Urgent Assistance Needed for the Singer Family

Update 3: We are in the hotel, which we can only afford for a few more days. Please help us keep ourselves and our pets off the streets. Thank you!

Update 2: we are homeless tomorrow. We have applied for some hotel vouchers and other programs, but it will take at least 3 weeks. We need to raise the money to stay in a motel until this comes through. Please help us especially our two senior cats, who cannot go to shelters with us. If you can give, please do. Every bit helps. Thank you.

UPDATE: We will be evicted on June 13th. Please help keep us off the streets!

Hi, my name is Serenity Singer. I am writing this on behalf of my family: my mom Angel, my sister Eden, and me. All three of us are disabled, and we are facing homelessness unless we get help from good people like you.

Without help, all three of us with be homeless within days.

I have autism and Tourette’s Syndrome, my sister has psoriatic arthritis and Tourette’s, and my mom has progressive multiple sclerosis and trigeminal neuralgia. We are about to be evicted from our home of almost 14 years.

Time is running out.

So, how did we get here? One week after my patents’ 25th anniversary, my father abandoned us via text message. He told Mom he deserved a partner who could “go on romantic walks on the beach.” My mom is in a wheelchair.

Dad took nearly everything and left us penniless. He drained the bank accounts and maxed out at least nine credit cards my mom didn’t even know he had. My father even stole my life savings. I had saved for years in order to pursue my dream of opening my own business. Now the money and the dream are gone.

And then it got worse.

My mom took a bad fall. She woke up one morning, grabbed her cane, and as she was walking to the bathroom, her leg went numb suddenly and BAM! Down she went. Mom shattered her ankle completely and broke several other bones. They had to do surgery to rebuild her ankle, and put in place multiple metal pieces: one ball, two plates, four rods, and ten screws. We joke that she is “metal AF” now.

But what happened next was no joke. A few hours after the fall, Mom had an ischemic stroke. Thankfully, she was already in the hospital when it happened. We are so grateful to the wonderful nurses at Legacy Emanuel Hospital for immediately recognizing her condition and getting her help fast!

Mom spent four weeks in the hospital, several days of which she was in the ICU. She is home now and resting, but it will be a long recovery. She will likely never walk again, and she is at high risk of having another stroke.

Although my dad agreed to keep paying the rent until my mom’s SSI came through (he even signed a separation agreement to that effect), he stopped paying in January.

We now have one week to raise the money to pay off the back rent and the upcoming rent for May. If we can’t pay, we will be evicted.

We have nowhere to go.

My family is now facing living on the streets. Given my mom’s condition, this is a terrifying concept. We don’t even have a car to live in. My mom’s MS is extremely heat-reactive, and summer temperatures are just around the corner. Every degree over 65F increases the risk. And we worry the stress of being homeless will trigger another stroke.

We have been working with various government agencies and charities, and they have helped us keep the electric and water on. I am paying the WiFi with my SSI payments, and we have one cell phone, which was generously supplied by a dear family friend. Unfortunately, getting rental assistance hasn’t been successful.

Finding emergency housing that is accessible involves lengthy waiting lists, and we simply don’t have that kind of time. Plus, most shelters require you to leave during the day, and my mom is on total bedrest.

Shelters will also not allow us to keep our two cats, Marshmallow and Yoshi. They were rescued by the Humane Society from an animal hoarder, and Yoshi had to have part of her tail amputated. We have had them as part of our family for almost ten years, and we can’t bear the idea of having to give them up…especially as older cats are much less likely to get adopted. We’ve lost so much due to my dad’s actions, we don’t want to lose our beloved pets, too.

(Marshmallow)

(Yoshi)

My mom’s appointment to determine her SSI is next week, and it will likely take a few weeks after that to begin payments. Once that happens, we can move to a more affordable and more accessible home. We just need to be able to pay the bills and keep a roof over our heads until that time.

And time is running out.

We are very, very scared, but we are holding on tightly to our faith, to each other, and to the hope that the people reading this will be kind and generous enough to help us reach our goal and stay off the streets. Frankly, given our medical conditions, I’m not sure we could survive it…especially my mother. I lost my dad when he left us. I don’t want to lose my mom, too.

Studies have shown that marriages where one spouse is disabled have a divorce rate of up to 87%. I am asking you to please help one such family avoid being homeless.

Thank you, and God bless.

The Singer Family