Good day. My name is Jason Rines. I live in Fort Myers, about several miles from Sanibel Island. I had a neighbor that used to live nearby and told me and a few others a horrific story, of total loss, not getting FEMA aid when needed most while some did, who has exhausted temporary options and pleading for help from our community to start over. Our male and female veterans take a lot of pride in what they do in serving our country, they are trained to be rugged to survive in combat and other extraordinary difficulties. So it takes tremendous courage to ask for help. This compelled me to donate what I can, which is my time in raising funds for this great and brave older couple. For many, the damage from Hurricane Ian was massive to their property and disruption of lives. The hardest impacted long-term was and is retirees on a fixed income, that lost everything from the home to the car, to possessions, family heirlooms and photos, all of it. Rent was already skyrocketing before Ian, but Ian made a short-supply market even tougher, near impossible for many retirees regarding affordability. This is the case with Tim and Janis Gilligan who have been married for 48 years. Both have serious medical conditions. They lived in an apartment off Iona Rd for several years. Tim and Janis were able to leave before the storm. I will have Tim tell you in his own words the nightmare before him: "We evacuated to the 14th-floor condo in Bonita and had to park our two-week-old car in the parking garage below the condos. When the storm passed, we went to the parking garage and found our brand-new car floating with all of the others with only the roofs showing... "Janis and I got a ride back to our apartment and found that the key slot was packed full of mud. We got a locksmith to help us get into our unit only to find our place looked like someone had picked up our unit and put it in a blender and turned it on full speed. We also found out that we had 8 ft. of water INSIDE of our unit and everything was completely destroyed. Every stitch of clothing, every stick of furniture, EVERYTHING WAS DESTROYED !!! Being married for over 48 yrs. you can imagine how much we've accumulated in that amount of time. Also, there was quite a bit of family memorabilia that we also had that was also destroyed !! We had NO PLACE TO GO and no way to get there because our car was destroyed when the parking garage at the condo was completely flooded and all of the cars there were floating around with just the roofs showing !! Of course, we did not have any insurance to cover our belongings because we have almost always been living on our Social Security and could not afford it." Tim and Janis turned to FEMA for short-term aid. Many people waited in line for hours to meet with a FEMA official at the library on Gladiolus where FEMA had set up operations. FEMA promised to get back to the couple but they did not hear a word. They called FEMA repeatedly to be told that the office was looking into it. This is now nearing 10 months! The couple has been allowed to temporarily stay at a 40 ft. RV trailer in a friend back yard. Tim can receive other government aid if he has a permanent address. But how can Tim get a permanent address when he can't afford to pay for the first month and last-month rent? If and when they DO find a one-bedroom or studio apartment, Tim and his wife have no possessions, no furniture or anything else to place into it !!!! Others besides myself have made some suggestions that sound feasible but receiving some housing assistance aid can be a months-long process and the couple can't swing the higher rent costs in between. Funds donated to Tim and Janis Gilligan would be to pay for the first and last month's rent, a security deposit if needed, furniture, clothes, pots and pans, utilities, a used car expense, and medicine expenses. The funds should cover these costs and the gap of X number of months until housing assistance aid can be issued. The couple is meeting with Senator Marco Rubio next week who can hopefully spur FEMA to get on the ball and get some kind of support to help Tim and Janis. I would certainly like to see the Gilligans go to Wink News with their story and discuss their need and why it is so critical not just for them but thousands of couples and families in the same awful boat here in Lee County but also in general regarding the spiraling housing unaffordability crisis across the state. It is a story that needs to be told far and wide and the Gilligans wish to help tell that story to a much wider audience. But they need the dwelling now before they can spend time helping many others using their own story. Tim and Janis wish to thank you for reading about their plight and are grateful for all that help. We will keep all who help out fully updated at each stage of the couple finding a new apartment, getting the new place ready and other details as we turn this story from an outright tragedy to a success.
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