A Springfield, Illinois, woman who was barely getting by was about to face homelessness until an anonymous donor intervened. Now she will be able to keep living in the motel where she has been staying, and hopes to move into a house early next year.

The woman is unable to work because of a back injury. She says she lives on her deceased husband's military benefits and her 18-year-old son's Social Security Disability benefits. She also has a 10-year-old daughter.

She ran into a problem, though: when her son turned 18, the payments stopped because the Social Security Administration reclassified him as a disabled adult. His benefits are set to resume in January, according to the State Journal-Register, but that means until then she is without a large portion of her income. She was unable to pay her rent and feared the family would become homeless.

She says she thought of going to a homeless shelter, but many shelters won't take families with children, and those that do couldn't take any more people. One such shelter apparently had to turn away 27 families in a single day.

Thankfully, the woman says the anonymous donor will allow her to stay in the motel until January, when her son's disability benefits will resume. After that, she plans to move into a house. Still, she says, she knows that many families are not so fortunate. People who have their disability benefits disrupted can have major trouble simply making ends meet.

Source: State Journal-Register, "Anonymous donor helps woman, children avoid homelessness," John Reynolds, Dec. 19, 2011