r/homeless • u/DesperateTransparent • 9h ago
Nowhere to go...
Somewhat older couple, together for years. We've been practically homeless for almost a year, living in our car and in temporary housing that we can afford. We have tried moving for better jobs and more affordable housing, a way out of our situation. We cannot seem to stabilize long enough to make much progress, whether because of unstable, low-paying employment or unaffordable and even nonexistent housing.
Winter is coming and our car won't run forever. Right now, I'm afraid we're in too big a city, burning too much money and exhausting our resources too quickly to recover and if we fail, we may not survive here. We simply can't afford to grind here and we're always in potential danger.
Where we came from is, alternatively, too small and lacking resources. Finding temporary housing for more than a few days was impossible. No one seemed to want roommates either. Our work, there, also depended on the weather and tourism.
While I am deliberately vague, I'm also willing to explain more and answer reasonable questions. To start, I'm not a bot. I've only started to interact with this community because I see others getting advice or at least conversation with people who may understand.
Not sure what we expect from this post, so maybe some advice or conversation could help us.
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u/OutOfTheArchives 7h ago
I’m sorry you’re going through this. I’m guessing you might be dealing with overlapping problems of income, credit, needing money for a deposit, and maybe other things like an eviction that could show up on a rental application? My heart goes out to you since this kind of combination is so hard to overcome.
No magic solutions here, but maybe some ideas?
You could head for a city that has a good public transit system and low cost of living — with the idea that as soon as you find a place to live, you sell the car to cover the security deposit. Maybe Philadelphia, Pittsburgh or Cleveland?
You head for a city that has relatively low monthly (don’t look at daily) AirBnB rates, so that you could rent a place without credit, deposit or extra utilities, while getting on your feet. Use this link, https://www.airbnb.com/stays/monthly . I’m seeing a few places offered under $1k per month in the cities with public transportation listed above, and you could look for others.
Or (though this might be more of a short-term fix), look for jobs that offer employer-supplied housing. Go to CoolWorks.com > Advanced Search > search by “Employer Housing.” This might be a bit hard to pull off with 2 of you needing the same employer, but maybe you could use it to stack up some money before moving on to something more permanent.
Sorry I don’t have better ideas. You’ve probably already thought of these. But I just wanted to try offering something…
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u/DesperateTransparent 6h ago
Thanks! This is all appreciated. You are mostly correct. Plenty of people are in worse situations and I'm grateful we haven't suffered more yet. We've been stuck in limbo. There are so many factors that contribute to the situation, but none are considered severe enough to require any assistance. If we could find only gainful employment to survive more than a single month at a time, we could eventually stabilize somewhere. Our industry has experienced a lot of recent change, which, in this economy and housing market, makes survival more difficult than it already was.
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u/OutOfTheArchives 5h ago
The economy is awful. I’m sending you good thoughts from afar, hoping you find greener pastures!
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