Current Events > Probably gonna be homeless for a couple of months.

(+) Yeah! (+)

About a year ago my brother and I both were fed up with dealing with shitty roommates and decided to move in together. He'd just had a kid with his GF and was ready for some stability and I was stuck in an apartment with a bunch of deadbeats because I couldn't save up money to get out when I was paying literally all the bills (and had no way to legally evict them). Seemed like a great idea at the time. We had a solid plan. The three of us work solid for a year and with 3 incomes try to put a down payment on a house.

Problems started almost immediately. For no reason I can understand instead of going for a job in his chosen field he instead decided to work at my aunt's restaurant, a $10/hour pay cut. He also couldn't find reliable child care so his GF was unable to work at all. Sympathetic I agreed to split the bills 2 ways instead of 3 until they could do better. He could manage those bills but just barely. Sometimes I'd need to let him borrow money between paychecks but he always managed to pay it back in a reasonable time. When slow season hit in the winter I encouraged him to try to go back to doing "real" work but he said he felt obligated to our aunt for helping him out. Cue me pretty much carrying all the bills for 2 months until work picked back up. He was able to pay me back for it all but it was tight for both of us, eating into my savings.

We've just coasted along for months now, no progress, until in the last few weeks his GF just kinda got fed up with his shit. She was tired of being stuck at home all the time (at one point both our cars fucking died at the same time and we were basically functioning with a loaner for like a month), she was tired of being stuck with the kid all the time, and she was tired of being broke. They forgot to re-apply for food stamps so they've been even tighter with having to spend the limited expendable income on food and I can only help so much (I mostly eat TV dinners). So last week she moved 200 miles away, in with her brother, and took the kid. And now it looks like he's probably going to go with her. I've tried to convince him to get his shit together here where we've already got a start, that she'd come back if he quit fucking around, but he seems to think that'd be harder than trying to restart from zero, 200 miles away from his support network when he already has no car.

That leaves me in a shitty position. I can't afford the house we're renting on my own, especially when I just had to take out a loan to get a car because the transmission fucked off on my old one. I was *already* looking at getting a second job to manage the increase in bills, I cannot manage the household expenses literally doubling. Worse, the time frame is so short I also don't have time to save up anything for deposits on a cheaper place, assuming I can find one in time. I'm just kinda fucked. /blogfaqs

That really blows. I think you're going to have to bite the bullet and deal with shitty roommates yet again.

Fuck roommates, go on Craigslist and see if someone's renting out a garage or guest house in their backyard with a private entrance for cheap

Damn, that's rough

That's scary, are there no small studios you can move into? Roommates suck, I'd lose my mind if I had to go back to that. Anything but that.

Heck what about family, can you move into a families place for a while. Going homeless is a foolish decision if you can keep out of it.

Wow... Really sorry :(

Any other family (close or distant) you might be able to get support from?

Never rent with family, if you'd been not renting with your brother, you would have "noped" out of there after the debacle of the $10/an hour restaurant job.

Try and rent in a room in a family house, they're usually less noisy and easier (as long as you're quiet/happy to user headphones).

the user VampireCoyote has been homeless for 2 months, and she's doing great. She'll probably be able to rent a place soon

TheSavageDragon posted...

That really blows. I think you're going to have to bite the bullet and deal with shitty roommates yet again.

Yeah my brother's solution was for two of his coworkers to move in and split the bills. They're both late 20's/early 30's and living with parents. The downside is both are the fun loving party types where I'm much more the "sit at home with a noise canceling headset on" type. I'd rather live in my car I think.

DuranOfForcena posted...

damn, that sucks. i'm sorry to hear that. you don't have any other relatives in the area who can help you out?

I could probably stay with our aunt tbh. We've got a good relationship. I'm just very, very tired of feeling like I'm existing in someone else's space.

Northlane posted...

Fuck roommates, go on Craigslist and see if someone's renting out a garage or guest house in their backyard with a private entrance for cheap

This is a thought but IDK how common this is in my area. Rural TN, for the record.

CountDog posted...

That's scary, are there no small studios you can move into?

Like everywhere else, the housing crisis is goddamn ridiculous here atm. I actually checked to see what rent was like at the first studio apartment I lived in when I moved back from college in 2016. Rent has *doubled* in the last 7 years. I could just barely manage it on my own. Part of the problem is virtually every rental property is run by this new fad of property management companies who have jacked up the pricing and have extremely nutty requirements before they will rent to you. You need to make 3x the rent cost per month, minimum for a 1 bedroom and 4x the rent for anything bigger. You also must have first month's rent, last month's rent, and a security deposit equal to a month's rent before moving in. I went thru all this last year finding us this place. We barely qualified for a 3 bedroom house with 3 incomes (and to prove how stupid this requirement is, we've had zero fucking problem making bills with about half of the "required" income). If you make less than $15/hour (and, again, this is TN so $15/hr is a good wage here) you cannot qualify for a 1 bedroom apartment alone.

knightmarexx posted...

Never rent with family, if you'd been not renting with your brother, you would have "noped" out of there after the debacle of the $10/an hour restaurant job.

I mean, to be fair, he's stayed up on his bills even with the lowered income. While taking a lower paying job fucked up the buying a house game plan we were coasting on 2 incomes fine until they stopped getting foodstamps.

knightmarexx posted...

Try and rent in a room in a family house, they're usually less noisy and easier (as long as you're quiet/happy to user headphones).

Again, a thought. I'm barely a presence at home. Stay in my room with a headset on, come out to use the kitchen or bathroom. I don't cook, just microwavable crap or fast food so its not like I'm piling up dishes or anything. Keep my own space clean, do my own laundry, etc. I manage all the household purchasing and bills, too, except groceries. If I could get 2 more roommates like me we'd be set for life :/

hexa posted...

the user VampireCoyote has been homeless for 2 months, and she's doing great. She'll probably be able to rent a place soon

Kinda my thought too. If I live out of my car for a couple months it'll suck (esp in a TN summer where it gets into the upper 90's F with 100% humidity) but it'll also cut my bills by about $1000/month total. Maybe 2 months and I could save up enough to get another place. Houseless with a car/job is different from being straight up homeless.

Wished they filled out the food stamp forms it takes less than 15 minutes if have all the documents on hand

fire_bolt posted...

Yeah my brother's solution [...]

Just reading through that, but have you considered Van Life? I mean, you'd live on your own, at a "slightly" reduced price, especially if you already drive.

at least you have a car thats not that bad. Whereas being outside with literally no roof and no place to sleep is actual homelessness

Try selling your plasma. CDL or Grifols biomat both have decent payouts. Can get an extra 800-1000/mo, and help save people by doing it too.

Northlane posted...

Fuck roommates, go on Craigslist and see if someone's renting out a garage or guest house in their backyard with a private entrance for cheap

This is what I did when I first moved out of the house when I was 18. Rented a garage that had been completely remodeled into a MIL suite/fully equipped apartment. 500 a month, super nice for where I was at in life at the time.