Dear Friends, Neighbors, and Kind Strangers,
We are reaching out to you today with heavy but hopeful hearts. We are Mark and Brenda Campbell—Mark is 72 and Brenda is 67—living in Grand Rapids, Michigan. After a lifetime of working hard and staying resilient, an unexpected avalanche of housing, health, and transit crises has left us completely uprooted and homeless. We have tried our absolute hardest to handle this stressful situation ourselves since February, managing our budget and working non-stop to find a way forward completely on our own, but we have finally reached a point where we need to open our hearts and ask our community for a hand.
Recently, an unexpected eviction turned our lives upside down. It is incredibly important to us to share that this eviction was caused by a sudden, temporary financial bottleneck rather than a chronic issue. We were hit with expensive, emergency auto repairs at the exact same moment that an administrative error at the unemployment office delayed our payment for nearly a full month. Because our previous landlord would not wait for the state error to be corrected, we were evicted.
Finding a new place to live has been incredibly difficult due to our complex medical needs. I battle severe Lupus and am deeply immunocompromised, making public or congregate shelters a life-threatening health environment for me. To add to our challenges, my wonderful husband Mark lives with Parkinson’s disease. His Parkinson’s has progressed significantly, and he truly needs to stop working to protect his health and rest. However, Mark is only forcing himself to work right now because of the overwhelming expenses we are incurring just to survive. We have been forced to stay in a temporary hotel that is costing us an astronomical $3,000 per month—an expense that is rapidly exhausting our fixed incomes and completely draining the liquid funds we desperately need to save for an apartment down payment.
To make matters worse, our only lifeline—our 2011 Chevy Traverse—suffered a major mechanical failure. We invested our scarce remaining funds to replace both the starter and the serpentine belt, which completely depleted our resources. Despite making those repairs, the vehicle still will not start because the timing chain broke. Because our Traverse has over 173,000 miles on it, it is simply not worth fixing the timing chain. It is not worth the high cost, so we need a newer vehicle. We urgently need to secure a newer, reliable pre-owned SUV that will provide us with safe, long-term transportation for the future.
Because we lack a working vehicle, our daily struggles have multiplied:
Lost Income & Job Strain: Mark works hard to support us, but he is forced to rely on the public bus system. Due to rigid transit schedules and delays, he loses at least two hours of pay every single dayjust waiting and commuting. This arduous commute adds an immense physical strain to his progressing illness and has caused heavy scheduling friction for his employer, putting his job security at risk.
Severe Health Risks: Relying on crowded public transportation with a severely compromised immune system puts my health in constant danger.
Medical Urgency: We desperately need a reliable SUV that sits up higher off the ground. A higher vehicle profile is a strict medical necessity; it allows me to enter and exit safely without worsening my physical pain, and gives us the essential space required to load our necessary healthcare equipment and transport us to frequent medical appointments.
How You Can Help Us Stabilize:
While we are completely trapped in this hotel cycle and lack the upfront cash to buy a vehicle or pay an apartment deposit, our monthly retirement income is steady and secure. Between Mark’s pension, retirement account distributions, and my Social Security benefits, we have multiple guaranteed income streams. This means that if we can clear this immediate hurdle, Mark can finally stop working and focus on his health, and we will be fully capable of handling the ongoing monthly costs of rent, utilities, insurance, and car maintenance on our own.
We are asking for donations to help us cover two urgent goals:
Transportation Safety: Funds to help us secure a newer, reliable, high-sitting used SUV so Mark can leave his job safely, protect our daily income, and transport us safely to medical care.
Housing Stability: Funds to secure a first-floor, wheelchair-accessible apartment down payment (with an in-unit washer/dryer and a walk-in shower) so we can finally leave the expensive hotel cycle.
Every single dollar goes directly toward giving us a fighting chance to regain our health, independence, and dignity. If you are unable to donate, please consider sharing our story with your friends and community. Your empathy, prayers, and kindness mean the absolute world to us during the hardest chapter of our lives.
With deep gratitude,
Brenda and Mark Campbell
