Urgent Help Needed for Disabled Friend!

I am running this campaign to raise urgent funds for my disabled friend Chrysta who is homeless and in deep trouble. Her van is her lifeline and its broken down and her temporary housing is threatened, leaving her no where to go! Please read on to see the details of the situation:

Current situation 2024:

It has now been nearly a year since she has had a working vehicle. She was given a long estimate by two different repair shops, totaling around $4,000 of repairs. Whether she replaces that van or repairs it, either way, she doesn't have enough funds for either. Her social security allotment is not even close to enough to survive, and even with support from friends, she doesn't have a lot left over to save up for big expenses and she has no savings.

She also has no family support.

She wants to be able to sell some of her stuff but she can't ship anything because she doesn't have a working vehicle, so its almost impossible to supplement her income other than through helping hands.

Used vans in any sort of decent condition are very expensive. She is not opposed to a donated van but it must meet her requirements. So far, nothing has presented itself, even through local charities.

Any help is greatly appreciated. She only has a couple of elderly friends with cars to help her usually once a week or every ten days to get groceries or mail or visit the homeless help organization. If she lost her temporary housing tomorrow, she would have no vehicle to live in.

Original from 2023:

First off, she has just recently had her storage unit broken into twice in one week, where they ransacked it, destroying many things and doing a lot of damage to the bins, as well as stealing her most precious possessions.

We upgraded to better high security locks. We are also looking into some sort of motion activated alarm system that works on batteries.

While driving back and forth to storage in the aftermath of the robbery, her van broke down on a highway, and she waited 3 hours to be towed. The mechanics claim they couldn't find anything wrong and when she drove it away from their shop, she broke down again only a mile down the road. The shop then towed her to the dealership where the van has been since.

As of today, its been there for 17 days! She still has no diagnosis or estimate. When she drove it, all the lights on the dashboard came on and were flashing! The vehicle shook violently and shut down. While the intake person did see the error codes and saw it shake, after it sat overnight, it turned on normally and the mechanics say they can't fix it without the codes on. It might be electrical.

With the cost of used vehicles today, she cannot afford a replacement vehicle that would upgrade her to anything better. Most vans at $5000 or less are high milage vehicles, which in some cases have higher milage than her current van at over 162,000.

As if it wasn't dire enough, on Friday the 13th, she received a message that her temporary room was likely to end as the tenant she was staying with cannot make the rent to the landlord. So without a van to live in or a room to stay in, she is going to end up on the street. Given her poor health and the lack of housing for her special needs, she is in great jeopardy.

Needless to say, she is absolutely devastated on every level. They stole irreplaceable things that she’s treasured since childhood. She now fears that they will come back to do more damage and she has no van to go out there and try to reorganize and check on the locks!

Its unimaginable to lose a home and be priced out of housing and have to put all your belongings in storage, but to have this happen on top of that is truly devastating.

She is not in a good place. Please consider helping her recover from this to the extent she can. Every little bit helps. Thank you!