Our dear friend winglion/Ann has some trouble.
She applied for Social Security Disability back in mid-2022, and got her first denial in January 2023.
Since then, she has been denied again, and is awaiting the news that her magistrate hearing on her appeal has been scheduled. So it’s been close to two years, not unheard of in the annals of trying to work one’s way through the Social Security Disability application process.
The trouble is, winglion and Sara R live together at Catnip Manor, and Sara’s early Social Security retirement is their only means of support, until Ann can get her disability approved.
While Sara’s monthly benefit isn’t nothing, everyone knows just how difficult it is to support two adults on a single income. They are making ends meet most of the time, but just barely.
Add to that, the truth is they just can’t be without transportation. Both of them have some serious medical issues, and require frequent visits to doctors and other healthcare providers. As anyone who has ever lived in Portland, Oregon can tell you, there are lots of mass transit options.
However, none of them are useful to people who need to avoid crowds because their doctors have them on immune suppressants because of the treatment they are getting for an ongoing condition. Even a common cold could put Sara in a hospital these days.
And finally, it’s a safety issue. The neighborhood where Catnip Manor resides has gotten slowly worse over the years, and Ann and Sara hear gunfire on the regular now, and there are homeless encampments within an 8 block radius. I’m not saying that homeless people are dangerous, rather that dangerous people tend to be found where such encampments exist. The ugly underbelly of the struggle of those just seeking to find a place to shelter at night is that police are seldom there to help, but usually to ‘evict’ those people from the meager shelter they’ve managed to gather.
So they need a vehicle, and can’t depend upon mass transit.
Ann has a working vehicle, but what she doesn’t have is the about $500.00 it will take to get her car new tags after she gets it to pass the DEQ (Department of Environmental Quality) test. If it fails the test, it has to be repaired until it does pass. Luckily for Ann, she meets the requirements of the Low Income program which helps people get their car fixed for a maximum of $50 out of their pocket at Ron Tonkin (a long standing PDX auto outfit that sells new and used cars and repairs them, too), so that they can get their new tags.
So her tags are about $350, the DEQ test is $25 and she'll need to take it to have the oil changed before the test so that’s between $35 and $100 (I checked the prices for a van myself and it’s weird how much difference you can find, I’m gonna say $65 to be safe).
So if all of the worst happens that’s:
$350 (tags) + $25 (DEQ test) + $65 (oil change) + $50 (cost of repairs under the low income program)
A total of $490.00
If you can afford to help, I know that it would be genuinely appreciated.
Donations from Friends and Family via PayPal [https://www.paypal.com/] can be sent to winglioness@gmail.com
If you would like to contribute but only want to send a paper check in the mail, please send Ann a Dkosmail message and she’ll send it to you, just click here to do that: https://www.dailykos.com/newthread/winglion
Just to be clear, I had to sort of badger Ann into letting me ask for this help. If I had the money, I’d just pay for it for her, but I don’t.
So I’m hoping that enough of you will chip in a little and help put Ann back in the driver’s seat.
Because the last thing she needs is to drive that van to take herself or Sara to a doctor appointment and get a ticket for driving on expired tags (currently $70 if the tags are expired less than 90 days, and jumps to $145 if it’s over 90 days) which she won’t be able to pay.
UPDATE:
Thank you for the donations so far, we are at $90 as of 12:00 noon.
$400 more to go!
UPDATE:
Holy Moly, the Daily Kos Community is kind and generous to a fault.
As of 12:28 pm the amount is $507.00!
We have reached our goal. Any amount over the $490.00 needed for the DEQ and tags will go to help defray the cost of auto insurance and/or buy food.
My personal thanks to each and every one of you have recommended this story to put it on the Trending list, and to those who have given out of the goodness of their hearts.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU