely keep our bills paid and not much else. So the owners took the house back officially on October 3rd, 2014 because we couldn’t make the necessary repairs on the house, and that broke our contract with them. Since then we have lived here at Fairvue Studios (Fairvue Motel). I have gotten temporary assistance a few times with local organizations , including VA assistance; they will only help a few times and that is all. As far as enough assistance to fully get into more permanent housing, we don’t fit in the programs available: we don’t have kids under 18, we aren’t drug addicts or alcoholics, we have shelter and aren’t living on the street, and we aren’t over 60 years old. There is one program we do qualify for, but it has