Hello.

My name is Ryan Dale. I am 44 and homeless for the first time since I was a child. I am living in Union Rescue Mission, a homeless shelter in downtown LA on Skid Row. The first month is free, but then rent becomes $150 per month, and I still have no income or GR or SSI disability. I am working on that every day now.

What went down:

In May, I had a freak accident outside of my dad’s apartment where I severely rolled my right ankle off a curb, shattered it, and fell, tearing my right rotator cuff and breaking my right scapula in the process. I was in UCI Medical Hospital in Orange recovering for the next two weeks. Then, I was moved to Encompass recuperative care for three months and then private housing owned by Encompass as well. Unfortunately, due to the constraints on Medi-Cal insurance now, there is a 6-month limit to a stay at one facility per year. So, on the 14th of November, they kicked me out and forced me into the homeless shelter where I currently find myself now.

So, in summation, I broke my ankle, tore my rotator, and broke my scapula all in one fell swoop, almost 7 months ago now. I was in a cast, bedridden for weeks, then slowly learned to get around in the wheelchair for the next 3 months. I was unable to put any weight on that foot that whole time. I was also not allowed to use my right arm for support either. Basically, the entire right side of my body was useless for months, but now I am back in outpatient physical therapy every Wednesday morning to work on building strength in my shoulder and ankle and slowly starting to learn to walk again with the help of a cane, limping along the way to a full recovery.

Please help me get some finances together to help replace clothing and supplies lost in the latest move to the shelter.

I find myself back in the wheelchair split half the time crutches. The cane was too much strain on my foot and I spent the weekend in bed and the whole day jn the hospital yesterday. The good news js there are no new breaks. The bad news is they don’t want me on my feet as much and PT is going on pause again. At least for my foot.

My financial problems continue as my General Relied thru California is still pending after being denied once already. I have spent countless hours on the phone and in person with them trying to work this out and with the holidays it has just continued to drag on. I was supposed to know in a month. 2 days will be when I know for sure if I have to appeal and reapply for that again.

Also, I was counting on SSI back pay to come thru by now and that application was officially denied on the 19th. Everyone involved basically says you usually get denied at least once. With the state of this country I am not holding my breath but I still have hope. That’s about all I have left. It’s still expensive being homeless. Eating out anytime is insane.

That said, I am really trying to put together some money to keep going, replace art supplies and pay for this TEFL course I want to take so that I can teach english online and eventually abroad. Also hoping to learn other languages especially spanish. I would love to get the rosetta stone so that I can get thru it faster. My goal is to be able to help others in this similar predicament when all is said and done.

Anything and everything helps. Thank you so much. Bless up.

NO BAD DAYS.