My friend Claire is a professional driver. She is one of the hardest working people I know. Over the years she has driven all kinds of vehicles for all kinds of jobs, from Fed Ex delivery trucks to charter buses, overnight delivery, and agricultural trucks.

These days she makes her living as a rideshare driver using her personal vehicle, working for one of the big corporations that so many folks like her drive for these days.

While taking a break between runs in late October of 2024 she was violently assaulted by a stranger. This person blinded her with a high intensity strobe light while using a bicycle as a weapon to batter her, injuring her head, neck, arms, hands, eyesight and face. She fought them off but was left with a broken wrist and a severely dislocated finger on her left hand, and significant soft tissue trauma to both hands, among other injuries.

The hand injuries in particular have been very debilitating and slow to fully heal, and she may never regain full use and range of motion in her hands. This hits her especially hard because of her fine detail skills in jewelry repair and electronics assembly, both of which were backup careers.

Claire was already partially disabled before this attack. Despite all of this, she continues to work, but between the recovery time required to heal as best she could, and the ongoing disability inflicted by these lasting injuries, she has been unable to work full time since the assault.

As a result she got behind on bills, and in particular she has been perpetually a month behind on rent since November. Her landlord is threatening to not renew her lease after this August, and she is in danger of being evicted. At this point, she has healed enough and is able to cover her monthly bills, but is still running a full month behind on rent. Additionally, her landlord is requiring her to pony up her August rent before August 1st, so she must pay two months' rent by July 30th to be allowed to re-sign her lease (there's a 5-7 day delay for gofundme to process the daily funds, so that is scary as well).

She has been in her current place for 4 years, and at $1,250/mo. it is an affordable option that is hard to find in Gainesville these days. She has no way to move, nowhere to go, has run out of credit options for loans, and makes just enough money to not qualify for assistance, because she still works as hard as she is able.

Claire has filed a victim's compensation claim with the state of Florida, but the wheels of bureaucracy turn very slowly in such cases, and there is no guarantee that she will actually receive any funds.

Please help me to help my hardworking friend get over this major financial obstacle and remain as secure as possible in her housing. Our goal of $2,500 for this fundraiser will enable her to catch up on rent and continue to live in her current apartment. Any extra received will go towards chiropractic and other treatments that she has so far been unable to afford for her injuries.