Life-Saving Housing for Mark Volkoff

Life-Saving Housing For Mark Volkoff ~ newly diagnosed w/CKD4 in Whittier, CA. He's the lil blondie on left, nuzzling Pop, when we were children.

Wed 1/17/24

THE ASK AND WHO WE ARE

Hello, my name is Manya. With trepidation and great humility, I'm sending out this urgent fundraiser soley to help us keep our older brother Mark safely housed, while his kidneys threaten to approach failure stage (recent diagnosis), and while wading thru the layered journey of medical solutions.

This is most likely our only option to keep him housed for the next few months. If we can get to $1,000. w/in a few days, we can prevent eviction, get him thru a really big February.

Housing costs exceed our ability to keep him housed past Jan 31, 2024 on our incomes alone and out of state from Oregon. Mark is blessed with *wonderful* customers needing his expertise in computer repairs in and near Whittier, CA, and he gladly continues to provide this service by appointment, but *full time*, 8 (eight) hour work days are not quite feasible again just yet.

We are setting the ceiling of this ask, to a marginal $5,400. (includes a $200 rough guesstimate pad for GoFundMe fees) to help keep Mark housed for the next 5 (five) to 6 (six) months, while he / we support navigating his medical solutions and next steps. We anticipate this amount will also cover a *small* portion of essential services we simply cannot cover. I know, ...its a lot. Its so hard to ask for.

CURRENT HOUSING

Thankfully thus far, Mark has been blessed with safe and appropriate housing accomodations thru a private community living home, at roughly 20% - 40% of market rents, in California, the state he also has established medical insurance in.

If he had to leave those two *critical* blessings *now* (housing & medical), for non-payment, it would be catastrophic, both for him, and for our family who love him and continue to hope and pray for him to overcome these obtacles.

Any funds received will be used directly for housing and to help bridge gap for some of Mark's essential services.

ADVANCED KIDNEY DISEASE CHALLENGES & FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS SUMMARIZED

Nearing kidney failure can be dire; body systems can crash hard and fast without adequate treatment. At that point, transplantation, for example, can become less an option, if that's a direction a person seeks. Being housed VERY favorably tips the odds in Mark's favor, helping ensure treatments. This is great news!

Conversations surrounding dialysis and kidney transplant are ongoing; most importantly, Mark wants to live and learn to thrive. Either of these long term solutions take some time to successfully navigate and implement. Each body is unique.

Palliative care facilities can take years of waiting for openings, and referrals to palliative care for kidney disease are complicated, at best. We're not there, yet!

We await and track nephrology (kidney specialty) and any cardiology appointments and reports, best we can. And, we pray.

DONATE, AND WOULD YOU PRAY ?

No amount is too small, from the hands of a giving heart.

Even as we type this, we *know* there have been, and continue to be, so very many losses, trials and tribulations, in our immediate and extended families and communities around us. We see you. We pray unseen. Too, we know it is not always possible, to donate, for various reasons.

If you cannot, or, do not feel called to press donate, we ask instead for sincere prayer, to the Most High:  

For God's mercy and grace, for God to impart His strength and courage, for the kind of leading and Healing that helps one to receive the great Comfort, Hope and indwelling Love & Fortitude that comes only from above, makes ALL good things possible, and enables a person to thrive. We ask too, for ourselves, God's continued guidance, wisdom, strength, as we endeavor to assist.

We also ask God bless and guide the small housing center he is currently in, for their great mercy and grace thus far, and for the other men also residing there. They too, need all the love. To be housed, is to have hope.

*******

We will update this post, periodically. If you read this far,...thank you, God bless you. If you know our brother Mark Volkoff, we've chosen ***not*** to show him this ask, until we've hopefully raised funds to meet some need. Thank you for honoring this (but understandable if tricky), for the moment. The highs and lows can be brutal w/CKD (kidney disease), and he is facing homelessness Jan 31st, unless this works.