We Are The Dead
Operation: Ace in the Hole
$10.00
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We've got a situation with a family in Memphis that we've been working for quite a while, and we're almost at an impasse.
"Ace" is a dad of three, husband, devoted father, HARD worker...and has fallen on some incredibly hard times. He doesn't use drugs, has no vices, and falls in that <.1% of long term homelessness that is truly just due to tragic circumstances.
We first met Ace through a local street-gang-member-turned-ally who found the family in Bellevue Park in south Memphis, mid June. He got them into a motel room for a week and called us to come assess the situation.
Upon arrival, we were greeted with one of the sweetest families ever, and it was quickly apparent this family wasn't our typical one - we usually deal with addicted/trafficked. This wasn't that.
We gave dad a job working on the block, but with the hotel costing him $60/day, with no kitchen, and having to feed his wife and kids, he hasn't been able to get ahead.
Work on the block has slowed, and with winter here, they can't risk not having a reliable place to call home.
He's got an eviction in the last year, and has only had the job with us for five months, both are proving to be non-navigable barriers to getting him a lease.
We have a donor willing to cover first and last month's rent, and a house that will fit them all and allow them to cook for $850/mo.
However - the ONLY way to get the management company to allow this is if Ace pays six months of rent up front. We can't afford that and he's got zero savings, he can't get ahead.
Every shelter requires Ace to be located at a separate facility from his wife and kids, and he is unwilling (rightfully so) to do that. We need to get this family placed and keep them together.
To accomplish that, we need to raise $3,400, like instantly.
Who can help us?
We Are The Dead
We are the Dead is a sister organization to Flanders Fields, to carry their mission to those encountered on the streets, on the dope track, in the prisons and in the hell of addiction or sex trafficking who aren't veterans. Nobody on the Flanders team will step over the dead bodies of civilians to save a vet, but within the confines of the charter, funding can only be allocated to veterans. The need to stand up a second org focused on non-veteran funding for rescues and recoveries was immediately apparent, and to date, the Flanders team has been funding these efforts out of their own pockets, but no more! We are the Dead gets it's name from the same poem by LtCol John McCrae that Flanders Fields got it's name from, which reads in part: "
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields."
We are here to restore life to those who were once dead to their addictions and the streets, for we were once the dead ourselves.