housing crisis

I tried so hard to be optimistic, but the situation is worse than I'd realized. Under the best of circumstances, finding a place to live and moving there is a lot for me. Something I've never done without someone else finding the place for me, one way or another. I'm doing so much better these days though. I felt ready to handle it this time.

Then I saw what they're charging for rent now. It's more than doubled in the last decade. I have more money than I've ever had I before, but still not enough to afford the rent for the cheapest one bedroom apartment. I thought I was seeing a few listings in my price range, but realized those are for renting a room, or sharing an apartment with strangers. Half of them are outright scams. Some people are capitalizing on the desperation, advertising non-existent apartments and asking for an application fee in advance.

I'm on a waiting list for subsidized housing, but the wait could be a year or more. I need to be out of here by August 1st.

I'm far from being the only one impacted by this. People handle it in different ways. Some live with parents or family, if they can. Others end up homeless, if they don't kill themselves to avoid it. Many are forced to randomly live together to share the rent with strangers, but no doubt, that poses all sorts of problems. Unlike landlords, bound by law to have good reasons for rejecting applicants, people looking for randos to live with need to be more discriminatory. 

The ads are almost all the same. Young working people, often in college, looking for other young people to live with. They get plenty of responses from others in similar situations. What are the chances they choose the old unemployed guy with disabling mental health problems? Is it just my mental illness talking, or is that a long shot?

It's a difficult solution, and of course, I'm extra sensitive to it. I'm trying to accept that it may be necessary, but it's tough to imagine trying to cope. Maybe it would be good for me, right? It may be a last resort as the end of July approaches. Failing to figure out what else to do, I'm thinking that I need to focus on getting my stuff out. I can streamline that down to a single car-full. Store it somewhere. 

Then on July 31st, I can go wherever, without necessarily moving in there. I'll then qualify for homelessness assistance, but I don't know what that entails. I can double down on trying to find anyone looking for roommates or renting a room. It might be easier to focus on finding a place, if I move out first.

Sure, that sounds nuts, but I can't deal with this. It's not going well, and I need to just stop thinking about it.