Saving Chloë: A Life Renewed

Welcome. We are Susan and Eric Nelson, both alums of Pacific Lutheran University, and both professors who have taught in several programs there.  We have experienced many personal challenges over the years, but thanks to the love and support of an incredible community of family, friends, and former students, we have persevered through them.

Now, we are urgently seeking housing assistance for a former student and dear friend, Chloë Rose, who has been turned out of her home. Chloë is a gifted poet, writer, polyglot, and artist. She is also intersex and gravely disabled. Her medical conditions would make homelessness deadly, and she will lose her state caregiver and nurse if she loses shelter. Chloë already has some assistance for food and necessities, but she does not have any funds for the shelter that she desperately needs in order to stay alive.

Chloë is awaiting a SSI hearing in June, which should provide her with some disability income to help pay for her own or shared accommodations, but that income may not start for several months. She also awaits an approved life-saving bariatric surgery in September. These changes will set her on the path to better health and, eventually, independence. But in the meantime, she needs help.

We have exhausted all other available options for finding Chloë housing.* She cannot qualify for subsidized housing (with a 2-7 year waiting list) without being in a shelter, but she cannot get into a shelter without a 6-8 month “history of homelessness” on the street. In addition, the shelters, shared housing organizations, and other crisis houses in Pierce County (she must remain in Pierce County to retain her caregiver) have indicated that they cannot accommodate her daily physical and medical needs or her caregivers. In other words, this life-threatening situation can only be addressed in the short to medium term through the support and generosity of an extended community of friends, church, alumni, and concerned others.

Our goal is to  raise enough funds to provide Chloë with at least a full three months of housing, and as much additional help towards housing as possible until she recovers from life-saving surgery.

Estimated costs** for 3 months (CAMPAIGN GOAL):

3 mos Rent @ $750             $2,250
Deposit                                           $  750
Utilities                                           $  200
Phone                                              $    50
Internet                                          $    30
Total housing                              $3,280
GoFundMe Fees                        $470
CAMPAIGN GOAL                  $3750


Ongoing Monthly housing (STRETCH GOALS):

Rent                                            $750
Utilities                                      $200
Phone                                         $120
Internet                                      $  30
Total                                           $1100

 
*If you do have a possible housing option, please let us know. There are, however, some limitations. There can’t be more than 2-8 stairs. There has to be a private space with room for a bed. There has to be access to a bathroom and to a kitchen. And it has to be okay for Chloë’s caregivers to fix her food and tend to her in her living space.

**Estimates come from a survey of available studio or 1-bedroom apartments in Pierce County.  If we can secure housing for less than estimated, the balance will be applied to the stretch goal of extending the time of Chloë's support.

 Chloë’s Personal Statement

I am done with the lie that I can make nothing of my life because I am disabled.

Thanks to the guidance and encouragement of my mentors and friends, and the companionship of my fellow students and artists, I resolved to renew my  life: to begin my studies again, to begin writing again, and to restart the projects that I had once set aside. And, as I finally started to receive the medical and psychological help that I needed, I began to become me again.

Then I was made homeless.

I have gained some important resources to become independently healthy: a medical provider, home caregiver, wound care nurse, therapist, and a small monthly stipend ($386) for food and living. And sometime in the fall, I will have Stage 2 Gastric Bypass Surgery, which will help me, at last, to achieve the dramatic weight loss I need to live.

I want to live. 

At this stage, however, I cannot do it on my own, even with the resources that I now have. I also need housing--and all that entails--just to keep them. I have already been classified as gravely disabled, but gaining access to Social Security assistance is a lengthy process (I am in year 3, with 9-12 months left until I might see any income). Until that time, I have no way to pay for any housing, and I have been told by my case managers, and by every agency to which I have turned, that no housing options exist for me other than finding a place on my own, or living on the street for months. 

This is why I need this GoFundMe. This is why I need you.

I am starting from scratch. My mentors and friends established this campaign to fund my immediate and basic housing needs through my surgery, and two of them, Susan and Eric Nelson, will administer funds on my behalf. I'm writing to you, a potential donor, to join them right now in helping me to help myself to heal and to live. I am ready to begin to live for myself, for the God I love, and for my capacity for good. But I have no home, and no one other than them, and you, to turn to for one.

Please help me make my dreams a reality. I am working daily to heal, to lose weight and keep it off for good, and to become as independent as I can. With help from my friends, provider, therapist, case worker—and you—I plan to become independent and healthy enough to complete a Masters in Creative Writing. It will not be easy, I know, but I want to begin, once again, to contribute something back to the world and to those who have supported me through so much and for so long. 20 days ago this felt like an impossible dream. Now I feel that I can find my way. But I need—somewhere and somehow—a safe and secure place from which to begin.

Will you help me?

In Love and in Solidarity,

C.