Ask HN: How do I escape homelessness after rebuilding my mental health?

I’ve been homeless and am now an employed engineer, so I know it’s possible to make the leap. You can’t make it in one go, though.

Get a better job, that can get you stable housing. I don’t know the job market in your area, but try looking for temp agencies. They will do a basic interview and help you find something that uses your existing skills. Until you get stable housing and your basic needs met, focus on what you can do with the skills you have now.

Seconding what others said about going to the library. In my community they serve almost as social workers, and have lists of places like food banks that can help you until you have better employment. Your county will also have resources for you; you can get on the waiting list for housing vouchers (they’re years long, but just in case), get food stamps, get leads for programs local to you.

Yes, it’s possible to end up with a tech job. There’s a big gap between where you are now and there, though, and having stability in the short term will help you get there.

Ignore 95% of comments here. Research your options for local support through the government and religion. Religion may be more helpful in your area, even if your beliefs don’t exactly align. There is housing, food, etc available to you but you’ll likely need a social worker for help find it.

https://switchpointcrc.org/ is local to you with food, shelter, etc.

More info from a gov source: https://sgcityutah.gov/business_detail_T18_R270.php

https://switchpointcrc.org/how-to-get-help/

The local access points to the coordinated entry system provide the assessment, information and referrals, and other resources to the person seeking housing.

Stop by or call for more information 948.N 1300 W. St. George, Utah 84770. 435-628-9310

I have a spare laptop I could ship, it's running Linux now and cannot "officially" run Win11. It's a little older, Lenovo X1 Carbon with a chipped case & wonky touch bar for the Fn keys, but it works perfectly fine.

If you're interested and want to drop a way to contact you, I'll figure out a way to ship it to you. Otherwise, as much as I loathe sending you to Facebook, the local "buy nothing" groups another commentor recommended sounds like a good place to start.

Good luck!

I’ve been there. I lost my marriage, my house, my money, my parents, my job, everything. Literally $100k in the hole with $0 in the bank.

Sounds like you know how to survive, which is perfect… here’s what you do. Ditch uber/lyft and get your CDL. They’ll pay you and train you and give you a job. Plus, you get a nice sleeper truck to sleep in that’s more spacious than your car. (If you have the cash, an RV works instead)

Take the income you make and pay off all your debts using the snowball method. If you don’t have debts, use that money for classes/school/training to get back into the field you want to be in. 6 months to a year and you’re back on your feet, apartment, furniture, money in your pocket, a future to look forward to.

Stay strong.

> What would YOU do in my situation to break the cycle?

I would start by getting in touch with extended family, friends, and anyone who trusts me enough to lend me a couch. Then I would make sure that my footprint on said couch was as small as possible. (IE, I'd make sure not to leave a mess.) Finally, I'd be very open about my search for employment so they're constantly assured that I'm actively working on becoming self-sufficient.

For example, my cousin divorced her husband and put a restraining order on him. He ended up moving in with his first wife while he gets his life back together.

---

Assuming someone I know was in a similar situation, my ability to lend them my couch mostly depends on the risk they bring into my household. In the past, I avoided a college friend because he became a heroin addict. I'd give my nieces and nephews a lot of leeway in this situation; and the same for my cousins' children. Older cousins and adult friends would require closer understanding of the situation.

I would seek to understand if alcohol, drugs, (or other vices like video games) contributed to the situation. Substance abuse is not something I want around my family, and it's not something I'm comfortable helping someone else manage.

Maybe I’m late, but I’ve been poorer than having a car, in a country with fewer opportunities, not to say that gives me any creds, but whatever.

Get a job that’s not freelance u til you have a home. Restaurant, retail, mechanic shop, whatever that gives you a w4 and a group of people that aren’t assholes.

Reasons: looks good when signing a lease

Likely to get some sort of health insurance I think? I had it in all my w4s in the US. Group of people to start interacting with, you never know what comes out of that. I think out of the options given, retail is the worse for that, but may give you access to bigger companies.

After hours you can do thumbtack like IT for people at home that don’t want to to go geek squad. Old ladies, whatever. I built a pretty decent group when I was younger and it paid pretty well with very low mental effort.

The car is never a good investment unless you work on it yourself. A DIY oil change is $37, at the shop 120 in my area. If you’re living in a car you can’t afford that, so start thinking about dropping uber and Lyft when you can. You could get some used tires for now, otherwise I wouldn’t buy anything but the cheapest Walmart tire.

Sell your desktop. Put it on fb marketplace, get something out of it. You can get a working laptop for almost nothing, unless your pc is ultra undesirable.

Reach out to recycling places, explain your situation, they ,might give you one at cost. If not, eBay, fb.

Take care of your body and looks. Shave, shower, trim your nails, comb your hair or just get a buzz cut, don’t tell people you live in your car unless you’re close to them. Back in Florida $10 at planet fitness or whatever it was called would get you access to a shower and you could also do some exercise that’s good for the mind and the body, maybe there is something like that near you.y

1. Ignore the haters.

2. Sell or trade in the desktop for a laptop. Portability and space is your friend. Join a local Facebook "buy nothing" group, and ask for a trade or someone's spare old laptop. Any mobility improvement is a win.

3. Immediately make a free account for Salesforce's Trailhead program https://trailhead.salesforce.com/ and start learning everything you can. Badges can be added to your linkedin, and you should go heavy down the path of force.com development if you can.

4. Once you have a few badges, polish up your linkedin (and resume) and start spamming recruiters for salesforce positions.

The ERP/CRM world pays very well but almost all platforms have a stupidly high barrier to entry, EXCEPT Salesforce. You could have a $100k/yr job in a few months if you follow this path, and then branch out to Oracle or NetSuite or SAP from here.

edits (consolidating advice here for posterity):

I should add that ERP/CRM consulting is largely remote friendly and your prospective employers/consulting firms will probably not give a rip where you live. They never did for me.

Find a coworking space (NOT a chain one like WeWork) in your town. Talk to the owner and explain your situation, ask for a month or two discount while you get your bearings and attend every meetup they have or know about. Meet everyone, tell your story, share your skills. A small community will help take care of you in ways a Chamber of Commerce chapter will not.

If you are not religious, look for an Oddfellows chapter. They may be a resource to you in a similar way as a church congregation.

And if you have skills but they are outdated, you're now competing with every unemployed junior, fresh grad, and old coder on the market. Update your skill set, and ideally focus on skills that are in higher demand and with higher barrier to entry or with a captive audience/market. Differentiating will help with jobseeking.

For extra side income, attend garage/yard/rummage sales and focus on books. Books are great to flip, because you can immediately appraise the quality, scan the ISBN number to find the going rate, and only buy it to flip if it's worth enough.

Sorry to hear about your situation.

Since you're in Utah, I'm going to suggest you find a bishop to ask for help. Even if you don't belong to the LDS church, I _think_ they might be able to help you out. Go to https://maps.churchofjesuschrist.org/ and find a church service to go to on a Sunday morning, and before/after the meeting, try to figure out who is the bishop/counselors and tell them your situation. It may depend on who you get, in which case you can always try other wards/buildings/areas.

Good luck!

My professional resume looks a lot like yours. If you find yourself in the SLC area anytime soon, I have a 2012 15" MacBook Pro I can give you. It's older, but it's solid, it works great. The only exception is the battery, it doesn't hold a charge for very long any more, so it needs to be plugged in for prolonged work sessions. A new battery is only about $90 if you're inclined to replace it.[1]

Best of luck moving forward.

[1] https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+15-Inch+Retina+Disp...

> I drive Lyft/Uber full-time

Stop driving Lyft/Uber. It's for those who don't have any skills beyond driving a car.

Sit down and determine what are the skills that you currently possess that are the most valuable on the market right now. Then sell those to the highest bidder.

My two cents, that isn't a job.

> I know I can earn 3-4x more doing freelance tech, but I can’t do that from a car.

Yes, you can. That's a limiting belief; it's just holding you back. All you need is a laptop. Need to make a meeting? Go to a local cafe. Nobody will even notice. More importantly, if you're doing remote contract work, perfectly acceptable to ask a percentage of the total upfront. That will go a long way to get you out of a car and into an apartment quickly.

> What would YOU do in my situation to break the cycle?

1. Stop driving Uber, stop renting motels, stop paying any bills, bring my costs down to near zero.

2. Start taking on as much contract work doing "freelance tech" that I can find, with as much paid upfront as possible.

3. Once I have 10k in the bank, rent an apartment and start cleaning up whatever mess is left.

4. Start making quality of life decisions. Maybe you don't want contract, but want a job? Maybe a nicer laptop? Closer to your kids? Live your life.

#1 is the hardest, because you're risking everything on your ability to deliver. You have to believe in yourself.

> How do I climb out of this? What programs, jobs, or options are out there for someone like me who’s got skills, drive, but no resources?

Go to your local libraries; the most beneficial programs are likely to be local to you, and the librarians are more likely to know about them than we are.

Dont look for answers online. Go meet with a social worker and seek professional help within your community. It's there. They've seen it before. They can help.

I've never been in this position so take what I say with a grain of salt.

Get a job- anything where they will hire you and pay you. Use that to bootstrap yourself out of your car and into any kind of housing. Anything at all. Work that full time while you do freelance gigs until the freelance gigs pay about 2/3 of your income. Use the freelance money to fix your car etc. Now quit your job and uber 1/3 and freelance 2/3.

Oversimplified? yes. But it's not designed to be a foolproof plan, just food for thought.

Also that's fantastic that you've pulled yourself out of depression. I once had the worst clinical depression my psychiatrist had ever seen. I pulled myself out of it and got rid of the things that caused it, including some pretty bad internal programming.

You've got this. You can do it.

You can work from a local library.

Do you have anyone you can lean on? Cousin? Uncle? Anyone? Just a little financial support could go a long way.

Do you have any programming experience? Instead of making school a priority, I would try to get an actual job. Non-tech can be stupid simple, the pay can be decent, definitely better than Uber. Plus, you will have a space to work and a work machine.(this can be a bit hard right now as tech is going through a down cycle)

You need a job.

After you stabilize your situation you can think about AI/ML imo.

I dropped out of school and after a series of events, found myself living out of a broken-down car on the other side of the country with no money and two credit cards that I promptly cut up. I spent a couple weeks unemployed and then worked fast food until I had enough to afford a room in a shared house within walking distance to the restaurant. Showered in the local park every once in a while. Dumpster dove for food initially, at one point sucking down ketchup packets because I couldn't find anything else (protip: bakeries throw out enormous amounts of slightly stale but perfectly edible stuff). But working fast food is nice because at least you can grab some stray fries or something.

Once you have shelter and you're committed to saving more than you spend (again, working in food industry is beneficial there because free food), you can start taking on more jobs and slowly work your way out.

I also had decent coding skills at the time, but never got a job out of it. So don't put too much of your hopes on that. I got a couple responses from job ads, but never even got to the interview stage without a degree.

Eventually (two years) I managed to get to the point where I could work and go to school at the same time (with the help of student aid), and subsequently got a degree and a real job. But the whole time it's all about minimizing expenses as much as possible.

You mention inheritance. I recommend putting all that away in some investment and not touching it. Not because the investment is going to be worth a ton in the future, but because doing so will help build the financial discipline you'll need to get through these times.

Ultimately, digging out rests on stability and savings more than anything else. Find a job with reasonably stable income (maybe uber is fine? it wasn't an option back when I did this), and save every penny that you can. Then you can start planning realistically for the future. The hardest part may be kids; I'm sure it's tempting to spend everything you have on them, and these days even the cost of gas to visit them may be more than you should be spending regularly. At least budget (strictly!) the number of miles you drive outside of work; that money adds up. But get a handle on your budget and spend less than you make. That's the only way out.

I lived in vehicles for 11 years until eventually resettling with family after circumstances changes.

1. Find the local county or city social services agency.

2. Apply for emergency aid and shelter, including Medicaid and SNAP.

3. Apply for section 8 housing. This usually will take a great deal of time.

Something reasonably close to this happened to me in 2002. I worked for Disney at the time and they cut back to the entertainment department and laid me off. My wife at the time OD'd, got herself committed to a psych ward, got us kicked out of our apartment, and we ultimateley divorced. I was forced to live out of my car for a while.

It frankly wasn't actionable ideas and guarantees that got me back. It was commitment to a plan once I had one, no matter how shitty the interim existence was, and the grace and goodness of other people. You're arguably in a better position if you already have marketable job skills. I was doing performance art for Disneyland. I went back to school after and eventually became this, but that took years before I had anything like an independent, stable adult existence. I was working graveyard shifts cleaning park restrooms and taking 24 credit hours per semester at a community college during the day, for two years, before I got old enough to be eligible for financial aid without having to report my parents' income and assets, and they weren't helping me.

But other people did help. Two women I knew, very good friends from now a long time ago, had parents that let me stay with them. One was a divorced Italian woman who was otherwise alone anyway and the other was a normal family that was rich and had a lot of extra space and didn't mind me taking up a little bit of it. I lived with with those two families when I had nowhere else to go and that was the initial path off the street that gave me the stability to do everything else.

I have no answer for how you find such people who will help you. I would like to say be a kind, gracious person who deserves it, but it's hard to say I was even that. I did nothing to deserve help but people who could helped me anyway. I've spent the past quarter century since then paying it forward and helping out every person I possibly can and even letting a few homeless friends here and there live with me for a couple months at a time, but up to that point in my life, I had done nothing to deserve being helped.

Far outside of my lived experience, but, here’s a take anyway.

Your priorities sound out of line with your current financial reality.

Concretely, you’re struggling with $890 in car costs that your current income depends on and asking how to escape homelessness. The crappy reality is that you need to maximize the safety of your one existing income stream ahead of nearly everything else. That means building up an emergency fund for car repairs.

Free cash flow, a well maintained car and a savings/emergency fund are the biggest lifelines you will be able to give yourself in the near term.

If you can get a programming job or a cheap laptop (sub $200 old Thinkpad on eBay) and start picking up some freelancing work you can do in a public library or similar, that’s amazing, but for now you’re really all in on your car and it sounds like you need to focus on that until it’s safe and stable.

Hopefully if you’re frugal, not too unlucky and do your best you’ll have more options in a few months.

This sucks and I really hope things get better for you.

Based on your interests I would suggest a junior role in IT helpdesk, going back to school sounds good for long term personal development but is not optimal for work and will require years of effort that you could have spent adding to your resume. Don't look for big tech companies, just look for any company with more than 15 employees, because basically someone needs to look after the computers, phones, printers, wifi etc. [ and if you are interested then eventually development work will come up in that context ]

From helpdesk you can then move into specializing in whatever you are interested in. Software development is a competitive field and is constantly in technological flux, but there is stable work behind the scenes if you don't chase the latest trends too much. If you want to do it I would suggest looking for a PHP job rather than an AI job. Freelancing is very piecemeal work and hand-to-mouth, which is the opposite of what you currently need.

I'm curious, why in a situation like yours you are looking for a remote job? It seems that an office job would be much better.

First of all, your situation is completely normal for the time period we live in. A few people I thought would never become homeless (web3 engineers who used to make 300K a month etc) are on the verge of it now. Pretty insane combination of a mental health and economic crisis we have going on.

>I’m willing to work. I know I can earn 3-4x more doing freelance tech, but I can’t do that from a car.

Why not? There are homeless people doing Amazon Turk from cafes in Hong Kong.

Second, you need to focus on fast money making sources. That's Lyft, shoveling snow, micro-tasks (I help people with Solana developer questions in the Raydium Discord for example, earning 100-200$ per small script), food stamps, church handouts, it does not matter. Cash quick. You need some quick money to ease up the stress so you can focus on the next big leap. You'll get to the big tech job, but until then, you need to focus on your current reality.

It’s frustrating that we don’t have social programs specifically designed to tackle situations like this. I get that solving homelessness isn’t easy, but there are people who are capable and willing to get back on their feet... they just need the smallest boost! Why isn’t there a tax-funded welfare system specifically for this?

> I have a desktop computer but nowhere stable to set it up and work.

> I know I can earn 3-4x more doing freelance tech, but I can’t do that from a car.

I'm seeing cheap x86 laptops on Amazon for like 120-150 USD. If you need more computing power, you might be able to rent it out via a VPS and other services. VPSes for example charge cheap prices by the hour (cents to single-digit dollars).[1] You don't need that much computing power all the time on your local computer. You can get an inverter to power your laptop from the car. IDK about your available mobile data plans, but you don't need much for work. You won't be able to rely much on YouTube, but you can get by with the textual internet.

[1] https://www.linode.com/pricing/

Sorry to hear about all that you are going through.

Looking at your profile - it appears as though you've worked extensively in technology in the past - and are reporting a cash crunch currently.

First order of business seems to be securing a place to live. Could be a friends couch or a room to rent.

Longer term, resuming employment in the tech industry seems to be a good path to financial security.

A couple of questions - is there a timeline for the inheritance money arriving? Will that enable you to rent a place to live? Do you plan on working concurrently with going back to school?

Again - sorry for all that you're going through - although it sounds like you have developed a positive attitude.

Hats off for winning the first battle. Winning back your mind. It's not easy.

Freelance, as you said, might be a pragmatic next step. Sell your desktop PC to buy a laptop or get a cheap Thinkpad. Models from a few years ago are still perfectly good for programming. And then you could work from libraries.

I don't know how the tech market is going to evolve, but if the junior to mid level market stays as it is or worse then it might be prudent to think about acquiring additional skills that can't be automated so easily, i.e. plumbing, electric etc. Something I'm considering.

If you have a Gofundme - I'd be happy to contribute.

Not that this is the whole solution, but I can send you a used MacBook Pro M1 or M2 (can’t remember). You can use that to go on Mercor and see if any of the roles suit you.

Reply to this thread, if interested.

When I was younger I moved somewhere without a backup plan, and took some seasonal work (which actually paid fairly well), then did some construction (didn't pay so well). The seasonal work offered food and boarding so I was able to essentially vanish, coast on the awful camp food and live in a tent, and save every penny. The construction work, I just rode a bike there and did my bit from 9 to 5. Rent wasn't cheap, but I didn't have a lot of other expenses.

I lived a bit like a bum and had to sacrifice a lot, but it worked. It was temporary. I left where I was because I had a room mate with mental health issues, and rather than subject myself to them (they were becoming violent), I realized I had to take a leap. If I kicked them out, I was inviting trouble for myself and setting them up for a hard fall. If I left, they at least had a space to live and sort themselves out for a while.

This was when I was teaching myself programming. I read books when I couldn't use my computer, but once I could afford a place where I could use my computer, I spent a lot of my spare time doing that, finding freelance work, and getting out of the hard labour scene. It worked out fine. You've got a leg up since you've already got skills and proof of ability.

Good luck. I know it's hard, and it feels like garbage a lot of the time, but you sink in the hours now to get relief later.

Good luck.

Btdt, except the kids. I had friends and mobility, so I crashed. I made friends hanging out downtown and picked up work doing all kinds of things. I ran audio at shows, painted houses, repaired TVs, recorded VO for commercials. Hole in the wall apartments could be had for $300/mo which was a week of work at practically minimum wage.

My tires were expensive and loved going flat, but I could service my car myself. Someone crushed in the door and fled, so I left it while I scrounged $500 over months for the replacement. Someone spilled beer in my external hard drive and I lost a decade of projects, photos, and source code. I broke my hand and never got it fixed (paying for that now that I can't pick up a jug of milk, play music or type with it without pain). Early on, I went back home to pick up some clothes, and my ex's new boyfriend had already moved in. Stuff sucked.

But people helped me, even when I didn't ask or want them to. I was a lot harder on myself than anyone else was, and that kept me from immediately fixing my situation until I hit what I thought was rock bottom and went to a doctor.

It sounds like you've already done the medical stuff, which is the most important part. If you're unhealthy, everything is harder. I think if you're able to talk about it and ask for help, it means you're a lot closer to what you want than you were. GL.

Interesting ... The original poster did not say one word about child support, and this string turned into a child custody and support debate. The solutions: 1. Automatic 50/50 custody at the time of separation. 2. Because each parent has equal 50/50 responsibility for the child, support should be only a small amount from the higher earning parent to the lower earning parent to equalize the financial environment for the child in each household. 3. No "imputed income" ... EVER. Child support based upon real income only. 4. Audit how the recipient spends child support for the benefit of the child. 5. If all this isn't done, child support strike! Just sit in the jail and do nothing. Let the citizens of the county pay support to feed, clothe and house the child support obligors until they beg their legislators to change the law.

To the original poster: Check with your local senior citizens' services agencies. See if they have a senior citizen shared housing program. I don't know how old you are, but only one of the parties in a shared housing arrangement needs to be a senior citizen or disabled. Rent could be very low, or could be just maintenance on the home, or just companionship.

I've been down in a hole before but not like that.

Don't have anything constructive to contribute, so I'll just sincerely say good job so far and best of luck.

Here in Norway it stings a bit when I see what's left of my pay after taxes, but stories like yours is a good reminder. Our system here isn't perfect, but helping people in situations like yours get back on their feet is definitely one of the things that makes it feel worthwhile.

Seems with southern UT, the three differentiators to your situation are the incoming summer heat, LDS and SLC tech.

Heat - I’d try to get a laptop soon, and start scouting out your WiFi access points that have A/C. As you know the heat there is no joke, doubly so if using electronics. Reply to this thread if you want a factory reset MB pro, few years old model. I would have to ship it.

LDS - you’re there and sounds like maybe in the church or familiar re: southern UT family? If you’re a Jack Mormon or w/e, sounds like a good time to find yourself back in the church and get w/e help you can source relative to your tolerance for integration. If you’re out, I’d look up ex-Mormon support groups, or consider how LDS you can become in short order to get help.

SLC - tech work is here, and I’d rather be in SLC vs Vegas or St George if housing was unstable due to heat, and the car might not handle a big drive in the future. So I’d plan a move soon. However, CoL in SLC has jumped, and idk how cops there treat homeless. So, I’d expand my work radius to the SW broadly and the Mormon valley from AZ up to Missoula.

Is there somewhere (family/cousin/old friend) that can get you our of the street for a few months? Even if it's a garage or a tent in their backyard. Something where you can shave, shower, wash your clothes (perhaps get some of their spare clothes)? I sometimes listen to Dave Ramsey show, perhaps give him/them a ring? They sometimes help people out, or can help set you up with some local church (I'm not religious and I don't assume you are)(but some churches and priests do "god's work" to help people in time of need)(and you are in it). I know Ramsey would say "go to Walmart and start stocking shelves" (or something similar - find something that will pay -whatever is a minimum/decent in the US- and work 10-12 hours per day 6 days a week (rice & beans). And once you got a momentum going and got your fist 5k in the bank you can start thinking options.

Your desktop, can you trade it for a decent laptop?

And call your local tech schools. Some states have programs to fund tech certificates. For example, in Kentucky, or one has no income or poverty for a while, the CDL training is free without needing student loan type assistance. If you can get student loans, enroll in the cheapest college possible and max them out, then pay for a studio apartment somewhere cheap and save every dime, and use the 'address' to get a job that doesn't require local commutes resources -- like trucker. Utah used to be the political debates for having solved homelessness. I thought Utah gave apartments to homeless people? Or you coukd get a bachelors in social work and then a phd, live on loans and stipends for 6 years or so, and obtain a licensed occupation. Information technology/tech is a road to sadness and nobody in your position should aim at it

I’ll pay your car payments - email me. Contact info in my bio.

My $0.02 please

Recommended plan 1. Find a new-ish laptop immediately. You can get a decent used one for $1K on backmarket.com. Invest in an ergonomic mouse and an iPad for 2nd monitor as well. 2. Do only high value tech work that pays or you learn something that will pay. Be hungry and stay homeless but do not work as an Uber driver it's a poverty trap by design. 3. Find a host family, welcoming community or marry up. You can't beat depression or get back on your feet alone. One suggestion is: go to SLC and get involved in Hacker and / or rock climbing communities.

Def get rid of the desktop computer. You don't have a desk and are unlikely to for long time.

Again my $0.02 please it's hard but you're on the right track IMO

Im Mexico your family would lift you up but I don’t know about the us.

What I would do is just take my skills and find the most valuable thing I can offer.

Example: buy a security camera and offer “I’ll install it and teach you how to use it”

I’ll sell your car online.

I’ll create your online store and capture your products

> I'm in Southern Utah (St George), willing to relocate to SLC area or Las Vegas, I just need to stay local for my kids...4 hour radius from southern Utah.

I suggest you optimize for your own (individual) positive economic trajectory first.

RuPaul has a saying “if you can’t love yourself, how can you love somebody else. Can I get an amen up in here?” An analog to your situation might be: if you cannot be there for yourself, how can you be there for your kids?

Consequently, I suggest you not limit yourself to such a narrow radius of employment opportunity. If you cannot get a well-paying job somewhere else, you shoylr have resources to visit your kids. Watch out for ruinous empathy.

I am currently living in a Minivan in Moab, UT.

I work from the local cafes, coop grocery store & library-- when I do work. Web App & DevOps stuff.

I'm mostly burned out from the last 2 years (layoff, then sending out ~700 applications and only landing a handful of interviews.)

However, my van has solar panels, a 2kwh battery, and a 12v refrigerator, which makes things much better. A sedan would be tough. I think minivan is a good size-- sure, a bit small to be a cabin, but great gas mileage (e.g. 24 mpg highway).

Why? Because I'd rather have privacy and freedom, than roommates. Can't really afford an apartment at the moment.

Next challenge is evaluation of your willingness to share a room with 2/3 others in effort to keep rental costs down.

This extra roommate(s) poses and presents an extra challenge of your mental health.

The only other recourse is to rent ... alone ... in deep rural areas in the smallest place you can afford, space-wise. Smallest soace, because you'll need extra money for gas, food, transpos.

So, your mental health dictates your willingness to deal with extra people which in turn primarily dictates your ability to expensive living closer (but with roommates) to your kids in the city versus the cost of a living space alone.

>> and building my own AI-assisted mental health tools (ChatGPT literally saved me) <<

Come anytime to our AI Workshop & Playground as my VIP (you'll need to join via Zoom) and share your tools & journey. We have founders, developers, etc.

http://earthpilot.ai/play

Package up your mental health tools and start teaching folks how to do the same as you did.

If you can get yourself a tow behind RV, you can drop it on Federal Land and only need to goto a new spot every 2-3 weeks.

Luckily you are in a beautiful place for car camping.

Also, can you work from a library?

If having a laptop is really one of the biggest issues, I will happily get you one (assuming there is somewhere I can send it). Won't be anything fancy, but it'll be a laptop. Email in bio.

You have to find any kind of income and work and go every single day while finding a place to live, even if it is out of your car. Make sure you have everything you need to get employment and make every minute about finding a job, a better job, or being at work earning money that you save up. This is all much more difficult than it sounds because the costs to just show up to work can add up quickly. Luckily, it sounds like you do not have anyone actively working against you to take away this basic human right to support yourself.

Maybe just switch out of tech and join a union with a paid apprenticeship or training program. Do you like to build/fix stuff with your hands?

Sell the desktop

go moderate discord/telegrams servers for a couple hundred in crypto per server per week. start on fiverr and keep in contact with the client directly. You can do this from your phone but get a laptop

You also need to get back in the credit system, so get a secured credit card through Self.inc

You also need to become judgment proof, so begin contributing to retirement plans again

build build build

Flip the script and convey you just could not rationalize $2K a month for rent and you are saving for much more. My first job, after my house purchase was 73 miles away and in hindsight, I wish I slept in my pick-up a few nights a week to lessen the commute. So, you are not homeless but saving money. Get a gym membership and shower there. Eat healthy food at work (when you get a job).

I managed many people and had at least two people sleeping in their offices. They had to be secretive about it, sometimes there would be nighttime office inspections and they would always respond they were analyzing a complex problem, which fit in with what we did at work. One guy stupidly was walking the hallway in his boxers once, and a federal officer caught him, that took a bit of explaining to get out of that one. My co-workers that decided to live in their offices, also hung out at work all the time, but I think they had a little more flexibility as there were no fees associated with work.

My house caretaker takes care of our property in another state. He lives in the van I gave him. He was homeless for years and slept in a secret place at a local school, complete with an electrical outlet. He went thru great pains to not get detected. After I gave him our old van, he has not been homeless for two years. He takes care of our property (external) in that remote state and has access to our garage for some equipment for his labor jobs. The arrangement works great, and I recharge his Starbucks card in return for his labor. I also have someone I can trust to check on the property and take care of things like fallen trees, flooding, etc. One thing with him, he is “homeless” with van, but since he does not have a 40-hr a week job, he spends a lot of time at Starbucks. That can get really expensive, but it is a tax he needs to pay to have a place to hand out. If my guy wanted to work from my garage, I'd have no problem with that. Perhaps you could create a prop office that looked like a real office from a Zoom/Teams camera view.

Do get a cheap gym membership to stay in shape. It will also keep you spending less money at Starbucks. Perhaps you can target an eventual job where you can really be dedicated to working a lot and sleeping in your office. This assumes you would get an office. Or a private area. If you could work 4 ten hr days, then you have a long weekend off. Or, work late and then sleep in your car. I think you need a full-time job with an office or work area. This will give you a place to hang out and ensure continuity in getting money. My experience (little) with gig jobs is there are not enough to string together for consistent income to get you into a better place.

for stable space-grade pc (they literally use them on international space station) grab 100-200$ thinkpad from 2010-2015. it is very reliable and durable platform as known. why can't you get hired in any place asap? I've heard the minimum hourly pay in USA is about 10 bucks. if so, it's 80 per day, so at least 1500 per month.

Try to build relationships and friendships with those around you, without asking for anything in return. Relationships are the best asset we have. Find, build, foster, and nourish and treasure them. It will help with mental health, emotional stability, happiness, connections, introductions.

There's a safe house near Flood and Tabernacle St, I just drove by it, they may have some resources that can help

Give up on a career in IT. You will be wasting your education life. Get something with a license at the end where you can get a state job or something requiring the license. Like truck driver. Get a CDL and make your official home the cheapest studio apartment you can find in 1000 miles.

Your area may have several services that can keep you from being homeless. There should be some social workers good at helping people with just your problems. E.g., they may have a shelter you can use overnight. For long term housing, they may have an area, not easy to see from the main streets, with a few dozen manufactured/mobile houses with subsidized, low rents. They may have sources of food or money for food, maybe a free food credit card, and Walmart, etc. have selected basic foods for such payment means. Your area may have some essentially free basic health care -- apparently there are some quiet Federal programs that funnel money to pay for such services. Where I am, an immigrant started doing yard work mowing grass. Soon he had a truck pulling a trailer with equipment and had hired a few people. Now he has a very nice truck, trailer, and equipment -- big mower with 'sulky', leaf blowers, edge trimmers, etc., maybe > $150,000 in equipment. It looks like he is making good money, and he only works ~8 months a year. So, if could work for some such guy, could learn the details of his business and then start your own. Might help to read up a little on the botany of care and feeding of grass, flowers, trees. Shockingly, there may be more money in a grass mowing business than can expect as an employee with a BS in computer science: Such a business has some advantages, e.g., geographical barrier to entry. Get paid for the work, yes, but also for reliability, trust and generally pleasing the customers. Likely most of the candidate customers don't know much about competitive rates. In such small businesses, references stand to mean a lot. And if your area has cold winters, maybe could keep busy moving ice and snow. Tires for a car? Not so long ago, some people waited until the threads started to show! And might be able to get used tires for much less. Maybe some people for a while don't have licenses and insurance up to date. Maybe "Taxes? What taxes? I don't need no stink'n taxes!" Good luck!

If you have a desktop - maybe sell that and replace it with a laptop. Thinkpads continue to be absolutely workhorses and an older model should be relatively cheap these days. Best of luck.

Sorry for your losses and the situations you're going through. I've also been using ChatGPT lately too for mental health, since therapy here is expensive...

I'm a single parent, dealt with homelessness as well (it's a long story). No family, no friends, and no co-parenting either. It was only myself and my kiddo.

I couldn't receive assistance from government NOR churches (but doesn't hurt to still try) because I was working...However, I was unable to get an apartment at the time(another long story). I was living in Airbnbs and hotels for the time.

I was VERY lucky that a random couple who owned their own businesses let me live in their guest house until I was on my feet and was able to get my own place(took me 3 months of saving).

In terms of jobs, I ended up applying at job agencies, because it is the recruiters job to find you work. I recommend contacting the big ones like Robert Half, Adecco, Randstad, etc. Apply for their tech jobs online and maybe go in person to talk to them about it. Typically, they'll reach out to you over the phone and set up an interview, but I'm sure if they see you in person too, it'll show initiative.

Goodluck out there, wishing you the best and hang in there.

Hey, so I live in St George.... crazy small world - my email is on my profile.

I work at the new Kiln co working space (they also have hotdesks), send me an email and let's connect

I would stop with the Uber and gef a real job like at mcd or something. Once you have a steady paycheck you get a steady life.

You need to trade in (or sell) your desktop for a dev-capable laptop my dude. You can't freelance tech using a desktop computer from your car, but you sure can from a laptop in a cafe, local library, church.. etc. You'll also need one anyway if you're going back to school.

It a tough situation, mental health one of the critical concerns, medical professional would be best

Almost everyday I come to HN to read the comments, this community is awesome, thank you!

Stay strong, you can do it!

Been in this situation and much worse. Renting rooms from old ladies was my goto solution.

(Not an American) Is there no way to get help from the state / federal government?

In addition to what you have taken away from the rest of the thread you must listen to Kanye west discography chronologically starting at the college dropout and ending at kids see ghosts. I know about his character now, ignore that.

Your dreams of making it in AI sound far fetched to me. I would look for a more solid career path such as within a trade. Learn basic plumbing or electrical work. You might be able to find someplace to work as an apprentice as you learn too.

If you have the skills, find an entry level desk job with lots of free time - SOC/NOC technician, IT, help desk. (maybe a swing/graveyard shift) and use the time to educate yourself/learn or do freelance work.

Lots of tech short term contractor work out there, you'll have a leg up if you can work in office (which may give you access to a shower)

Gosh is there no forum on the Internet for smart people curious about technology?

When did Hacker News become Hobo News?

> What would YOU do in my situation to break the cycle?

  1. Get a laptop (Buy or Borrow)
  2. Get a gym membership (i.e. shower, keep up fitness)
  3. Apply for local dev jobs (work out of the library)

The main thing for me would be to maintain cleanliness and to find work in an office. An office job solves many issues in your case (don't need to find clients, they usually supply computer gear, a place to eat breakfast, lunch etc).

If you have a plan but can't afford e.g. a gym membership or laptop, then use gofundme or equivalent to get help from others to execute on your plan.

I mean, you could even just visit local tech meetups and tell them what you need, I'm sure there'll be some people that can help you out.

Try house sitting

I used to live near the YMCA in Encinitas. There would be people along the road that lived in a camper and I assume would shower at the Y. Maybe to that to save on rent. Maybe go on GoFundMe and plead your case. Good luck man. You will make it through.

I'm truly sorry to hear about your situation. What you’re going through is undoubtedly both physically and emotionally exhausting. Losing loved ones is heartbreaking, and when financial hardship adds to the burden—leaving you without even a roof over your head—life can feel unbearable.

But please, don’t lose hope. There are ways to navigate through this difficult time, and I’d love to share some ideas that might help improve your situation.

Steps to Rebuild and Find Stability: 1. First of all, get out of the whirlpool of despair. These few articles can help you.

https://www.themoneyprinciple.com/what-to-do-when-you-have-n...

https://www.quora.com/How-can-someone-deal-with-hard-times-i...

https://www.lifelords.com/lifestyle/how-to-be-happy-again-in...

2. Seek Temporary Shelter: If you have a trusted friend with their own home, consider asking if they can provide you with a place to stay for a short time (2-3 months). You could later offer some financial contribution as a gesture of goodwill. If that’s not an option, look for affordable housing on the outskirts of the city where rent is cheaper.

3. Explore Freelancing Opportunities: If you have a place to stay and access to the internet, freelancing can be a great way to earn money. Depending on your skills, platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, or Freelancer can provide opportunities to work remotely and generate a stable income.

4. Leverage Your Assets: If you own a car but are short on cash, consider renting it out or working with a ride-sharing service like Uber or Lyft to earn quick money. These services provide a flexible way to make an income when you need it most.

5. Take Any Job to Get Started: I know of someone who, despite being highly qualified, struggled to land a job in his field. Sometimes, tough times demand tough decisions. He took a temporary job as a waiter in a three-star hotel, saved money, and eventually secured a stable place to live. With time, he regained his footing and pursued his original career path. Today, he is a successful manager in a reputable company.

6. Trust the Process and Keep Moving Forward: Starting over is never easy, especially during difficult times, but have faith in yourself and in the journey ahead. Every small step counts. Believe that this phase will pass, and better days are ahead. Stay strong, keep going, and trust that life will turn around.

You are not alone in this, and there is always a way forward. Stay resilient!

I have never been homeless, but ran a street paper for a long time and have a lot of anti-poverty experience. As a consequence, I know some people who have gotten off the homelessness hamster wheel and many who have not.

Successful people usually take it slow. Your goals are (in order):

1.) Any housing.

2.) ???

3.) Average housing for the developed world.

If we take your situation and do a SWOT analysis, your biggest weaknesses are a lack of housing and the fact that nobody cares. The fact that nobody cares is also your biggest strength and represents your biggest opportunity. However, all of that is balanced out by the biggest threat - the longer you are homeless the greater the chances that you will be victimized. If you become a victim, the fact that nobody cares will only be a weakness.

As a consequence and since your goal is any housing, you’re going to have to change your career goals. Uber/Lyft are too expensive for you right now. Freelance tech will not be an option because you won’t be an attractive candidate until you secure housing. Your goal right now is any job so that you can secure housing.

Once you have any job, the fact that nobody cares becomes an advantage. Here’s a nasty fact of post-homelessness - it’s really hard to rent anything without an existing address. But, if you have an easily verifiable job and are willing to accept questionable housing, you can secure some housing. It might not be great because the landlords don’t care. But the system is designed to err on the side of the housed, so they’re stepping stones.

Once you have housing, you have three readily available options - a fixed address, easy cleanliness and a place to set up your desktop. You can start dreaming then. The size of the dream/leap though depends on income so for the first few years, you may find that your career/housing goals scale with where you are financially at the moment.

Once you secure housing, you’ll get to deal with all sorts of magical issues. Anecdotally, you’ll have a bit of trouble adapting to becoming housed after being unhoused for about six months per year that you were unhoused. The most common one that I hear is that you’ll mourn homelessness while simultaneously feeling like a real fucking loser for mourning homelessness. That sounds fun, said no reasonable person ever.

The most important thing right now is to remember that you have got this. Asking this question here means that you have all the skill you need. You’re going to go through the darkest of humanity for a spell, but I’d bet all I have in you. You’ve got this homie.

Friends.

First of all I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your mother and grandmother. Losing one relative is hard enough, but losing another and then experiencing a separation is quite a lot to go through.

In your spare time, it may be good to visit the Switchpoint center to help get their advice and support:

https://switchpointcrc.org 948 N 1300 W, St. George, UT 84770

With regards to the $890 you would pay to continue driving the car you use to work as a cab driver for Lyft/Uber, I would ask:

- The $400 for tyres - there are 20+ tyre shops in St George, Utah. Which tyre shop did you visit in St George for your quote? It might be possible to get a better deal. I don't know, but it's possible. If you google "Tyre shop St George. Utah", you will see the list of options there.

- With regards to the insurance, if there is a price comparison site in the US for insurance, try it out and see if you can reduce that amount. I know in the UK there is comparethemarket.com and gocompare.com as examples, so I presume that there has to be something like that in the US?

I would ask "how much do you make weekly doing this job?" alongside "how much are your weekly expenses?" to help workout your income and outgoings to work out how sustainable your current situation is, and where changes can be applied to make it not just sustainable, but actually getting you to a place where you are good.

In terms of programming, what are your skills like?, what programming have you/are you doing? Do you have a GitHub profile where you have code that you can show to people?

If you are programming right now, then it might not be necessary to go and attend classes in school/college/university to study this subject. I can confirm that from 1st-hand experience. I studied a course in University in the UK that was a mixture of Business and Mathematics, but I ended up becoming a software developer.

What programming languages/apps/tools/frameworks are you familiar with?

It may be enough to sit down at a job interview, ask someone to pair program with you on a coding scenario, and demonstrate your capabilities right there and then. If the time allows.

In terms of finding local programming jobs, that will require searching for those.

Also, if you have a desktop computer, like others have suggested in the HackerNews thread, having a laptop will be far easier. See if you can find options to exchange the desktop for a laptop computer - donations, part exchange, part-payment anything. The mobility will enable you to be more mobile and suit you.

Lastly, you mentioned Ketamine. Please be careful because that is a very addictive substance and in the UK recently a public figure by the name of "the Viviene" died from consuming it.

Lastly, I hope that for your case that you manage to get to a better place. Life is a journey and not necessarily a smooth one - we hope for better times, but you can't rely on hope to gift you that - you have to strive for it.

I will leave you with one of the most inspirational talks I've ever watched - Jim Carrey's commencement speech at the Maharishi International University of Management class: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYAk295MZZM

Here's my thoughts, as I've been through this several times--

1. I really believe that you need housing. Spending on motels and office space is counterproductive. (But many folks who need showers and hygiene will register for a gym membership, or use a municipal rec center.)

2. Figure out whether you're part of a special population, or have any distinguishing qualities, that would match you with a particular program. You are confident about your mental health, but would a psychiatrist award you a diagnosis?

3. HUD Section 8 funds regional and municipal programs, and also programs for "chronically homeless" folks. Familiarize yourself with entry-points into this. There are waiting lists, and they're long. Figure out how to get notified when a waiting list opens and apply online--Internet-savvy users are a step-ahead of the hoi polloi.

4. Keep all your paperwork in order. I hope you're filing taxes and tracking your income/expenses. I hope you've got a bank account. If you work with any entitlement program then you'll need to pull out that documentation when it's requested. Libraries have printers, and your cloud/email account has online storage. Organize everything and back it up.

5. You'll find social-services networks that blanket communities with services, and you may need to travel a lot between agencies during the work-day hours. You can get fed at soup kitchens or in public parks or at a church with no questions asked, but they may preach at you and invite you to accept Jesus as true food... unfortunately, programs for employment development are ill-equipped to deal with IT professionals and certified high-tech workers, because those careers are expensive, and blue-collar types have difficulty being accepted to company cultures. Get assistance to polish your résumé and print it out, because job development program may send you to job fairs and provide listings for blue-collar work, but they can also provide useful coaching and support for your job search and disability-related concerns, before, during and after the hiring process.

6. I have also seen agencies that will take in people and have a lot of services on-site. The central homeless shelter does this in my area, and also facilities for the disabled. Just because you have a car, you can still stay in a shelter. This may be a "bunking only" arrangement where you need to leave the premises during the daytime. Seems like a great fit!

7. In a nutshell, while it feels good to have freedom and feel like a professional #vanlife worker, if you want to rebuild your life, you will find yourself going where homeless street people go to do this. Your clinic, shelters, rec centers, and libraries will have postings and representatives to help you navigate. Sticking around, returning on a regular basis, and abiding by program rules will determine your potential for success.

Poster who replied is right. I am out of my depths.

You're doing excellent. Don't worry about anything. Here are my quick thoughts which are in a kind of Maslow-ian Hierarchy of Needs. You're already on them by getting your mental health in order, nice work.

Immediate Steps:

1. Work. Keep driving full-time or more until you pay off the tires, insurance, car payment and amass some savings. Working a lot will keep your mind focused and bring in income while you start to get other things in life in order and apply for other jobs.

2. Living. There are probably great & beautiful campsites in Utah. Probably avoid hotels as much as you can in order to save money. Sleep in your car or better in a tent at a campsite or in a state or national park (backpack out a bit, pitch your tent and sleep). To take showers and exercise, join Planet Fitness or something similar for $10 / month. If you're not familiar with backpacking, it's easy to pitch a tent. Try sierra.com to find a cheap tent and supplies.

Other Living idea: check out couchsurfing.com. Folks will house you for free.

3. Food. If you camp, you can use a small propane powered stove to cook inexpensive meals e.g. rice, beans, pasta, etc. Eat a lot of nuts, inexpensive fruits & vegetables.

4. Get a Laptop. A laptop will be critical to getting a resume ready & sending it out. Check out Free Stuff in Craigslist, NextDoor, or Facebook Marketplace. Check out real cheap laptops (for less than $100) in Craigslist, NextDoor, or Facebook Marketplace.

5. Internet / WiFi / Unlimited Mobile Data. I recommend visible.com for like $25/month. There are tons of places with free WiFi like libraries which you can use as well.

6. Upskilling / Up-job-ing. To get a new job or learn or other things, you'll need a laptop and an internet connection so first get that. If you already have ready programming skills, then you need get your resume together and start applying and or reach out to your network. Make sure you're in a stable position to work both mentally and otherwise before you start this process. You will get tons of job rejections and it will be disheartening because you're working very hard, so be prepared and don't worry, something will eventually work out.

7. Roommate / Living / Health Insurance --> once you have some savings (a few thousand) and a reasonable stream of income at least from driving, you could look for a roommate situation. If you don't have or lost your health insurance, you probably qualify for an affordable health care act plan (off-schedule) and can get that -- list income very low and you won't have to pay much. You could try Medicaid, but I think the affordable care marketplace is probably simpler and you plan anyway to have income soon.

8. Networking. I highly recommend networking with other professionals in your field in your area. One good way to meet them is to join relevant meetups and check for other events. Some meetups on specialized things like ML or online privacy, etc. can have really excellent and relevant attendees you can network with. These are all generally free.

9. AI/ML work. If you already code, you can start tinkering with the AI platforms and such to get some experience. I'd look for a job with your current skills and simultaneously keep learning -- after you get a bit stable via the current driving job.

Those are my thoughts. Feel free to message me if you have any questions or need any resume editing help (ChatGPT is probably a more effective editor than me :-). I'm not in your area, but hopefully other folk in your area are messaging you already with some potential job opportunities. Focus on small steps, small wins. Good luck, you are and will make it.

(1) Why are you wasting money renting motels? If you need a shower, use a gym. Get a membership at a cheap one that has a shower (walk in and ask for a tour), or just idle around the sidewalk in gym clothes and walk in after someone. Sleep in your car in a Walmart parking lot or other 24 hour business lot. Conceal yourself properly so you aren’t a target for police or criminals. Motels are too expensive for you to save the money to live

(2) Are you using all 12 of your driving hours on Uber/Lyft? You should be able to make $200-300 / day if you’re in a good area. If the area you’re in is yielding less than that, move somewhere else.

(3) Save $3k or so then get a cheapass apartment or trailer and build from there

Before all of these, apply to local shelters. If they’re going to stop you from working don’t go in. If there are questions they’re going to use to keep you out then lie.

You are in a tough spot.

I would warn against AI-assisted mental health tools regardless of any advertised claims or promotions. AI is more likely to harm than it is to help for a number of reasons I won't get into here. It can create convincing lies where you are worse off later.

If you want to do better, you will need to start networking with people that can help. There is no power as a lone wolf, members in a community people help each-other.

On a personal level, you need stable working space, and living space. Mental health is tied to stable spaces, isolation and food/shelter security will drive you mad faster than anything else.

You will only be as good as the working space you are currently in allows.

> I drive Lyft/Uber full-time ... without these costs I can't work.

You will need to properly project and evaluate whether this is sustainable. From what I've heard of Uber, I'm guessing it is not.

You shouldn't be doing work and trading time that doesn't move you forward to a better place than you started at. There are predatory companies out there that will suck you dry and spit you out. There is an opportunity cost to being a wage slave.

It sounds like you will need to figure out your expenses, and your average income for 40 hours including breaks at regular intervals (for health).

If you can't make a sustainable profit factoring in seasonality, you can't do that work and must find something else.

You should be including the required tax withholdings for business. Being a contractor must make sense. Net not gross for viability with at least a 20% profit margin for unexpected expense.

I would not recommend Information Sciences to anyone at this stage. It is a pipe dream now. Those that have the experience already can leverage it, but those that don't, now is not the time and it will only get worse from here-on-out without providing marketable skills.

Homesteading/farming might be an option though not one I'd recommend without a background/community that can help you with it.

You should focus on practical skills like handyman type blue-collar trades. Plumbing, HVAC, Pools, Electricians, Welding, Steelwork, or Machining. It doesn't take long to learn, and doesn't require a lot of equipment (much of which you can get second hand very cheaply).

Once you spend roughly 60% of your time doing the work part of whatever you choose (not the management), and bringing in a net profit, you should look at hiring your first hire as a business (without debt). Distributing labor is how we got to our current heights at a technological society.

Most white-collar work will be fully disrupted by AI in the next 2-5 years blocking off the sequential career pipeline by replacing entry-level work in these fields with AI. Business monopoly through integration has made the decision to force a deflationary cycle as we approach the end of market-driven business in 2030 (business stops doing business when profit in purchasing power cannot be made, those tied to money-printing can continue long after business fails).

Soon monopoly will have won so much that they force everyone (including themselves) to lose everything.

1 in 4 people are out of work right now, it will be much worse a few years from now because the economic cycle is reaching its inflection point (zenith) with liquidity drying up fast, followed by economic armageddon in 2030 (stage 3 ponzi; outflows/debt growth exceeds inflows. Kicking the can no longer works and these are the consequences of the last 100 years of economic and monetary policy.

I don't know your location's job market but you will need to go where the jobs are, and those places are shrinking. A local economy that is contracting will leave fewer options unless you are near the bottom level of the producer market.

The situation is not just you, the economy is and has been in the shitter, because of the Fed (boom bust cycle design, and the terminus from it to ECP/SCP chaos economically speaking). Shortages are prominent and sustaining. Famine driven by artificial supply constraint is likely to be next if history is any guide.

You will need to find a community of people who are self-sufficient, and become self-sufficient yourself. Many such communities do not welcome outsiders because most people today do not contribute reciprocally and act parasitically.

Before asking for help you should always offer help in something. This shows you are willing to work, above what lip service gives.

Staying afloat is about having the skills to navigate life in any economy. Producing what you need from little to nothing.

Many people have been robbed of this. The non-hollywood mythology of the American Dream is Self-sufficiency, Faith, Freedom, Independence and No taxation without representation. This is the True American Dream.

the hardest advice I've received was to find what you are still hanging on to that is preventing change and let it go.

in that spirit: you don't have shelter. I would say you have nothing to offer your kids right now except your emotional need. their mother (or whoever) can take care of them. you're out, done, kaput. accept the failure and earn their forgiveness sometime the future if you are lucky, not now. the belief that you have or can be something for them today in these circumstances creates the constraint on the location of opportunities in front of you, and they will sense they are your anchor and resent you more for it.

get rid of the desktop computer as well. pawn it and use the money for something useful like a spare phone or battery pack or whatever car things you need, it provides no opportunity.

you need relationships of any kind, somewhere else. get a job selling something, even if it's in a mall kiosk, it doesn't matter, so long as you are in front of people.

this is the harshest advice I can think of. I can't say whether it's good or advisable, but anything else you get can be compared against it. good luck.

You describe your situation well so I think GoFundMe is a good idea.

> Through therapy, ketamine treatment, and building my own AI-assisted mental health tools

Those do not sound like a pathway to mental health.

> staying in cheap motels when I can afford it.

From what you've said you clearly can't afford it.

> What would YOU do in my situation to break the cycle?

Get a regular job. It's going to feel like a giant step backwards, but, this is what you need right now. You need to stabilize yourself and have some reliable work and housing in your life. You need a routine. You need to socialize with your co-workers. You need to build all of the things that are currently missing in your life. You cannot build a bridge to a fantasy.

> I’m willing to work. I know I can earn 3-4x more doing freelance tech, but I can’t do that from a car.

You can earn 3 to 4x more doing construction or day labor. Which, given where you live, is going to be far more reliable and afford you more opportunities to matriculate into better positions.

> I’ve thought about renting office space, finding roommates, even setting up a GoFundMe, but I need actionable ideas, not just hope.

Those ideas aren't even hopeful. I think your endpoints have been moved and you didn't notice.

> I just need to stay local for my kids

We go through all of the above to finally out with the fact you have dependents? I fear that you've just been mollycoddling yourself and not being honest or serious about your future.

I'll leave you with this. Wake up. There ARE fates worse than death out there and I hate to see you wake up to that kind of regret.

Shelter first. The cheapest land anywhere ideally with trees, building a structure out of sight, gathering materials with what money I got. There's books on concrete foundations in public libraries, frames, any topic... a water well and some veggies will meet my physiological needs.

1. Give up dream of tech. 2. Call local tech schools and ask about rapid certifications and sponsorship programs like Kentucky has for CDL training doe people experiencing privation 3. Live on student loans working toward a licensable occupation in which graduate degrees benefit you, such as social work, nursing, teaching, paralegal 4. Live on loans either in a dorm or get the cheapest studio apartment around. 5. You can't eat pride, just get a long term plan for a room and burgers on demand.

6.GIVE UP YOUR FANTASY OF TECH. A bachelors in IT is worthless. They don't even care about certs anymore after the DEI culture shift. They destroyed the lower levels to hand take the future from Americans and give it to Indians. There is no way to build up the initial skills sets because the number in the top of the pyramid is declining. It will take years to rebel against Microsoft's attempt to hold all private information. Give up It. 7. Your kids need a dad with a plan doe a room and burgers. Pride is worthless. Become a social worker and save 50 percent of your student loans for six years.

  Best wishes man,