Daniel Samuelson, a disabled atheist steampunk author whom you might know as Luarian on comments or Teh Tweeters, is in a bit of a bind with regard to making his rent. I’ve long said that we atheists need to be far better at taking care of our own when each of us finds ourselves in need.
As you can see in the video, I’m kind of between being homeless and not being homeless right now. I paid rent to live in the place I’m in this month and it’s the first time I’ve had a room in over two years. I am also disabled, as you can hear, and I am unable to work anymore. This leaves me with very few options for doing anything to support myself. While I have applied to Social Security for support, I still haven’t heard back on this decision and, even if it’s successful, it could be months before I get my benefits and it could be over a year before they could find a place for me to live. The HUD lines are, essentially, closed in Orange County and there are no other systems for disabled people to get rental support here.
Except for you. That’s why I’m reaching out – with a little bit of help, I can pay this deposit and no longer be homeless. My partner is paying for my rent but she can’t afford the deposit being asked for. I already have a fifth of my goal met by a variety of awesome people, but it will take more. It’ll take more donations to be sure, but it’ll also take more sharing, more conversations, and more discussion. It’ll take all of us working together to pitch in a little bit to do a big thing. My health and wellbeing suffer every day since as my disability has grown to affect me more, I have been unable to deal with it effectively due to being homeless. With a little bit of help, you could make my life infinitely better.
Please, consider pitching in $5, and please share with your friends on your favorite social networks. I need all the help I can get, and I appreciate everything everyone has, and will do, for me.
~ Danny
If you have some spare scratch, consider throwing it Daniel’s way.
Thanks, Jason! This really means a lot to me, a whole house even.
Donation button is broken from here. Gave at Danny’s website in the first link.
Having a really shitty time dealing with this weekend’s flood of racism, misogyny, and horrors of the modern Gilded Age. Glad I can channel a little into something more positive than wildly inappropriate revenge fantasies.
I’m apparently not able to embed a straight link to the donation page, as I don’t have the whole button, so I changed the link to his blog’s. Hope the extra click doesn’t dissuade donors from helping out our kin!
Here’s a direct link to the donation page – http://www.gofundme.com/3kf0zg
All righty, updated the link with that, since that apparently works from here.
Whatever the problem with links – Paypal worked from the donation page. If I wouldn’t think twice about helping a total stranger on the street I can’t ignore one of our own. Good luck Danny, and I hope it all works out right in the end.
[…] awesome Jason Thibeault at Lousy Canuck blogged about my […]
Thanks, leftwingfox and marker1957! And yes, the paypal stuff is all going to the same place so it’s also appreciated. Though I don’t always get those emails right away so I may not see them. I just noticed that the campaign page lets me update with “offline donations”, so I’m going to have it reflect the real total after a mini-fundraiser my friends are throwing this Saturday.
Thanks again to everyone who’s helping me on this, it means a lot!
Okay, I’ll chip in. BTW, have you published? Sure, we can pass along your request, but some of our friends may be more willing to make a donation in the form of buying your novel. Apologies, if your video already answered my question, but its background hiss muffles some of your speech beyond recognition.
No, I haven’t published anything yet. It’s very difficult to work on anything creative while dealing with the difficulties of being homeless (and not having a dedicated editor). I do have a few pieces of some length at my personal blog if they want to read my work, though, and see what I’ll be working on in the near future.
Also, I believe I did just sell my first story, to The Limitless Magazine, which debuts in September. So maybe soon I’ll have something published!
I know of the sound issues in the video as well, it’s hard to work around my microphone array on my laptop. I’m considering recording something new soon in a sealed room. Though I think my knuckles came through very well.