Trying to avoid going homeless this winter

I don't really know how to start these... I've never had to use one before. I've hoped to never need to use one before. But times have quickly become desperate.

I guess I'll start with the background. I am a physically disabled man, now in my early 30s. I suffer from Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, hypermobility type. This is a rare condition, but one that runs the gamut in severity as well as primary location. I know a friend whose EDS affects her mainly in the hips. In my case, it's my ankles, but far more importantly...my wrists. While you can still live a semi-normal life and hold down a job when your legs don't work, your options are...significantly limited when your hands don't, to say the least. Even typing this has been a multi-hour effort with multiple breaks.

I've been fighting to be declared legally disabled for a while now, but unfortunately it wasn't until early 2023 that I was officially given the diagnosis, which was a necessary component of the process. This started affecting me in high school and I've known it was EDS since at least 2017 or maybe even 2016, but unfortunately there was literally only one doctor on my entire side of the state that had the knowledge and experience to give the diagnosis. His waiting list was long (so long most of my regular doctors couldn't believe it when I told them and they had to call his office themselves).

The damage to my wrists in this time has been extensive. Both wrists have developed a painful tear in the tri-fibro cartilage complex, both developed cysts that needed to be removed (one of which was persistent and grew back), both click and clack like rice krispies. I need to wear wrist braces 24/7 because they frequently "roll," (meaning they aren't able to maintain weight on them and collapse when pressure is applied e.g. trying to get up from a chair), multiple -kinds- of braces that focus on different things like ulnar support because they continually degrading in all other areas... I've had 6 surgeries on them so far, and all of them have been merely to remove debris and the aforementioned cysts. There is no permanent surgical fix for this. There is no permanent fix at all. It is an incurable, degenerative disease that can only get worse with time. The most we can do is try to stall the ever-growing damage.

I tried to hold a job once after this became permanent. But my wrists disabled me from completing the assigned tasks in anywhere close to the required time, and so I lost it pretty quick. Applying for disability has become pretty much my only option for any steady source of income, because again you are screwed when your hands don't work.

Of course I haven't gotten that yet. So for the past decade, while fighting this fight, I've been reliant on my father to keep a roof over my head (I do get foodstamps though. My doctors vouch for me on my inability to work). Unfortunately...he just passed. Just short of two years ago he got sick, it developed into sepsis, and after as long of battling it...he lost.

And now, I'm on my own. In addition to the grief and matters of trying to navigate the red tape in the wake of his death (because you can't just DIE anymore without causing a bureaucratic nightmare), I now also have to try and find ways to not go homeless. Moreover, it's not just me facing this prospect.

This is Tommy. He's my roommate. He's only been with us a few months, but now he's part of this too. Neither of us have anywhere we can go. Tommy was himself facing homelessness until we managed to work out a deal with him at a reduced share of the rent. Unfortunately our rent is expensive ($1200 a month) and he doesn't make anywhere near enough to cover it all himself. We're trying to look into moving but many places aren't accepting applications and among the ones that do, the rent is still beyond what we have right now. Until I can get accepted onto disability we are severely low on funds. In addition to rent, there's also and electricity. We can last on electricity until about February as the power company made an agreement to not cut power during winter, but that's our only saving grace.

Personally I'm very camera-shy, but to prove I exist here's my hand with a timestamp on it so you know it wasn't pulled from the internet. Also in the pic is my cat, Yogi.

Yogi is actually another big deal for me. You have to understand something: he's kinda the only family I have left at this point. My father is gone. My mother died back in '21. My sister moved all the way to North Carolina (I'm in Wisconsin). This guy, this furry little moron, is all I got left. Moreover, before we managed to find Tommy, there was a period of about a year where I was the only person in this place (my father being in the hospital several cities over). A 3 bedroom duplex unit, and the other unit wasn't even inhabited. I was completely on my own, except for this guy. The thought of giving him up now too, after everything that's already happened... it hurts to even think about.

So now it's the three of us. Tommy, Yogi, and myself, trying to keep ourselves off the streets. I've already contacted numerous emergency rent services, but they can only provide so much. Our biggest hope is an entity that does longterm rent & energy assistance, but they have a waiting list and there's no telling when we'll finally have our turn. Right now we're just trying to secure funds month-to-month until a more permanent solution can be found (either moving or the aforementioned longterm help).

I've set this GFM for about 3-4 months' worth of rent, some of which might end up going to energy depending on how long we have to hold out for. Unfortunately I do no have pictures of the rent bill due to us having a verbal-only agreement with the landlord. We don't even have a lease. The electricity bill was until now going into my father's email. I've told them to start sending it to mine, but at the time of this writing I don't have that yet. It won't arrive until near the end of the month.

Anything anyone reading this thinks they can donate, we would really appreciate it. I hate asking anonymous strangers on the internet for help, but desperate times call for desperate measures. You would have our deepest gratitude for even a cent.