OMG I'm going to be thrown into the street!

[daredtowork]

442. The legal system is practically unusable to poor people

If you've never been in a position of having to go before the court - especially unrepresented - it's hard to understand how stressful and often nonsensical that process is. While we all like to think of the court as the place where the truth will out, judges have very little patience for people who don't know "respect" their obscure courtroom rules. It's very eady for them to find technicalities to avoid listening to people who just want to explain what happened. And then the legal system nickel and dimes poor people on top of all that!

I think people here are also over-ambitious about some of the other options. Catholic Charities ususually offers emergency rent help....if you have a way to pay rent the following month. Temporary disability? Is that a thing in PA? SSI takes years to get, and expect TTW to discover the conundrum where she has to somehow survive during those years while not working to prove she can't work.

Ah...mental health services. Even "social work". Doesn't that sound like they will actually get something done? Mostly it will get a County worker paid and burn up TTW's time (stressing her out over getting to the appointment and paying for bus money). The saddest thing is how these "services" rarely, if ever, do the direct things that would take the stressors out of the picture: help TTW get moved to a new apt, get her car fixed, connect her with a new job (not just critiquing her resume and providing her with "job hunting tracking sheets&quot .

For years I've been locked in a pitched battle with the Dept of Rehab to fund a cellphone. Employers expect it. I don't have a cash income to fund my own. This is the number one most logical thing that would help me, and I might have gotten a job quickly when my health was good last summer if I'd had it. But, no. The DoR and every other agency trying to help me thought I could be tough loved into getting my own cellphone even though they knew I had no cash income and would not get one without the job I needed the phone to get! Crazyness!

THIS is what the world of social services and programs is like, and they WILL let TTW get thrown out on the street sooner than simply making the direct moves that would be most efficient to help her.

Good luck TTW - if it counts for anything, I understand how this sort of situation is one crappy thing after another, way too much for even people with a stable family and a staff of 10 to handle without feeling an avalanche of stress, and I can see why you just keep trying to do the next thing you have to do to avoid homelessness, and that's the best you can do. "Housing Crisis PTSD" may soon have its own DSM entry where I live.

I hope some DU Daddy/Mommy Warbucks paratroopers in with some people to actually help you instead of just referring you to the phonebook.