Help This Sweet Elderly Woman Avoid Homelessness!

Hello! My name is Simone, and I am fundraising for my amazing friend, Patricia Copeland.

Pat is on Social Security, and, like many people her age, receives less than $1000 a month. For the past six years, she has shared an apartment in a house with her sister for $1100 a month, or $550 each. However, the new landlord raised their rent to $1400, with only two weeks notice. $150 each a month may not seem like much, but it is beyond their ability to pay without giving up food.

When the landlord came to collect March rent, Pat gave him $550 and explained, again, that she simply couldn’t pay more. Her sister refused to pay anything. The new (relatively, as he’s owned the house for two years) landlord won’t fix anything that is wrong with the apartment. There is a hole in the ceiling from a leaking roof, leaking faucets and toilet, and windows either don’t open or won’t close all of the way. He won’t pay for trash pickup, and goes months without picking up the trash, which is from three different apartments in the home. He won’t pay for pest control, even though Pat and her sister now have bugs because of one of the neighbors. So it’s past time for them to leave, regardless of the rent increase. But the landlord still took them to court to have them kicked out. They couldn’t afford a lawyer, so they had no one to help them navigate the process and now have only a week to leave.

While Pat’s sister has a situation to go to, Pat does not. She paid rent in March instead of saving for a move. Still, it wouldn’t have been enough. Even though we have found a place that she can afford with another roommate, she can not afford the move. Deposit, full month rent, utility deposits… it’s just too much. She suffered a major injury to both of her legs 20 months ago, and is JUST NOW healing enough to move into the stage where she will be starting physical therapy. Even if she had the money for the new place, she definitely doesn’t have to money to hire movers, or even a truck.

I help Pat out as much as I can. I take her to doctors appointments, to her wound treatments, take her to the grocery or go for her. She can’t afford the gas to make all of those trips, and needs help to get much further than 20 feet, even with her cane. But I can’t afford to help her with this, and I can’t move her myself, even if we could pay for a truck.

Please, help Pat. The money will go directly to paying her deposits and rent, and towards hiring movers. Once we have her moved, the situation is sustainable based on her income. It’s just getting there that she needs help.

Pat is fiercely independent, so these past two years have been really hard on her. She is a lovely person. She keeps a positive attitude, even through all of the pain that she is dealing with from her fall. She means a lot to me. I would love to, through everyone out there, be able to help her when she can’t help herself.