ever been extremely poor, welfare, disability, homeless?

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i lived in poverty for many years, in horrible neighborhood with gunshots every few weeks and gangsters leaning on the building door. i moved a lot, once to a building with the bathroom down the hall. dozens of cockroaches climbed the walls toward the ceiling in the hope of finding themselves, of a better future. sometimes i went hungry.

doing better now because my parents bought me an apartment, but i'm still really poor, except i have food money now and a rather steady minimum wage job.

My parents are lower middle class & I lived with em till I moved in with my girlfriend. I have disabilities that make it hard for me to find employment & I didn't have an income for a couple years after I graduated high-school. My 1st income was SSI till I started working. I haven't worked in like over 5 years & I'm on disability now. My girlfriend doesn't work due to disabilities & is on SSI, food-stamps, fuel assistance, & Section 8 housing.

ive been homeless on and off, on my own, since i was like 16/17. its just a different lifestyle than most people can understand. DKCSC is an awesome community to be in and kills any feeling of loneliness you might get while sleeping under bridges hahah
i also grew up pretty poor too so its not like i ever had money to begin with so its not something i ever missed.

I have been, poor, very poor, and homeless. It is kind of strange to only be able to choose one since they all go together.

I am on SSI due to various mental ailments, and aspergers syndrome(just not sure its entirely an ailment like the depression, anxiety, PTSD and whatever else might fit. I currently live at my moms house and pay her some rent out of my SSI then once that is paid I have around 400$ for the month...I have medicaid but no food stamps currently so will have to try and get them again. Luckily I am able to live at my moms house for now, otherwise i probably would be homeless.

I'm homeless right now, sitting outside freezing as I post this. But it's not too terrible since I have a small income and (probably) an apartment within the next few weeks.

homeless for brief periods, thankfully brief. I woulda died if it were any longer. never got welfare but was/am on Medicaid. otherwise the health insurance premiums [for any real insurance that actually covers stuff] would be more than my modest income.

...You can only choose one option heh.

There have been times when I was living very comfortably: when I was younger and living with my parents and working. Times when I wasn't making a HUGE amount of money, but I was somehow also able to go to school, so I had student loans to help pay for housing, which eased my budget by a large amount.

There have been times when I have been below the poverty threshold in the United States- for anyone who doesn't understand what that is in context... the poverty threshold is supposed to, in theory, be the line where a person's income [or a family- it is adjusted by number of people in a household] is able to support them. HOWEVER? There are benefit programs that people can be eligible for at 130% of poverty and many of them up to 300% of poverty- so the "threshold", which is defined by the government, absolutely does not keep up with the demands of our economy.

Right now I'm on disability/SSDI and have been for a while, but I've attempted to work and get off of it so many times. It just doesn't work out and it sucks. I actually don't get enough disability benefit on my own even though I'd been working from sixteen until I was disabled, and then as I could since then. But my father became disabled at some point, so I get benefits off of him- then I was able to move out and try to finish my degree slowly.

What's pretty awful is that the jobs I can get without a degree are SO taxing that I can't sustain them. The jobs I could get with a degree are much easier physically, but sometimes it is looked down upon if you don't pursue a degree within specific parameters while you are on disability. That is, if you don't go through a certain program, you can be seen as "cheating".

Um. Anyway.
Rant.

Right now I'm kinda poor? Well, pretty poor I guess. In one of the most expensive metropolitan areas of the country. I just don't say it a WHOLE lot.
I don't feel it that much. I have a decent place to live- we keep it clean and it's relatively safe if you pay attention and I can pay my bills. I have to live with roommates and that's insane sometimes, but pretty much EVERYONE does around here unless you are married. Even then some married couples live with roommates until they have been married for a little while. I have healthcare. I obviously have beyond extremely basic utilities [we have internet].

I zero out at the end of most months, especially the past few- I want to be able to get something for my family for holidays so I've been trying to save a tiny bit but something always comes up. I'm on all the benefits lists and been waiting on the housing list for what seems like forever.

I can't go buy whatever I want whenever but... I don't think a lot of people can? I could have it worse and have.

I really want to work, actually. I haven't at all since early 2013 nor been able to take any classes and I feel awful and useless. It's less about money; I want to get on with my life.

But as far as not having money and thinking about that... it's most evident just in buying fresh food like veggies when it particularly stands out to me. There are ways around that though so you can get them more affordably. You just can't be particularly picky about which veggies you eat! Also- I never get fish anymore. Which kills me, living in Boston. But really, if that's the money troubles I have to complain about, how bad can life be? Not that bad.

Poor kinda depends on perspective. And in a sense also on location.

I'm on welfare and live at my parents house. If it weren't for me living here, I'm quite sure I'd be homeless eventually.

It's interesting if even social services, who pay my welfare point out, that welfare income is something temporary; yet laws in this country are so silly that they make disability income so inaccessible, that you're ending up relying on welfare. But hey; for some perspective; the moment you have 3 categories for people who don't have a job (unemployment, disabilty and welfare) and the group people on welfare is bigger than the ones collecting temporary unemployment and disability together just because they tighten the laws to make them inaccessible, you can wonder what's going on. It can't be much more obvious the government here sees anyone not working as a nuisance who's expenses should be severely cut. Yes, I know that my argument only holds ground from a socialist perspective, but that's essentially what this country has grown to be in the past 50 years... doing away with all kinds of support they have in place creates a way, way bigger problem.

I'm not entirely sure how the future is going to pan out though; I know that within the next year my welfare will be cut to about 66% (which means that I'll be living way, way below the poverty line. I already do now; it also means that I spend every penny on bills and might even be short at the end of the month). My dad is on disability, but in 3 years that gets cut and from the looks of it, he has to make ends meet without any government support (he's not really in the position to save any money). My mom has no income whatsoever (but is disabled as well, yet can't file for disability because of aforementioned inaccesibility by law), so at that point I'd probably have to move out... with no money either.

Oh, and let's not even forget the lack of actual support to get people employed, let alone those with a so-called "distance" towards employment in general.

I'm on a waiting list for the past year for a placement program to get a job with suitable adjustments. Yet, come January 1st, that list is scrapped nationwide in favor for... no other alternative.

My only hope at the moment is that the laws that change next year actually are so silly that they result in a hefty overhaul and reversal (wouldn't be the first time ever since I'm on welfare). On paper all these new ideas look good, in practice I can only see it going wrong in every single way. Especially when even governments are complaining that "there are too many people in poverty"... d'oh!

I am currently on SSI for a variety of mental issues including Aspergers symptoms. I did not include it in my SSI claim due to not having an official evaluation until after I was approved.

I am currently lucky enough or cursed enough, depending on the day to be living with my Dad. If not for him stepping up after leaving my ex for cheating, I would definitely be homeless. I was poor for most of my life. Had a couple of decent paying jobs in my life, but lost them. I am hoping to file for subsidized housing soon so I can be on my own, so to speak.

I was able to find work sporadically after graduate school where I made a decent living. After I was fired from my last job in 2011, I applied for welfare, after being rejected for unemployment. I had also applied for Social Security at the same time. Unfortunately, my next to youngest brother, who bought Mom's house after her estate was settled, told me to get a job, even if it was shoveling sh!t, or get the f!ck out. This was during the so-called Great Recession, which, as far as I'm concerned, is still ongoing, and if some of the Bears in the economic world are right, we're headed for a crash that will be even larger and worse than 1929. I was able to get SSDI, after an appeal. I was living in seedy motels briefly, after being awarded SSDI, then lived briefly with an elderly black woman and her son until the end of 2012, when he threw me out. I've been this townhouse since 2013, and will need to be out by the end of the year, no thanks to a pair of roommates who are/were jackasses by not paying their rent, supposedly dealing drugs, having a constant stream of friends, girls, hookers, etc. coming through the house, the house being unkept in cleaning and maintenance (although I tried to keep the place clean, without anyone's help). I now looking at being on the streets, since there is an extremely long waiting list for subsidized housing for the elderly and disabled. I'm to the point now I no longer trust anyone, and quite frankly, I doubt that I'll ever work again. Vocational Rehab is a joke. They're OK and will go out of their way to help you find work and training for a physical disability, but forget it if you're over 50 and have a mental, intellectual, or developmental disability. I've pretty much been ostriscized by family for accepting welfare and accepting SSDI, since the creed is to work until you drop dead from a heart or brain attack, then get back up and start working again.

A few years ago I was very poor & lived in my friend's construction site for a year and a half while he/we renovated his house. I was a little over $100K in debt & had an income of around $150/month if I was lucky. I was certainly lucky to be able to trade my labour for a roof over my head and food to eat, and to have a friend that was very very patient with me. Over the Winter months there was no running water or heat in the house.. which had no windows or doors except for my room, which had an electric heater. It was certainly an interesting time of life, that's for sure.

edit: I would have qualified for welfare at that time, but I refused to go sign up because at the time I felt that if I signed those papers I was giving up on myself and it was on step closer to formalizing that I was done before I'd even started and would be stuck in that perpetual cycle of poverty.. and I could not give up on myself. In hindsight, I really should have taken the money while I could and eased the burden on myself/family/friends.. but at the same time, due to how my thoughts were at the time, I do not regret not signing the forms and taking the money as it would have been mentally devastating to do so.

Fast forward to today and I am MUCH healthier (and wealthier) than ever in my life and unless something catastrophic happens I can never foresee having to face such poverty or near homelessness again for the rest of my life so long as I continue to work hard to maintain my health and finances. I'm in the black the better part of $30K in cash & stocks and continuing to save and invest towards being able to launch my business plan in phases over the next couple years. Such a dramatically different life I'm leading today vs. how I existed before.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

I was homeless for years. And when I was a kid I had to sleep rough a lot. I've been on benefits before but I'd rather not have to claim it because...well just because I hate the hold they have over me.

I work 50 hours a week and I am extremely poor. I literally live on the edge all the time, I can't afford to pay my bills and every other month I get threatened to have my home taken from me because I can't afford to pay my rent.

However, I'm generally in good health and I am usually quite upbeat and positive.

If all I can do (at the end of each month) is find a way how to survive then that's good enough for me.

I think being brought up in poverty helped me to cope with being skint and appreciating the true value of things, I've survived on and of for years on the social in between jobs. I'm working again now but I inevitably end up having a meltdown or getting fired for simply not fitting in. I've had to survive for ages inbetween jobs when I've had to apply for benefits where I have had to go without money till its sorted out. I don't think its that difficult living off the social in the UK at least anyway
but getting back to poverty, real poverty where I have had to improvise a little with the food, its not that difficult in this day and age. i think people really expect a lot more than they actually need to survive. I can and still do most of the time eat for around £5 a week but I'm not fussy what I eat and tend to make large pans of stews and curry's etc and freezing them in plastic containers or simply eating the same thing for a few days. i don't pay no attention to sell by dates as they are mainly to blag people in to throwing stuff away and spending more money. I never get ill from anything I eat in fact I'm rarely ill and I don't go mad cleaning everything with all those chemical cleaners, just hot water on a flannel does the job. I think people today are brainwashed and obsessed with sell by dates and absolute cleanliness. How do you think people go on in the wilds that live in tribes. All this 5 a day crap and vitamin pills is all bull to make you spend money. I cringe at the thought of wasting food and never throw any away. even left overs which are rare at my house are re used and eaten later. If you are hungry enough you are not fussy about what you eat and you won't get fat either. I'm the same size and weight now as I was when I was 16, not fat or thin and fairly ripped from just eating real food and none of this processed stuff. Your body dosn't know how to deal with processed food so it doesn't break it down properly and its full of salt and sugar among other nasties that I can't pronounce. I don't doubt that there are some people around the country now who are in real poverty but most of us only think we are and waste money on stuff we don't need and throw food away then say we are hungry, it beggers belief. I think poverty for a lot of people in the UK is not having a play station and a flat screen TV, designer clothes, fags, booze. You have to ask yourself what you define as poverty. To me poverty is the clothes hanging of your back in tatters, living in a squat or not having a home. Anyone who is claiming welfare in the UK at least is more than looked after, I know I've been there many times and even if you have a low paid job the welfare tops up your wage and helps you with your rent. Even if you come over here from another country illegally you get looked after but that's another rant for another day.I've not really seen real poverty since I was a child but today there's not a lot of it around that I would class as poverty. I hope I haven't upset anyone with my little rant but its only my point of view and in no means meant to intentionally have a dig at anyone. Peace out

I've been broke quite often. I lived out of a hotel for a year, which is technically homeless but not the same as on the streets. I had my parents to stay with in extreme emergencies. I've had to pay rent in food stamps and wash clothes in the bathtub though...don't miss those days at all...

Still paycheck to paycheck, but moving in the right direction...