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A Car - to Sleep In

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In less than a week, John will be homeless.
We’re trying to buy him a car - to live in - so his life doesn’t get worse.

A COUPLE YEARS AGO...
Janitor John moved to Phoenix with his roommate, a fellow military veteran. We’ll call the other guy “Buddy.” They had a hard time finding work, and it wasn’t long before their savings were exhausted. Not long after that, John had to sell his car to cover his half of the bills.

ABOUT 6 MONTHS AGO…
Buddy decided to look for work back in the Pacific Northwest and wouldn’t be renewing the lease on the apartment. He would simply live in his car for a little bit. Since John couldn’t afford the rent on his own on his part-time, janitor’s salary - and no longer had a way to get to said glorious job - he moved into the car with Buddy.

ABOUT 3 MONTHS AGO…
John let it slip to us that he and Buddy were living in a car. Everyone on the team here at the office was surprised. He’s always very neat, clean, and organized. With the cat out of the bag, we began to learn more about their situation in bits and pieces as our schedules overlapped with his.

THE DAILY ROUTINE
John wakes up in the morning, parked behind a grocery store (they’ve asked the manager’s permission), cleans up best he can (with wet naps), and walks over to Starbucks. They spend their days there sipping the cheapest coffee they can get, so they can be inside (where it’s warm), keep their phones charged, and look for jobs online.

Buddy drops John off around 6PM and then picks him back up around 1AM, after he’s emptied our trash, cleaned our toilets, and mopped our floors. It’s pretty much back and forth between the grocery store and work.

THE URGENCY
New year’s eve, I’m working late, and John tells me Buddy got a job offer in northern California, leaves in about a week, and told John he’s on his own. 

ISN’T THERE HELP FOR VETERANS, THOUGH?
Yes. If you can afford to wait.

He’s contacted the local VA. They told him to go to a homeless shelter, which would be fine, except it’s on the far side of town, you have to check in at 6AM to “get a bunk with the crazies,” as he puts it, and there’s no bus service available from work to the shelters when he gets off work at 1AM.

He’s contacted Wounded Warrior Project and Operation Homefront. Both have told him their #1 priority is wounded and recently returning combat veterans. John is adamant this SHOULD be their priority. Unfortunately, he’s been told it’s about a 2-3 year wait for help from them otherwise.

END OF THE LINE
Every idea we’ve come up with trying to help, he’s already tried. If any of us had a spare room and/or an old (running) beater we could just give him, we would. We hate the thought of this guy living in a car, but it sure beats “living” behind a dumpster - or in a shelter without even a part-time janitor job.

OUR HOPE
We’re trying to raise $1100 - pretty much in a weekend - so we can find a halfway decent car on Craigslist, make sure it will pass emissions, and surprise him with it.

Our hope is this will give him room to stretch out and get some sleep at night, have a little place in this world to keep what few things he still has left, and - perhaps most importantly - keep him earning that paycheck (while pursuing a bigger and intrinsically rewarding paycheck).

BUT WE NEED TO ACT FAST
I’m updating this description on Friday, January 2nd. Buddy is bailing “sometime around the 7th.” I really want to get everything in place before John finds himself standing next to a small pile of personal belongings in a grocery store parking lot with no way to get to work.

If you can help us put a couple bucks on the hood, or spread the word, we’d really appreciate it.

Thanks for reading the whole thing. Count your blessings.

Donations 

  • Matej Bella
    • $75 
    • 9 yrs

Organizer

Brian Driggs
Organizer
Scottsdale, AZ

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