Help One Dying Veteran Have a Home
My name is Miki Odendahl, and I'm the co-director of the Gilbert House Catholic Worker Community in Western Wisconsin. That sounds like something, but really, it's just me and my best friends, with a phone line and big mouths doing what we can to serve our local area in whatever ways we are able. This past summer, one of my childhood besties contacted me about a man living in my area who needed help, and asked if I would make contact with him. The man's name is Clarence Rice, he's a 43-year-old veteran of the U.S. Army Airborne, he has stage 4 kidney disease, he's homeless, and he's dying.
This past summer, Clarence lost his apartment, whilst he was in the hospital recovering from a shattered knee injury, because his landlord was jacking up the rent. Bad news, because Clarence has been very sick, receiving kidney dialysis 3 days a week at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Since July I've been trying to find affordable housing for this homeless U.S. Veteran with little success. I have talked to multiple people in the mayor's office of the City of Chippewa, I have called every single number on every single housing list I could get my hands on in three counties, I have connected with every appropriate agency and veterans group, and I have talked to every damned politician's office in my district--most notably, Senator Ron Kind's office multiple times--on Clarence's behalf, and still, here we are 8 months after my husband and I put all of Clarence's worldly belongings in a storage locker, and he is exhausted and surfing sofas with family and friends who are bending their own rental agreements to keep him out of the cold. The long and the short of it is this:
He's dying, slowly but surely, and at the end of this month he will have worn out his welcome with all of those who can help him stay close to his hospital and his two young children. Unless a gork comes through the door with a kidney and he's tenth or higher on the transplant list, that's not going to change...and the waiting list for affordable indigent veteran's housing in Chippewa, Eau Claire and Dunn Counties is 18 - 24 months long. He hasn't got that long. He makes $700 a month getting permanent disability payments. Total. That's the thanks a sick serviceman gets from the country he served these days.
I am collecting donations so that I can get this PUBLIC SERVANT into a freaking bed of his own for the next year whilst we find a permanent solution to the fix he's in. No one knows what caused the kidney disease that has ravaged his body for years, but this is clear: I have come to know this man well. He's good people. All he wants in this world is to feel loved, to make sure he spends as much time as he can with his son and his daughter before time runs out, and to not live under a mountain of stress, pain and worry. I need total pledges of at least $300 to $400 a month above his income to cover rent overage and utilities. I can arrange to get a rep payee through the county if I need to to ensure that the money goes where it's supposed to, I just need to find him a decent place to live that's close to his kids and within 20 minutes of Sacred Heart Medical Center so he doesn't die in a ditch or on someone's sofa.
I hear many people talk about dying with dignity. This man served his country with humility and honour, and I want him to be able to live out the remainder of his young days with the dignity due a man of his station. He served or nation without expectation of anything in return, and now I want him to experience the gratitude he deserves.
PLEASE HELP ME TO FIND CLARENCE RICE A FINAL HOME.
