There is a homeless man named Tracey and his cat, Patches, living in a tent behind our house. They are on park land, just on the other side of our back fence.  They’ve been there for months. Tracey, 59, has been approved for city-paid housing, but month after month has gone by, and nothing has happened. Meanwhile they are enduring severe cold, torrential rain, and lots of mud. And for Tracey, the indignity of having no running water, no toilet, no lights. I can’t stand by and do nothing anymore, but I can't fix this problem myself.  I’m hoping you will help me help them. The last straw was yesterday when a city work crew came through and gave Tracey one hour to remove all his possessions from park land, including his tent, or they would be throwing it all away. It took getting the police involved (they were wonderful!) to get the crew to stand down. Had we not intervened, Tracey and Patches would have lost everything and had no shelter from the very cold temperatures last night. Please know that Tracey has been diligently doing everything asked of him to get housing. He has filled out numerous applications and checks in with his counsellor every day, yet no housing has come through. I am in touch regularly with his counsellor, too, but there simply is no housing available. Tracey gets a small disability check each month through social security because of a severe asthmatic condition, but it’s not nearly enough to afford a place to live. If he had a home where he could plug in his breathing machine, he could probably get himself stabilized enough to take on a small, part-time job. Given his living conditions now, that’s impossible. I want to raise enough money to pay for an apartment for Tracey and Patches for at least two years. Tracey needs to be near public transportation so he can get to a job. Around here -- in-town Atlanta -- that means about $1,250 a month for a studio or a one-bedroom apartment. He should be able to afford to pay his own utilities out of his disability check. $1250 x 24 months equals $30,000. That’s where my goal comes from. Of course I will stretch the dollars raised as far as I can. Any money received will be used exclusively on housing for Tracey and Patches. If we raise enough, I could also look into buying a place for them so they would never be homeless again. THAT would be amazing! For those of you concerned about Patches, she is a very friendly, sweet cat. She comes trotting out of the tent whenever anyone comes by to visit. Tracey asked me to take her to the vet recently for her rabies shot, and my vet said she was obviously being well cared for. I am adamant that any housing solution for Tracey has to include Patches.  I believe she is why he has been able to hang on this long. We can’t solve Atlanta’s homeless problem, but together we could get one man and his cat off the streets. Join me?

Anonymous

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A Home for Tracey and Patches

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