Urgent Assistance Needed for Martha Alvarez

THIS PLEA IS URGENT!

I’ve created this fund-raiser to help the mother of Alan Alvarez; Alan was a San Diego police officer for 31 years. Some of you may know of his story through previous fundraising efforts. After developing a debilitating disease, his mother, Martha Alvarez, became his primary caretaker. My husband and I have known Alan since the 1980s through SDPD.

Alan became an officer in 1985 and retired on April 25, 2016, at the age of 53. He was a highly respected and admired officer who was involved in many activities. Among other accomplishments, Alan had been the local, state, and national president of the National Latino Police Officers Association.

In 2015, Alan was at a department shoot when he realized he couldn’t use his left hand. He began noticing other physical problems and was diagnosed with Progressive Muscular Atrophy (PMA) in 2015. PMA, which is similar to ALS/Lou Gehrig’s Disease, is a rare, adult-onset neurological disease that causes the gradual loss of motor neurons. It’s progressive, causing muscle weakness and atrophy, and eventually the loss of voluntary muscle control and death.

There is no cure or effective treatment for PMA, and Alan soon needed twenty-hour assistance. At the age of 76, Martha completely changed her life and moved back to San Diego to care for him. When Alan needed more assistance than she could provide by herself, they had to hire home health aides.

The City of San Diego stopped participating in Social Security before Alan became an officer, so he wasn’t eligible for Social Security Disability. The city decided that Alan’s disease wasn’t job related, so he couldn’t get disability through his work either. This meant that Alan had to pay for home health care services and purchase the medical equipment he needed to survive. Alan was unable to meet these expenses on his retirement pay, but fund-raisers provided him with much of the needed funds. Alan died on April 27, 2022, a few days after his 59th birthday. At the time of his death, he’d lost the ability to move or speak.

During the seven years that Martha cared for Alan, she used up almost all her assets and had to declare bankruptcy in 2020. This limits her ability to get credit. After Alan became sick, he didn’t have the money to maintain his home, where Martha is living, and it now needs major repairs. Recent storms caused interior damage, forcing Martha to have the house reroofed. Martha, who is now 85, was able to borrow part of the roof replacement money at a high interest rate, but not all of it. Making these payments and having money for other living expenses will be difficult for her.

Additionally, although the house was in a trust, the property taxes almost tripled after Alan’s death. Martha wasn’t notified of this until a few weeks ago and is appealing the tax increase. However, she was told she must pay the first installment of about $10,000 by June 30, the end of this month, and also needs to pay almost $7,000 toward the new roof. Unless her appeal is granted, she’ll be facing another large tax payment in September, as well as a bigger mortgage payment due to tax impound and insurance increases.

Unfortunately, Alan’s only sibling, his brother Alex, is not in a position to help due to health problems. Among other issues, Alex recently had his third heart attack and is currently not able to work. Alex, who is living with his mother, has applied for disability, but this may take months to get. Fortunately, Martha does have a tenant which helps some with expenses. With current housing prices, it will be less expensive for Martha to stay in the house than to rent a place that will accommodate three people, but she won’t be able to do this without assistance.

Martha has an urgent need for money now to pay the taxes and for the roof. Any and all donations, which will be used for deferred home repairs and increased mortgage and tax costs, will be deeply appreciated.