Hello, we're Joel and Mark. The furry guy is Max, our 7½-year-old Cairn Terrier, who grudgingly shares his living space with us, as long as the royal treats keep coming.

WE'RE PLEADING FOR OUR LIVES!!

We were evicted back in 2019 and spent 5½ years on the street; 3 years in our car and – many thanks to our Metro Police, who connected us with HELP of Southern Nevada – 2½ years sheltered in a local motel. HELP put us in contact with a state relief agency.

With the agency's help, we were finally starting to get back to normal. We are currently on an emergency Section 8 voucher program, new to NV. We are so grateful for everyone's help, with special mention to our current caseworker, Jacqueline, and her boss, Monica, who have been tireless in their efforts to help us move forward. Mark is disabled, a stroke survivor, and is living with end-stage COPD. He is stable right now but depends on his O² concentrator 24 hours a day and his other breathing equipment; his lungs are at a mere 11% capacity. I have stage 3 CKD and chronic lower back problems.

We were served an "intent to evict" notice on November 15th – a "pay or quit" notice. The terms of our voucher were poorly explained to us, and we received incorrect information that led us to believe the voucher covered the entire amount of our rent. Consequently, the portion of rent that we are responsible for went unpaid for 3 months. Please note, that had we known we were responsible for this, we gladly would have paid, on time, every month!

We have filed our answer with the court, so we will get a hearing if it comes to that, but it may violate the terms of the voucher, and we'll be back on the street. And if we are evicted, our lives will effectively be over. We no longer have a vehicle, and we have nowhere to go. Mark is mostly bedridden; he needs a wheelchair to move more than a few feet, and even the mildest exertion makes him lose his breath. He would most likely go into respiratory arrest within several days – it happened once in December '22, and we were told by his doctors he would not survive another.

I've included screenshots of our bill, the front and back of the "pay or quit" notice (with discrepancies noted), and a screenshot of the payments we've made to ARG.

Please, please help us to do the right thing. We want to pay the back rent! We need to pay the back rent, so we can move forward. Moving backward is simply not an option! The relief agencies we've approached, both private and public, are all either out of funds or require a lengthy application and approval process.

We are asking for $2,000 because of the percentage that GoFundMe withholds as a fee for their service. We need to make the payment by Monday, November 25th, or ARG will proceed with the eviction.

PLEASE, PLEASE HELP US!!! WE ARE DESPERATE!!!

This is a one-time request!!! You will not see us pleading for rent money again on GoFundMe!!! We didn't miss payments because we were unable to pay; we were (perhaps naively) unaware that we had to! We have been paying all of our bills on time, every month – phone, vehicle and personal storage, mailbox address (even through the pandemic), and since we moved to this apartment, WiFi service and power!

ANY AMOUNT WILL HELP! PLEASE, KEEP US OFF THE STREET! SAVE OUR LIVES!