⚠️ EMERGENCY - SUMMARY: ⚠️

Our family urgently needs to evacuate our house due to many unsafe conditions including no heat, structural issues, and suspected mold.

We primarily need financial help to relocate ASAP to safe, pet friendly housing, as close to our home as possible in Potsdam, NY.

⚠️ IMPORTANT UPDATES & CURRENT SITUATION: ⚠️

Reminder - gofundme has a delay, it takes a day or two. If you're able, these options are instant, and also shouldn't have any fees.

Cashapp: $HopeKicak928

Venmo: @hkicak

PayPal: hkicak AT gmail DOT com

Update as of 12/01:

***Short Version***

We really need one big (hopefully last!) push here on Gofundme for at least $2k.

Please, if you are safely able to send even a few dollars, every bit helps us so much, and we'd be happy to pay it back ASAP too.

We're hoping this will be the last time we have to update, fingers crossed!

***Long Version***

-Lodging-

We've managed to find a rental just barely in our budget where we can stay for about another month, which is fantastic!

However, the rent is nearly all of our income for the month, and we can only have Terra, our cat, not our dog Spoony. We also don't have enough left for any basic needs, like food, supplies, transportation, etc.

Unfortunately, someone else has booked this rental about a month from now, and then we'll have to move yet again. We might be able to move into another nearby unit, but we aren't sure yet.

It's still a lot at about $1400, but much cheaper overall than what we've been having to pay up until now. We've been bouncing around hotels and such, paying nightly, while trying to find somewhere to go. It was better than nothing, especially having pets, but incredibly unsustainable long term.

-The House-

We unfortunately still need help, probably professional, to deal with the house. We've been away from it for over a month now, and mice have absolutely torn the place apart. It's bad.

We really need a team of professionals to help us clear everything out. We also still need help with the original issues, such as the broken furnace/chimney and other structural issues making it unlivable.

If anyone knows of any places in the Potsdam, NY area that may be able to help, please, please let us know. We need to get things started ASAP.

-Wrapping Up-

Alan is actively working hard at finding a job, and we're hoping for good news soon. We're really really hoping that within the next couple months, we'll be able to pick ourselves up again and restart our lives.

However, we still need a little more help to get there, so please, if you're able to even just share and spread the word, we'd both appreciate it so, so much.

Thank you all for everything, and we hope everyone has a happy holiday!

Update as of 11/18:

We found a new rental but there's a delay moving in, so we need about $1500 before Tuesday the 25th. We had that saved, but had to pay $150/night to remain where we are now. (Going forward, we'll be paying this rent ourselves, but won't get paid fast enough for this first month.)

We also can't have our dog Spoony in the new rental, and need to find a better option for him like short term foster.

Also, some good news! Alan just had a job interview that sounds very promising, and we're hoping to know soon.

Unfortunately, there's also some very bad news. We've been away from the house for about a month, and just went back this week to try to grab a few things. In that time, mice have overrun absolutely everything. We were already concerned about mold possibly being an issue, but this means we are going to have to toss pretty much everything we own.

If anyone knows of a company or something that could help us try to deal with all of these issues at the house, we would both tremendously appreciate it.

Update as of 11/13:

⚠️ Most Urgent/Current Needs: ⚠️

Shelter/Funds:

We were forced out of the hotel earlier this week as they need the space for a hockey event. Luckily, we managed to rent a lodge, currently out of season, for about a week. It's $150/night which is doable, but draining all our funds quickly.

The owners of this place also have some efficiency apartments that we're hoping to check out soon, around Sunday they'll be open to look at. They're fully furnished and in the $1300/month range which is very tight, but hopefully doable.

That'll basically be Hope's entire monthly SSDI payment, so we need to figure out how to supplement that somehow, even if just for a few months while we try to figure out what's going to happen to the house.

Transportation:

We also need to figure out transportation. We currently have a uhaul box truck, because they forced us to return the van. This means we can't move the dog anywhere. It's also very scary trying to drive on slippery, snow covered back roads.

We really need a actual car, like an SUV or van, with enough space for all of us, and the few belongings we have now.

Does anyone know a way we could rent something like that, but for way cheaper than hundreds of dollars like Enterprise charges?

Buying a car would be perfect but seems impossible right now, but if someone could let us pay to borrow one, it would help tremendously.

Health/Medical (aka "Why right now??") :

Hope is also having severe dental pain despite antibiotics and urgently needs a dentist or oral surgeon, but we have no way to afford that right now, or even to get there. We both have a slew of other health issues too, and no way to do much about it which is making everything much worse.

⚠️ Most Urgent/Current Needs: ⚠️

Also, given the circumstances, we need to replace the vast majority of our belongings, due to risk of spreading mold. We're being extremely careful in that regard, and sanitizing as much as possible, but there's just too many things like textiles/clothing that are too risky to try to save.

Terra is doing much better on antibiotics, but we can't risk her health or ours, Spoony included of course.

We're hoping to only have to rent for a few months while we work on fixing the house. We also need this time to determine what our options look like moving forward.

We do want to move away from here entirely, probably back down to central NY. We have to deal with the house first though, and are hoping to be done before Spring.

If anyone might be able to offer advice/resources pertaining to that, it would be incredibly helpful.

-----Who are we, and what's so urgent?-----

My partner (Alan), myself (Hope) and our small furry children Terra (cat) and Spoony (dog) are looking for urgent help to evacuate our house in Potsdam, NY due mainly to suspected environmental hazards (mold especially) actively making us all sick.

There is also no heat, the furnace cannot be repaired, and there are various structural issues too. It's an old house and we've been trying to keep up, but it just outpaced us and unfortunately now we really need help.

-----What’s the plan?-----

The current plan is to evacuate immediately to a hotel (our dog will go to his boarding place). We figured hopefully we can find something by the end of the month while safe and recovering in the hotel.

Once safe, we can turn our attention back towards fixing the house to make it livable again, or at least sell it and move somewhere more sustainable.