My partner and I were recently able to overcome homelessness, spending more than a year without housing with our 2 senior dogs and our cat, living in my car packed with all our belongings. We survived everything from record heat waves to winter storms where the temps dropped well below 0°, we endured harassment, hunger, a kidnap attempt, severe illness, and almost every other trauma that comes with being so housing insecure during a pandemic and skyrocketing cost of living increases due to inflation.

We were eventually able to find reliable work, and were given a camper (trailer) that we now live in. Unfortunately our vehicle stopped working shortly after we started our job, and the plot where our camper is parked is 6 miles from where we work and around 10 miles from the nearest town. Without a vehicle we have had to rely on coworkers/friends to get to and from work, and for help getting to important medical appointments or even just basic grocery shopping; this drastically limits our ability to function and impedes our pursuit of stability.

With our steady income we have so far managed to remain housed, as well as meet most of our other needs, but because we both work a low-wage job there is little to nothing left over for larger expenses like repairs to our camper and a new vehicle. We took a hard look at our income and bills and would be able to pay for insurance, registration fees, and possibly even a reasonably priced monthly car payment, but the high cost of purchasing a car is not something we can currently afford outright. Without adequate transportation that is also, unfortunately, unlikely to change anytime soon, due to our inability to find better/more work, or do app based gig work like Doordash.

We live in an isolated rural community, so without a working vehicle our options for food shopping, Healthcare and any other necessity are highly limited and unforseen setbacks frequently makes meeting those needs harder, or very often even practically impossible. Purchasing a working used vehicle is the next important step up from the despair we have fought so hard to escape, it would fortify our progress thus far and allow us to build up our stability so that we can remain housed and safe going forward into the long term. We are asking for help raising funds to help cover this expense, and are hoping folks will find it in their hearts to help us in this crucial time in our lives. Every little bit helps, and we are so grateful for anything anyone has to offer, thank you so much!

- Aven & Jon