Hi all! This is Jasmine, Erika, and Katie. We are raising funds for our friend Chloe who is going to be staying in Portland for the next 6 months to receive specialized medical care. She needs this care to avoid an even more costly surgery and needs to receive it in Portland for both specialist and insurance reasons.

Chloe was recently approved to start receiving SSI but around a month ago received a message that the application was denied because her disability might be caused by "gender dysphoria" rather than autism. Obviously this is ridiculous and we are fighting this decision but will still have a few months gap when she won't be able to afford rent. Her disability lawyer said that this was almost unheard of and could be a result of meddling by the current administration.

In short, she had her disability taken away because she is trans.

So now we are scrambling to meet the gap in monthly expenses for the next 6 months while she has to be in Portland to receive specialized medical care. We'll need to pay for a place for her and a caretaker to stay until this winter. This caretaker is another friend of ours who will be taking care of her full-time for free.

Chloe is physically disabled from a terrible experience she had last year. Her options are to either get specialized therapy from a provider here in Portland or get surgery. Without SSI she would not be able to stay here to receive that care.

The good news is that if we can just raise this money she'll be ok! The other good news is that she may be able to finish the treatments early so truly anything helps. The goal is for a worst case scenario where we don't get any SSI until winter. Regardless, we will definitely need to cover the next 3 months.

Thanks everyone! This little mutual-aid network of friends and found-family is grateful for any contribution you can spare.