unless we do something.
Many of you know Kossack blueoregon. She's been active in Black Kos and other community diaries for a very long time.
Like a lot of us, she's been through some very, very rough times lately. To say that the economic crash has been unkind to her is a serious piece of understatement. Shes been homeless for a while now, living in a local shelter, which severely limits her ability to get online and participate in this community anymore. She does so from the local library whenever she can, in between what work she can get.
She finally had a chance at a subsidized apartment, but needed a $50 security deposit. Unfortunately, even that would have put it out of her reach - except that the shelter program indicated that they would provide it in their transitional assistance program. Now that she has the opportunity, they are refusing to do so. She's tried to scrape together the money, but has run entirely out of options, and if she cannot pay the $50 tomorrow morning, they will have to offer the apartment to the next person on the list.
Here's how we can help:
UPDATE 2: Kossack txcatlin has FedExed the $50 to her, and has been assured that she will have it tomorrow. Bless you, my dear. Now, as to all the other info about putting together a PayPal account, etc.: I'm hoping we can do that for her, but I'll need more details from Mary before I know anything. I'll post an update diary tomorrow or over the weekend, as soon as I know something, and figure out how we can keep her in her new apartment. Blessings and love to all of you for giving so generously, especially since I know, for a lot of you, just what that means to your own finances right now.
UPDATE - CONTACT INFO:
Mary Geraghty
c/o Transition Projects Inc.
650 NW Irving St
Portland, OR 97209
503.280.4700
The phone number is from the shelter Web site. Mary's been having connection difficulties, and neither JoanMar nor I has heard from her in a while. My best suggestion for tonight is to call the shelter number and ask to speak to resident Mary Geraghty, and talk to her directly about how best to get it to her.
First, blueoregon does not have a PayPal account. Even if she were to set one up tonight, she couldn't get access to the funds in time anyway. The only way this will work is one of two ways:
1) A wire transfer to her at her current location; or
2) Paying the $50 deposit directly to the landlord first thing in the morning.
I hate to admit this, but I'm down to $10 at the moment, and I don't know when that's going to change. Otherwise, I'd call the landlord and take care of it myself. It infuriates me that for want of FIFTY FUCKING DOLLARS, a good person might go homeless.
But what I'd really like to do is give her a little bit of a safety net, some breathing room. She's going to need to keep up rent payments, and she has to have power, water, food, etc., too. I've gone without all of those things. No one should have to do that. So I'd like to see if we can raise a little extra to give her a safety net, so that she can get the apartment, get moved in, and decompress a little bit. Who knows? It might even provide a little extra karmic boost to get her a good-paying job, benefits, etc. [I can hope, can't I?]
Now, I'm waiting to hear back as to how, logistically, we can do this. I have her name and mailing address, and you can PM for it. But I want to get this posted so that we can get aid lined up. I'll add updates as I can. [And since my evenings are usually occupied by fixing dinner and other chores, a little help tending comments would be welcome, too. :-D]
Chi miigwech.