Hello to anyone taking time out of their day to read my story. My name is Jeffrey Ver Planck, I’m 34, and I struggle deeply with mental illness. I became homeless on August 27th due to a summer of mainly being unable to work from evolving mental illness and several hospitalizations. Close friends have helped dramatically in allowing me to store some incredibly precious items with them as I go through this next chapter in life, but everything else in my apartment has been lost. I am currently staying with a friend for a short stay with a bag constraining one change of clothes and my phone charger. I am incredibly grateful that I’ve been able to stay with my friend but I fear this arrangement won’t last long as I try to enter a stabilization program. I am trying daily, by the hour, to enter a program called a clinical stabilization service, which will then help me find placement in a more permanent residential program. I have my sights set on a halfway house in MA called North Cottage, but I am ready for any placement I can find once the space is open. I currently have zero dollars to my name, and I am in the process of restarting my EBT benefits for food, which were shut off in July. Today, I am publishing a go fund me page to help with the initial rent for a halfway or group home. As I begin to rebuild life from the ground up. I have never felt so locationless in my entire life.  Today, I am asking for your help to keep my phone connected to the network in order to make the constant stream of calls I’ve been making to programs for people finding themselves in this situation. I am asking for your help for the first few weeks of rent in a treatment setting that I and others believe will be truly helpful. I am asking for your help so that I will be able to function on the street and take care of myself if I suddenly need to move from my very temporary living situation. Please let me know if you have any questions and if there’s any information I should include in my explanation of what’s going on. Transparency is absolutely key to convey the weight of what’s going on here. I am the most scared and lost I’ve ever been in my life. Thank you for your time and support, -Jeffrey Ver Planck

Homelessness and Mental Illness: I Need Your Help.

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