Help save Zoe Keough from homelessness!

Please help my friend, Zoe Keough, who has fallen on very hard times! Zoe is disabled, on the brink of homelessness, and has a life-threatening heart condition that requires expensive medication and ongoing medical visits to manage. Please consider donating money, a working computer, or airline miles (read below for details).

I met Zoe in Seattle almost two decades ago through the Seattle Burning Man/electronic dance scene and have always known her to be generous, compassionate, wicked smart, funny, creative, and very community-oriented. She relocated to Hawaii to escape the cold weather that brought on arthritic pain, and to live where she could swim in the ocean for exercise, since walking had become a lot more difficult. Always generous with her resources, she welcomed me (and others from our community) into her Hawaiian home for an extended stay as I was convalescing from an illness. Zoe has always shared her home and resources with those in need. She welcomed two families who were refugees from the lava flow when the Kilauea volcano erupted and destroyed many homes, even though she herself was short on resources having been recently laid off. Zoe has never turned away from helping others, in many forms. She has taken in people needing shelter, provided vehicles to others to get to work or school, provided support to others so they could pursue their dreams and complete school, etc. One year she gifted two people in Seattle with a turnkey trip to Burning Man - including tickets and a U-Haul that was loaded with everything needed except ice and food. Zoe’s nature is to help others and she has always done so selflessly.

But recently, things have gotten really tough for Zoe. She is living with congestive heart failure, and last year she was hospitalized for 6+ weeks after she passed out at the end

of a long day. After losing her home, she was moving her possessions to a friend’s place for storage until her new rental was available. At the end of that day she passed out and her friends called 911. She had fallen into severe septic shock (she had sepsis brought on by a rare type of strep). After a few days in the ICU critical care unit, she regained consciousness - much to the surprise of her medical team! It took over 6 weeks for her to recover enough to be released from the hospital, during which time she caught COVID too. The sepsis had further weakened her heart and she suffered a mild stroke that, thankfully, didn’t have any obvious long-term effects. Her heart function was very low (EF15) when she was released and her doctors didn’t expect her to make it much more than a year. But the survivor in her has prevailed and her heart is getting stronger, so much so that her doctors no longer forecast her demise.

While she was in the hospital some nefarious individuals heard she was dying and stole (or destroyed) most of her belongings. Upon her return she found she had nowhere to live, and no computer or electronics, and everything of value was gone. Her car had been stolen and recovered, but was trashed. The apartment she was moving to when she got sick was no longer an option. Even her beloved canine companion, Makai, had been ill while she was in the hospital and nobody told her. Just 2 days after she was released Makai died in her arms. Zoe lost her home, her most valuable possessions, her beloved canine companion and her health in one fell swoop! Her life changed

dramatically and she has been struggling ever since to get back on her feet. She had to turn her van into her new living space (it is no longer running as someone stole the battery

and catalytic converter and damaged the interior while she was hospitalized). She has been living in the van to this day.

She does receive social security disability as she hasn’t been able to work, but recently she’s been feeling strong enough try to find a part time, remote work gig that she can handle- but no luck yet. Zoe has been living with no access to running water, refrigeration, a kitchen, or the other luxuries that most of us take for granted. Her disability check doesn’t get her through the month with the added cost of expensive prescriptions, continued medical care and the high cost of everything in Hawaii. She supplements her groceries with whatever she gets from the food banks. Her life in Hawaii has been a tenuous existence since she became disabled, and she has been planning to move back to the mainland - specifically to a place that better fits her

income. But she is in an emergency situation right now – she has to move immediately!! Everything must be gone from the property she’s been staying on by the end of the month. Anything left behind will be thrown away, and her van will be towed to the junk yard. Zoe had a cabin lined up but that fell through at the last minute. Now she has to find a place really fast, but there is a serious housing shortage on the Big Island, and rentals that are affordable are hard to find, and they go fast! She is panicking that she will be left with no shelter, and nowhere to go. She needs help with the cost of a securing a

new place and moving. Zoe has been striving to get back on her feet and she was making good progress, but lately she has

suffered a string of bad luck, including being hit by an uninsured driver in an accident that left her car inoperable. Miraculously, her heart condition has stabilized somewhat,

and she has tried to find online work but doesn’t have a functional laptop and now has limited access to electricity and internet. She worked in tech all her life, and needs a

decent laptop so she can brush up on her skills, do zoom interviews, look for suitable gigs and get back to work as much as she can handle.

Let’s pitch in what we can to help Zoe get into a stable, safe place to live, acquire a computer, and get back on her feet! I know she’s a good investment!

Please consider donating $, or if you have a working computer with a relatively recent operating system that you’re not using, that would be a very helpful gift too!

If you are holding a pile of airline miles - I know she wants to move back to the mainland after the new year – only her illness and subsequent lack of funds has prevented her from leaving Hawaii this year. Perhaps something could be done with airline miles?

I know she would be profoundly grateful for any help. She is literally scrambling to find a place to sleep right now! Time is of the essence!