Kelly is a member of the Portland metro area's disabled community. She and her beloved dog HoneyBun have recently experienced a serious financial, medical, and housing crisis that is threatening Kelly’s very survival.

Kelly is unable to work due to having a degenerative spinal disease and having broken her neck twice; first during a violent physical attack as a teenager, then in a serious car accident as an adult. Kelly was recently informed by OHSU's spinal team that she needs urgent spinal surgery due to her broken cervical vertebrae compressing her spinal cord.

Kelly is also the survivor of lifelong familial and partner abuse. As the result of breaking her neck a second time and becoming unable to work, Kelly has been completely financially dependent on her mother. Her mother has become increasingly financially and emotionally abusive towards Kelly as her mental acuity has declined with age, and recently cut Kelly off financially with no warning or communication. This has left Kelly with no finances to pay rent, get groceries and toiletries, buy food and critical medications for her dog HoneyBun.

Kelly has been seeking financial support from SSDI, but has been denied several times. This is common for people with qualifying diagnoses, but in Kelly’s case she was only recently correctly diagnosed as a spinal injury patient, setting her SSDI application back to square one. Kelly is also actively pursuing emergency low-income housing, but due to Portland's housing crisis, the waitlist is months or years long.

If the above wasn't enough, Kelly is now facing eviction at the end of February. Her urgent spinal surgery is due to take place on February 20, 2025, but could be delayed indefinitely if Kelly does not find stable housing.

___ urgently needs to raise funds to retain her housing, and buy herself time to have her SSDI application re-filed and be placed in low-income or emergency housing. If she's unable to find housing beyond the next month, she will need to pay for movers, a storage unit, and a motel room.

Despite facing all of these stressors, Kelly was able to quit prescribed opiates for pain management cold turkey, enabling her to start healing her trauma for the first time in her life. Kelly has expressed the strong desire to provide peer support to other disabled people who are going through what she's going through. She deserves the chance to heal, especially as the beacon of kindness, positivity, and compassion she is.

But first, Kelly needs to get to the other side of this crisis, get her urgently needed spinal surgery, and get stable housing — for this, Kelly needs your help. Thank you so much.