[EM87]

I will refrain from naming names or relationships during this post, but the following story is happening to someone very close to me and I am trying to figure out how to help them.

Some background information:
The friend in question is 27 years old and has been financially stable her whole life. She has a crackhead sister on welfare living in mid-southern Michigan, and has an aunt and uncle living in a much better upper middle class area of the same city. She has a upper middle class aunt living in a different city in Michigan. The rest of her family is dispersed across the country.

The situation:
My friend's job (online journalist, can be done from anywhere) will be discontinued at the end of the year. She has no car and no way to travel anywhere other than walking. She has no place to live right now and is currently visiting her family in Houston. She has $20 in her checking account, and any money she makes from her job from now until the end of the year will be spent on food and bills.

As soon as her income stops, she will have no way to pay her bills. Since she doesn't have a car she won't have a way to get to any job she may get unless she lives within walking distance to it. None of her family that she might be able to stay with lives within walking distance to any commerce areas, and she can't afford a place of her own that would be close to a job without money, which she doesn't have. She can't live with her family forever either, and even if she did, she wouldn't have a way to get to a job. She has been unable to find any other writing jobs online.

Neither of us knows anyone within walking distance of a job who would let her stay with them, and I can't help her myself due to my own personal circumstances that don't need to be discussed here.

What can she do?

[whitetiger7653]

Public transportation?

[arclight610]

How does $20 in the bank = financially stable? Is it possible to send her some bus money to at least get to family to figure things out? In the mean time I will pray for your friend.

[*ASH*]

damn if i know , but thats alot to deal with , and im thinking you might get strange answers here .

join military ?
donate plasma ?

[KommieforniaGlocker]

Originally Posted by EM87

I will refrain from naming names or relationships during this post, but the following story is happening to someone very close to me and I am trying to figure out how to help them.

Some background information:
The friend in question is 27 years old and has been financially stable her whole life. She has a crackhead sister on welfare living in mid-southern Michigan, and has an aunt and uncle living in a much better upper middle class area of the same city. She has a upper middle class aunt living in a different city in Michigan. The rest of her family is dispersed across the country.

The situation:
My friend's job (online journalist, can be done from anywhere) will be discontinued at the end of the year. She has no car and no way to travel anywhere other than walking. She has no place to live right now and is currently visiting her family in Houston. She has $20 in her checking account, and any money she makes from her job from now until the end of the year will be spent on food and bills.

As soon as her income stops, she will have no way to pay her bills. Since she doesn't have a car she won't have a way to get to any job she may get unless she lives within walking distance to it. None of her family that she might be able to stay with lives within walking distance to any commerce areas, and she can't afford a place of her own that would be close to a job without money, which she doesn't have. She can't live with her family forever either, and even if she did, she wouldn't have a way to get to a job. She has been unable to find any other writing jobs online.

Neither of us knows anyone within walking distance of a job who would let her stay with them, and I can't help her myself due to my own personal circumstances that don't need to be discussed here.

What can she do?

27? Female? Hot?

She can sucker a guy to support her for a while until she gets back on her feet.

[*ASH*]

was waiting for fnfnlman to post that .

[Hef]

Internet porn

[concretefuzzynuts]

Try to help in any way you can. After that, I think there is nothing wrong with public assistance in this circumstance. Try the local churches first then turn to the government for help while she looks for work.

The situation you describe is not some fat, lazy, generational welfare queen. Just a person in need of help.

[Huaco Kid]

Originally Posted by EM87

What can she do?

She can sit around moping and acting pitiful.

-or-

Suck it up and gradually build a life like many of us did when we were 18/19 years old and living under the same circumstances. Why did she waste the last 7, or so, years not doing that?

(ps... sitting around moping and acting pitiful usually doesn't work.)

[wrenrj1]

First, she needs to be looking for a job anywhere she can find one. Second, apply for unemployment. She needs to find shelter first and foremost, find a roommate, room etc. Be on a bus route.

Why would nobody let her temporarily stay with them? Is there more to the story?

[SRS]

She should cast her job net far broader than writing jobs if she hasn't already. If she has $20 to her name and is on the verge of homelessness, just about any job, whether fast food, a clerk, etc., would be a step in the right direction. Multiple jobs would be even better. I have a hard time imagining that she can't find any job unless she is focusing on only certain types of job.

With her transportation issue, a city with a decent public transportation system would be the best place to start looking.

[Gareth68]

If she is in this situation at 27 years old, she better get married and have kids.

She likely will never be able to support herself, so she might as well fall back on the oldest legal profession.

[EM87]

Originally Posted by whitetiger7653

Public transportation?

That is a good idea, thank you. She has mentioned that before, and although I don't remember what she said about it, the case may be that none of the relatives she could stay with are on a public transit line. I will definitely mention it though.

Originally Posted by arclight610

How does $20 in the bank = financially stable? ...

Her job, which used to be full time, severely cut their hours very recently. She also had a few large unexpected necessary expenses which completely demolished her savings. Between those two things, that's how she ended up with $20 in savings.

Originally Posted by concretefuzzynuts

Try to help in any way you can. After that, I think there is nothing wrong with public assistance in this circumstance. Try the local churches first then turn to the government for help while she looks for work.

The situation you describe is not some fat, lazy, generational welfare queen. Just a person in need of help.

Nope, that's not her, but it fits her sister to a T.

[JDennis]

In all seriousness if she can't live with you some public transportation vouchers may help. I had a 55y/o coworker/friend that let me stay with him years ago when I had ex issues and had nowhere to go. Come to find out after he had a pain killer addiction from a motorcycle accident and ended up killing himself. I still to this day help his widow out with various household and vehicle tasks. It is amazing how much a little help in need means.

[clancy]

I think her first move might be to consider something other than online journalism for employment. Has she children? They guarantee quick access to social service benefits. If she has no children she can at least apply for unemployment benefits. Granted it is just enough to slowly starve on, but it is better than nothing.

There are lots of government funded traing programs for people in her situation. She needs to start looking into them. Has she friends she can fall back on? I know guys who slept on friends couches for months until they were able to find a job and get enough money saved for an apartment.

[EM87]

Originally Posted by Huaco Kid

She can sit around moping and acting pitiful.

-or-

Suck it up and gradually build a life like many of us did when we were 18/19 years old and living under the same circumstances. Why did she waste the last 7, or so, years not doing that?

(ps... sitting around moping and acting pitiful usually doesn't work.)

She hasn't wasted time. She has been making a living as a writer for the better part of a decade now. As I'm sure you've heard, writers don't make much money. But it makes her happy and she is working towards a bigger goal (to be a published novelist.)

Originally Posted by wrenrj1

First, she needs to be looking for a job anywhere she can find one. Second, apply for unemployment. She needs to find shelter first and foremost, find a roommate, room etc. Be on a bus route.

Why would nobody let her temporarily stay with them? Is there more to the story?

She can stay with her sister if she wants, but her sister is a crackhead on welfare who leeches from society and is terrible to be around (no exaggeration.) She CAN stay with her other relatives, but would have no way to get to a job because from what I remember her telling me, neither of them live near public transit.

[Gregg702]

Can she get Unemployment? That is only a temporary solution, but it should help a lot. If she has had a job, she has been paying into it, so it isn't even a government handout.

[Jgriggs]

http://www.indeed.com/q-Writer-l-Houston,-TX-jobs.html

http://jobsearch.local-jobs.monster....&brd=1&rad=100

Thats just a couple. There are jobs available for a person willing to work, jobs in her field no less. She might need go into another field. To find herself across the country from home with 20.00 to her name and no way of getting around is not a recipe for disaster, it is the disaster. She needs take control of her situation and get that job, I personally would flip burgers before going homeless, but that's just me.
If it were my friend, I would tell her where to pick up her bus ticket.

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/DriverL...forLicense.htm

http://houston.craigslist.org/ctd/3395794561.html

Just sayin'

[EM87]

Originally Posted by clancy

I think her first move might be to consider something other than online journalism for employment. Has she children? They guarantee quick access to social service benefits. If she has no children she can at least apply for unemployment benefits. Granted it is just enough to slowly starve on, but it is better than nothing.

There are lots of government funded traing programs for people in her situation. She needs to start looking into them. Has she friends she can fall back on? I know guys who slept on friends couches for months until they were able to find a job and get enough money saved for an apartment.

No kids. She may end up staying on couches for a while.

[Riflemanz]

Have her apply for public assistance, she can get rent assistance,heat,free food,taxi rides to the Dr. office,free medical,free dental.

[ysr_racer]

Originally Posted by EM87

She hasn't wasted time...

Trust me, with only $20 in the bank, she has

Originally Posted by EM87

But it makes her happy and she is working towards a bigger goal (to be a published novelist.)

I think a better goal might actually be getting a real job that will provide her with a decent life.

[Hef]

Nudie webcam

[EM87]

Originally Posted by Jgriggs

http://www.indeed.com/q-Writer-l-Houston,-TX-jobs.html

http://jobsearch.local-jobs.monster....&brd=1&rad=100

Thats just a couple. There are jobs available for a person willing to work, jobs in her field no less. She might need go into another field. To find herself across the country from home with 20.00 to her name and no way of getting around is not a recipe for disaster, it is the disaster. She needs take control of her situation and get that job, I personally would flip burgers before going homeless, but that's just me.
If it were my friend, I would tell her where to pick up her bus ticket.

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/DriverL...forLicense.htm

http://houston.craigslist.org/ctd/3395794561.html

Just sayin'

Thank you. She has been applying for writing jobs for weeks now and has gotten a few of them, but they are all freelance and the work is sparse. As soon as she gets back to Michigan, she will be searching every day for an in-person job (if that makes sense). She knows that she needs a job and has been looking high and low.

[jjslice]

What part of Houston is she at

[jp3975]

I had a few friends[3] find themselves in need of a place to stay so i let them stay with me.

I eventually moved to a place they couldnt go.

One of them who was 17 decided he wanted to move to Houston, where a girl he liked lived. He asked me how he could make some money fast so he could get a bus ticket, and I told him to go door to door and ask to do odd jobs. He told me he went door to door asking for money. He got the cash for the bus ticket in an afternoon and I found a homeless shelter for him to go to. After a short time he moved in with the girl. Just had a kid with her on Halloween. He could get anywhere he needed to go in Houston via public transportation.

If your friend doesnt want to live in a homeless shelter, she had better stay with her sister. The only other option I can think of is putting an ad on craigslist asking for a place to stay...preferably with a girl. Not the best option, but might beat living in some shelters.