EXTRA! EXTRA! EXTRA-Special Edition: Rick Chris has started a fundraising on GoFundMe! Please donate and save this artist from homelessness!". Thanks in advance!

Save the artist Rick Chris from homelessness!
Twitter: @RickChris2

You can donate on his GoFundMe fundraising link, here: http://www.gofundme.com/z7pxfw

Also... you can help to spread the word by sharing the link on Facebook, Twitter or any other social network. Thanks in advance!

Rick Chris statement:

"Recently and very unexpectedly, I was given notice to vacate the apartment I have lived in for the past 17 years.  Being on a month-to-month agreement, under state law there's nothing I can do about it.  Not that leaving this apartment would be a bad thing, conditions of the apartment are seriously substandard and the various owners of the building refused to do much of any maintenance at all in my unit.  Due to lack of maintenance for years of the building's plumbing and serious flooding due to pipe breaks and was a lot of water damage resulting in a serious mold problem in the building, particularly my apartment.  In fact, when some walls were torn out in the renovation of other apartments, I saw that some of the lattice work and wood supports had been completely rotted away.  In the early 2000s I came down with respiratory illness that I now know was connected to exposure to mold.  Though it made me very seriously ill for awhile (we're talking about years) but I finally managed to fight off the illness and get my lungs back in working order.  Still, a very good reason to get my good self into a better home.

     The problem is that I have a short amount of time to find another place to live.  There is a serious shortage of affordable housing in the area.  I've discovered much of it has been converted to "luxury" and "premium" rentals and that is what is in store my tiny apartment, some renovation and renting my unit for many times more rent.  As a result, I find the rents in the area where I now live are far above what my monthly income is.  I do qualify for subsided apartment housing, but the waiting lists are very long and the wait time can be in terms of years. 

   The irony of all this is that I could have been moved to subsidized housing about a year ago.  Back in early 2012, I suffered a serious accident, shattering my upper torso and losing most of the use of my arms for awhile. For a person who makes a living as an artist, having your arms suddenly turned into flippers is a big problem.  Ultimately, a meeting with a social worker was arranged for me and she got me to realize that with two useless arms it would be pointless for me to try and make it on my own.  She got the ball rolling to get me some assistance and upon seeing my decrepit apartment, decided that it would be a good thing to find me a healthier place to live and also got things moving to get me into a subsidized apartment.  I was almost there a little over a year ago when the previous owner decided I needed to sign a lease, I had been on month-to month for years.  It was sign the lease or immediately lose the apartment.  He was negotiating to sell the building at the time and wanted to show a full house of renters to prospective buyers.  So, once I signed the lease I had to forget about subsided apartment openings for awhile. Now I find I qualify for more subsidized housing, but the demand is now much greater and the wait time for openings is much longer.  (I know, life can suck.)

   More irony, in that I've regained most of the use of my arms.  I have a steel rod and hardware that replaced shattered bones in one arm, but my left shoulder joint has not recovered and would need to be worked on until I can regain full range of motion and strength in my left arm. However, that doesn't affect my art production, my lower arms and hands escaped most injury and now I can paint and create as good as I did before the accident.  While my arms were healing I worked on little art projects as therapy and to prevent muscle entropy and loss of motor skills, showing that art can be put to very good use.  The irony is that in the past couple of years I was getting encouragement to restart my little art business and begin producing new work.  New markets for my work were suggested to me, such as producing various creative content for the web.  I have also written a number of books which now only exist on my hard drives that people have suggested that I publish either as books or as graphic novels. It was pointed out to me that my name and popular work still have "brand recognition" and I should take advantage of it.  For that reason, I was in the process of accumulating art supplies and had purchased a new (but used) computer and some new graphic software in preparation of starting some new projects and getting back on the web.  Then the notice to vacate my apartment was slid under my door.  Such is life.

   In the short time I have been given I have frantically trying to find another place to live without any success.  A number of people have suggested that a much better long term solution for me would be to move out of Colorado to a place where living costs are more reasonable, closer to markets that would be interested in my work and into a stable situation where I can be productive again and independent as well as being in a community that I feel more a part of.  I've realized that in struggling to live where I have, while first trying to manage an illness and then a disability, in spite of a lot of hard work, I haven't accomplished anything except to barely maintain the status quo and gradually sunk into the poverty level.

   What I desperately and immediately need now is assistance with costs for moving and storage of my meager belongings, particularly my art supplies and computer equipment and a place to stay until I can find permanent housing, preferably relocating to a new area.  Next, I would need relocation costs, transportation and moving costs.  There would also be rent, deposits, utilities and food costs to help set me up in a new apartment.  The advice I have been given is that I would need approximately three months worth of funding to accomplish a goal of relocation.  The amount I've come up with is an extremely rough ballpark figure after getting some estimates and doing a bit of arithmetic.  However, any funds that can be raised will be very much appreciated.

    I feel I would be much a much more valuable member of society by being in a little place of my own and being productive by working at my drawing table rather than becoming homeless.  

So many thanks for your time and consideration!!!"

Save the artist Rick Chris from homelessness!