Hello friends.

Happy Veterans Day! I hope you're doing well. I've resisted creating this page as long as possible, out of my own pride and stubbornness in not wanting to ask for help, but time and circumstance have finally necessitated it after yet another round of unsuccessful job applications.

My ask is this: I need to raise two months' worth of rent to keep my present apartment. My rent is $1250 per month, so I'm trying to raise $2500 in total to give myself a much-needed cushion while actively job-hunting.

How did I get here? It's a very long story but the bottom line is that I have paid over $10,000 of my own savings over the past 18 months for my Mom's emergency care, housing, and medical bills. She had a very bad fall in May of 2024 and has been in some form of full-time clinical care setting (in four different facilities) since then. She is now finally safe in a longer-term facility where she is able to stay, but it took a lot of compressed research, coordination, and payments to get it finalized.

One thing we have learned the hard way is that, when one is no longer able to live independently in the U.S. and requires long-term care, it's not an automatic process. If you cannot afford to pay everything out of pocket (or you don't have long-term care insurance), you need to spend down all your assets and sign over any pension, Social Security, and so on, to qualify for Medicaid at the institution that is taking care of you. Every month, ALL your pension and SS payments go directly to the

facility, in exchange for your reduced billing rate. Your existing bills keep coming in (which you still have to pay in full) but you no longer have your previous sources of income, which is a real Catch-22. It's a terrible situation to be in, which I would not wish on anyone.

Due to the time and extreme strain on my physical/mental energy in being Mom's primary caregiver and financial/legal advocate since May of 2024, I have been unable to continue working full-time as a result. It's been over six months since I had to leave my last position, and only now have I gotten to a point where things are stable enough with her situation (and mine) for me to pivot back to my own full-time job hunt. I've been relying on my own personal savings since then, which has been unfortunately depleted by having to pay so many of both her and my bills each and every month for the past year and a half.

I've also been working with a therapist (thankfully paid for by the VA) and a career counselor (also paid for, by Virginia Veterans Services) on getting my own life and career back on track, which has been extremely helpful. In helping my Mom out with everything (which I don't regret doing), I had to put myself and my own well-being fully on the back-burner for nearly two years.

I'm now in the process of applying full-time to hundreds of different positions, actively networking at various DC events, and trying to leverage my own experience in the public and private sectors. It's definitely not the most auspicious time to be job hunting in the DC area, given all the drastic funding cuts and the present craziness in DC. Nonetheless, I remain determined to bounce back. I need to stay here in the DC area as Mom is in Baltimore, and I am her legal power of attorney/authorized to make legal/medical decisions on her behalf.

The final point is that, ironically enough, I am not presently eligible for any housing assistance from either the federal, state, or local governments, or a number of veterans' or other charitable organizations. All of the programs I have applied to for housing assistance have told me the same thing: that they can only award me emergency housing assistance AFTER I am evicted or threatened with eviction. This has been incredibly frustrating for me, as I believe in being as proactive as possible, but there is no real funding available to fill this specific gap.

In closing, I am asking you as my colleagues, friends, and neighbors for this limited, one-time assistance in helping me to save my present housing with two months ($2500 in total) of rent. I hope that this will stabilize my housing situation and give me the necessary cushion to both find a new full-time job while also avoiding eviction at all costs. I really don't want to be in a situation where I am forced to leave my own home and move into a shelter.

Thank you for your time and kind consideration in reading all of this! I know it's a lot of complicated information, and that so many of us aside from me are also hurting in these extremely challenging times. In any case, this middle-aged Veteran hopes you all stay safe and have a wonderful week ahead.

Sincerely,

Mark

(US Army veteran, 1992-98)