After living in my van for the past five years, I found out in mid-February that I was next in line for a low-income apartment in a seniors building. The move-in date is March 13 (coincidentally on my 70th birthday), which is a really fast turnaround — I only got approved for the wait list on November 1, and waiting a year or more for a vacancy is pretty common.

While the rent is steeply reduced from market value, it is still more than $500/month, and my monthly Social Security payment is not enough to cover the new rent in addition to my basic living expenses [listed at the end]. Adding to the pile-on, in October I started a new medication with a co-pay of $400/month, which has been coming straight out of my very small savings account.

Without financial help, my choices are grim. If I move into the apartment, I will have to discontinue the medication and by October I will have drained my savings account. And then I will have to head back to the van.

So the goal of this GoFundMe is to raise $12,500* — a little more than $1,000 a month — which is enough to cover both the new rent and the new medication for the next 12 months.

*Your responses have been so generous and enthusiastic -- donations surpassed my original $12,500 goal in less than two days! -- that I was advised by many donors to increase the goal, and give myself more room to breathe. I did so, and you continue to amaze me with your support. Thank you all so much!

I do not want to pass up this apartment. I would really like to live with plumbing once again — a toilet that flushes, a water supply that is not refilled with a garden hose, and a drainage system that is not a jug under the sink.

And I desperately need to buy some time, to figure out if there is a future for me where I don’t have to make these extremely humbling pleas for money from friends and acquaintances.

So if you are able, please help me make it through this transition. Thanks very much in advance for anything you can give.

With gratitude,

Denise Caruso

Basic expenses include groceries, several medical insurance policies, Rx co-pays, phone and utilities, vehicle insurance, food and medicine for my dog.