I'm a 23 y/o college student living independently in a 2-bedroom apt. in Oakland, CA paying $525 in rent for a semi-private living room plus roughly $50 per month in utilities/internet in a $1900 2-bed apt. I currently have about ~$175 to my name with no savings or valuable assets to speak of. My approximate monthly budget is here.
I moved to Oakland in late January after living with family for a year with about $3000 with the intention of getting a job right away so I would have at least have a small emergency fund. However, due to some personal issues including drug abuse (weed and hallucinogens) and depression, I've essentially spent the last 2 months in my room sleeping, surfing the Internet, and generally avoiding almost all coursework or finding a job. The only thing I did with any regularity was go to class and even then I skipped some. I recently threw out my drug stash and am taking other steps toward overcoming my psychological issues.
Here's my current situation: My $525 rent is due on April 5th and I don't have a job yet. I don't know if I'll be able to earn enough before then to pay my rent and still have enough to live. I've applied for food stamps but since I'm a full-time student I don't qualify in CA until I'm working 25+ hours per week. I'm flunking two of my four classes and am planning on dropping those (which could impact my financial aid next year). Getting financial help from friends or family isn't a possibility for me at this point. If I drop out of school right now I would owe my university $15,000 in addition to about $30k in student loans with no degree to show for it. Ironically if I drop in early April I might now owe anything other than the loans I took out but I wouldn't owe the money to my university, just my loan servicer but I digress.
I'm pretty confident I can get a job within the next week as long as I hustle but I don't know if it will be enough $$$ in time.
As far as I can tell I currently have the following potential options:
1.) Find a job ASAP my roommate who I pay rent to each month if I can use my $700 security deposit as my rent for April and then pay it back once I've consistent income. (I doubt this will work)
2.) Move home to family or friends if they'll take me in and help find a replacement roommate if necessary (and that's somewhat doubtful at this point).
3.) Find a job ASAP and pay the rent a few days/weeks late but screw my roommates over in the process since me paying the rent late makes us all late since we all lease together. I would have to pay a late fee of $50.
4.) Worst case scenario 1: Continue going to school part-time while temporarily homeless and live out of a tent somewhere in SF.
5.) Worst case scenario 2: End up homeless and become a hobo/vagabond hitchhiking and riding the rails (I'm joking somewhat on this one).
Thanks in advance for any advice or help!
Submitted March 19, 2017 at 04:44AM by almosthomeless94 http://ift.tt/2naoVnF
