Hi, we’re the Smiths and we are homeless right now. We all know that rent has gone up quite a bit in the past few years, but this last year pushed my family past our breaking point. I am disabled and last June, the state of Indiana changed the way they pay for people who care for disabled people who would prefer to stay in their homes rather than go into a nursing home. Because we are married, my husband no longer can be paid minimum wage to assist me with bathing, dressing, and administering my daily IV medication and fluids, as well as other things that I need help doing. Instead, he gets a paltry $50 daily for 10 hours of work, as well as being available any time day or night. He also works full-time as a pharmacy technician and has for 14 years. Due to the state’s decision to try to force me into a nursing home and away from my family who needs me despite my disability, or to hire a stranger to come into our home and perform these extremely personal tasks of bathing and dressing, our family lost regular income we had counted on to pay our rent. We all know rent has gone up in recent years, but would you want a stranger helping you to shower if you could not do it yourself? But now we are homeless, as the state has also deemed that we did not qualify for rental assistance either.

We have found an apartment that we can afford, but we are currently spending every dime we have coming on keeping a roof over our teen’s head (and ours), feeding ourselves, and getting my husband back and forth to work. We are fundraising to pay for move-in costs: a deposit and first/last month rent. Anything is appreciated, thank you in advance.