Irma refugee struggles to make Springfield home

Frankie Mayes was given a one-way ticket to wherever he wanted to relocate after the home he shared with his father was filled with flood-waters, when the Category 4 Atlantic hurricane Irma made landfall last year in Florida.
The airfare from FEMA was an opportunity for Mayes to rebuild after the storm left his father and him with only the clothes on their backs. Months later, a planned cross-country reunification ended abruptly when his father was killed in a car crash in Georgia.
With nobody to tie him to the East Coast, Mayes decided to make Springfield home, but he says that too has been a struggle. Having visited Medford briefly before the storm, Mayes selected Oregon when FEMA offered relocation travel.
A student at LCC, Mayes has an LTD Bus Pass and uses a skateboard between destinations. He has found work, but housing has been difficult. Despite the best efforts and the helpful and patient management and staff at the Crosslands Hotel in Springfield, Mayes fell behind on rent.
Previous partners with SPD and the CHETT Program, Crosslands Hotel staff contacted SPD and the CHETT Program to help provide Mayes with some breathing room while he searches for permanent housing and work.
More information is available at his Go Fund Me page: https://www.gofundme.com/DiedWhileRelocatingHome–Stuck
Anyone with information is asked to call the Springfield Police Department at 541-726-3714.