Homeless in 10 days. (apartment, home, best, cheapest)

[stepka]

I agree with the rest--stay put and keep the kids in school, then send them to g-ma's so you guys can get things done.

What I want you to do right now is to call a homeless hotline and see if you have an org called Room at the Inn in your area and try to get on their list--if you don't have that particular one, you may have something similar. The reason you should do this now is because they need to screen you to make sure that you won't pose a risk to the others but then what you do is stay at a day shelter and they will get the kids to their own school for you and then a specified church group will pick you up and take you to a night shelter and they will give you a good hot meal. You are able to go to work from the day shelter or to go job hunting or whatever you need to do as long as you're back by a certain time so you can catch your ride to the evening shelter.

I suggest this b/c it's a safe option for a family with children and it's done by a group of churches that can pool their resources b/c I'm not sure that most churches would be equipped to just step in and help--most of those folks work and wouldn't know what to do. I've done lots of volunteering for this and have always enjoyed it and we get pretty many kids in our shelter. Once we asked a young teen girl from RATI to go with our youth group to the Heifer Ranch and I do believe she really had a good time. So again, for a family with children, this is a safe and positive option and I never saw anyone treated with disrespect.

[TopsyTurvy2013]

I have read your replies and I appreciate your help. I can't rent an apartment because they would want a lease and my FICO score is as bad as Greece. I live in rural AR. There is very little work here. The cheapest motel is 605.00 per month. No internet, cable, local channels for about 6 hours a day. Mini-fridge and microwave. No kitchen. There is another, much nicer for 900.00 per month. Remember in two months I need enough money to fly two kids to California and relocate to Florida. I don't qualify for food stamps. And I've looked hi and low for an RV. I really do not think we could make two months in a tent.

I actually have two threads going with the same subject. I wasn't sure were to post this. General moving issues or the AR forum.

I am leaning towards sending the kids to California. I'll talk to the kids.

[LOL_Whut]

Do your kids have friends whose parents could take them in for the rest of the school year? I know a couple kids in my high school ended up staying with friends for a while because their families had unstable housing.

Or maybe you could rent a room from someone in the community for a couple months, just with sleeping bags on the floor or something? It would beat a tent.

[cowdog]

This is the "Self-Sufficiency and Preparedness" forum, we are ready for years of trouble. We do not wait until 10 days before mass suicide becomes an option.

[monkeywrenching]

Originally Posted by TopsyTurvy2013

We have three kids, two in the home, ages 15 and 12.

Our choices -

1. Send kids to California to live with relatives. Which would be my brother and mother. They both work full time and live together. There are two months of school left. I would worry about their grades and their ability to adjust. I'm not even sure if there is bus service or how they would get to school. I don't know how difficult it would be to enrol them. They would fly so my brother or mother would have to take care of it.

2. Stay in a hotel for two months.

3. Stay in a camp ground in a tent for two months.

I do have a job. I make about 2000.00 a month. My husband is unemployed waiting to see if he qualifies for unemployment.

I have 1500.00 cash on me plus 360.00 I would use for expenses (gas, food, ext.) Until my next pay day which is the 27th.

I would not stay in this area, rural Arkansas, once the kids are out of school. My job is not secure and I worry about losing it.

If I keep the kids until school is out I would then send them to CA for a vacation. Husband and I would move to Florida and save money to bring kids back after summer. I have a job in Florida I have worked at before making 2000.00 to 3000.00 a month.

It's a given we will lose everything, probably even the family pets.

What should I do?

if you can afford it, buy yourself a class C motorhome and live in that. I lived in one for 2 years. almost like a home, and you can move it from place to place.

also, you can usually find one pretty cheap on craiglist or backpage.

better than living outdoors with nothing.

[eyewrist]

Originally Posted by TopsyTurvy2013

I have read your replies and I appreciate your help. I can't rent an apartment because they would want a lease and my FICO score is as bad as Greece. I live in rural AR. There is very little work here. The cheapest motel is 605.00 per month. No internet, cable, local channels for about 6 hours a day. Mini-fridge and microwave. No kitchen. There is another, much nicer for 900.00 per month. Remember in two months I need enough money to fly two kids to California and relocate to Florida. I don't qualify for food stamps. And I've looked hi and low for an RV. I really do not think we could make two months in a tent.

I actually have two threads going with the same subject. I wasn't sure were to post this. General moving issues or the AR forum.

I am leaning towards sending the kids to California. I'll talk to the kids.

You are mistaken on not finding a RV. I just went to Craigslist in Little Rock AR and seen a couple of travel trailers, a 15 passenger van and a cargo van which your husband and son can convert to living space. By the way what is he doing? I just told a guy on another thread to go to cheaprvliving.com and see what some people have done at converting van and step trucks to living space. And these people did a very good job of it. Luxuries like cable and a kitchen is not an priority here; a nice clean shelter at best is your concern. You have another state adjacent to you...go to Craigslist in that state and look for one. At least with the RV you can drive the kids back to CA after school is finished and look for a job closer to your or his parents...the most logical thing to do I think.

[eyewrist]

Originally Posted by monkeywrenching

if you can afford it, buy yourself a class C motorhome and live in that. I lived in one for 2 years. almost like a home, and you can move it from place to place.

also, you can usually find one pretty cheap on craiglist or backpage.

better than living outdoors with nothing.

I just told her that. Why people wait to the last minute is beyond me. You lose all ability to think clearly and problem solve the simplest of situations.

[nikking]

food stamps, get a couple of old vans to live in, sub $600 each, or one van and a pickup camper, etc. sell your blood plasma, that is $60 per week, each, for you and hubby. u have to go twice a week and it takes 2 hours per time. check out the yellow pages and Net for day labor places for hubby. check Craigslist for "all gigs", plenty of low paying "scut work" jobs, a day or 2 at a time, normally. probably $10 an hour, cash. for hubby or maybe even the kids, with his supervision? call around to the nurseries and landscaping companies and seek work, busy season for such bizes is very soon (in Ark).

vehicles must be able to move, but not necessarily move MUCH. they can have blown head gaskets, etc, since all they need to do is move 1/2 mile at a time, 2x a day,so nobody figures out hat you are living in them. park them a block or so apart, around the corner and out of sight of each other, or across the parking lot, at walmart, etc. get around on bicycles, scooters, bus. you don't need to spend anything like you think you need to. :-) I know that for a fact and long experience.

[eyewrist]

Originally Posted by cowdog

This is the "Self-Sufficiency and Preparedness" forum, we are ready for years of trouble. We do not wait until 10 days before mass suicide becomes an option.

People like this laugh at preppers but this goes to show who they will run to when the SHTF... those who prepared like those on this forum. Get ready all you preppers, THIS is just the tip of the iceberg of those who will be running to you

[countryboy73]

Originally Posted by nikking

food stamps, get a couple of old vans to live in, sub $600 each, or one van and a pickup camper, etc. sell your blood plasma, that is $60 per week, each, for you and hubby. u have to go twice a week and it takes 2 hours per time. check out the yellow pages and Net for day labor places for hubby. check Craigslist for "all gigs", plenty of low paying "scut work" jobs, a day or 2 at a time, normally. probably $10 an hour, cash. for hubby or maybe even the kids, with his supervision? call around to the nurseries and landscaping companies and seek work, busy season for such bizes is very soon (in Ark).

vehicles must be able to move, but not necessarily move MUCH. they can have blown head gaskets, etc, since all they need to do is move 1/2 mile at a time, 2x a day,so nobody figures out hat you are living in them. park them a block or so apart, around the corner and out of sight of each other, or across the parking lot, at walmart, etc. get around on bicycles, scooters, bus. you don't need to spend anything like you think you need to. :-) I know that for a fact and long experience.

Nikking, you been around, I see.

TopsyTurvy- In any town of size, there are areas(possibly unfamiliar to those becoming homeless whilst making 2000 dollars a month) that have housing in the low 3-400 dollar monthly range that are rented sans credit report or background check. Bills there are, like water and electric, but not at all unsustainable on the salary you currently bring in. Where do low-income folks, felons, and other disadvantaged(I hate that word) types find housing? These places. Are they pretty? No. Big? No. Livable? Absolutely. A solid home base while you work past the mistakes and get back on your feet? Yup. You need to get yourself into a bigger town where you guys can make it, together.

If you have them, ditch TV, computers, smart phones, boxed foods and pricey meats, eating out, ordering in, movies, vacations, late model cars, and all the other trappings of the "modern" life. Get into cooking from scratch(if hubby and kids are home, they can cook), learning new skills(fix the lawnmower instead of buying another), driving classic cars(not a 67 GTO, a 1993 Olds Cutlass Calais- cheap, reliable, 30 mpg), loving your kids(keep them with you if at all possible, they are your first responsibility), coupons, freecycling, barter, thrift stores, and a church(if you don't already have one). You need a support system. Not a handout, but a group of people you can make friends of, and who represent a cross-section of the community, a ready-made networking club. Asking a church for food is like giving a starving man a fish. Becoming a member and making friends, then reaping the rewards of that network is like teaching that starving man to fish. Don't look for free help, look for ways to help yourselves. The yard work is a good one. Walking the neighborhood(not the current one, the new one) looking for metal junk and offering to carry it away(to a scrap yard) is good. Might make that old vehicle a truck. Helps with self-employment. Low-wage jobs can be had in most towns. Money. Not a lot of it, but when you need more of it, you go where you can get it, little or big. If you can pull yourselves out of this hole without relying on handouts, not only will you all feel better when you get back on top for having done it yourselves, but you will have shown your kids several valuable lessons about life in the process. Things like, you fix your own problems, living cheap is not the end of the world, family is the most important thing we possess. Being broke is not a catastophe. Panicking and screwing up while you are broke is the catastrophe. All being broke has to be is a starting point. Where you go from there is a direct result of the choices you make. God bless you, and I hope you guys can make a great comeback from this tough time.