Help A Disabled Person Not Be Homeless This Xmas

Hi. My name is Erin and I'm organizing this fundraiser for an individual living in South Dakota.

This fundraiser is aimed at helping a disabled Indigenous person in South Dakota.

A government judge, not a nurse, not a Physician’s Assistant, not a Doctor, but a judge, has somehow "determined" (as they are wont to do) that Joey is somehow "not disabled".

Joey is physically disabled, autistic, and has other mental and memory issues. These things, in addition to the fact that they just had back surgery a month or so ago, are things that prevent them from working at all. This is a 100% nonsense decision from a judge who has no knowledge at all about medical care and, frankly, given the decision in this case, none about disability, either.

They had widow’s benefits from Social Security but since the kids are grown, those benefits have ended.

Setting that judge’s garbage aside, it means that:

1. they get no more income.

2. Because they are "not disabled", they are therefore supposedly able to work.

3. Because they are "supposedly able to work" and are not, in fact, working (because, despite the judge's ruling, they actually ARE disabled), they’ve been cut off from EBT/food stamps.

4. Because they don’t have the income, they are behind on utilities, mortgage, and their supply of food is dwindling.

The full amount is needed but is not the absolute necessity right now. That includes mortgage payments on the house.

The immediate necessity is $3,500. That will pay a plumbing bill for a plumbing accident that cost more because it was "after hours", food, utilities, medical bills, and a leg up on the rest.

They also need help sustaining paying bills while they appeal this frankly egregious and ignorant decision.

If you can donate, please do so, and share. Even if you can’t donate, or can’t donate right now, this fundraiser will be open for some time to help get Joey back on their feet.

The following is a story I wrote to help illustrate the plight of the homeless in general and what Joey is facing, if they don't get the help they desperately need.

"The Land of the Free

White blanket on the ground, pretty as a Hallmark card. To some.

She trod along the sidewalk, sign hung around her neck, old hat in hand upside down. Occasionally someone would drop in a few coins or maybe a dollar or two. Never enough, really, to do anything but exist, day by day.

She had a life once. Husband, kids. All that was gone. This was her life, this pattern, this walking the block around the alley that was her home. She couldn’t go far because someone else could take the spot. She was much older now, not able to fight anyone off.

The winter light started to fade, as she did a couple more circuits, then finally ended up in the alley. Reeking garbage strewn everywhere, covered in snow. The dumpster that was part of her refuge was full of trash. She’d have to hide her stuff tomorrow, under the snow, in the corner of the alley where the restaurant workers didn’t bother to look. They’d come out every day and throw half-empty cans and bags of garbage in the dumpster. That was how she managed to stay alive. She assumed a lot of the food went into the garbage disposal inside, food that she would have been willing to eat.

Most of it didn’t get into the dumpster but what did, she could scrabble through. An occasional half loaf of bread with just a little mold on it, sometimes a plastic bottle with a little juice in the bottom. Once she’d even gotten half a sub sandwich that was thrown out for some reason.

Nothing today, though. Nothing edible, even for her.

She pushed the garbage around one end of the dumpster, to make a sort of low wall. It and the metal helped block the wind.

Her secret, the one she managed to keep by piling a lot of trash on it so that it wasn’t noticeable, was that right behind it, embedded into the pavement of the alley, was a sewer grate, a couple of feet across. The city kept just enough heat in the sewer tunnels in the winter so that the workers could work down there. The grates around the neighborhood put out just enough heat that it was possible, with layers of clothing or trash or whatever, to not quite freeze to death. Sometimes, though, she had to keep walking, keep going around the block. Because on holidays, the city would turn the heat down low to save money, and it just wasn’t enough.

The effort to clear out the space made her cough again, bad enough to bring up fluid. She spat it at the dumpster and saw red. Not the first time.

Taking a break, she finally managed to lay down on the grate, pull a couple of layers of flattened cardboard boxes over her thin body, enough to help hold the heat in a little better, something she’d learned from someone else when she first got on the streets.

The light almost completely faded, she curled up into a ball. She was so used to the smell coming from the grate that she barely noticed it now. She’d have to hide her stuff again, tomorrow morning. It was garbage day and they’d throw all of it out for sure.

She drifted off to sleep.

Silent as the sky it came from, the snow began to fall."