What to do when nothing works?

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My 26 year old brother is affected by Aspergers/Autism and is college educated. He has been without a steady job for some time and is able to get interviews with retail stores/restaurants (through his job coach) but is not able to answer the interview questions appropriately. It is very hard to help/coach him and he has been diagnosed with major depression. For example, when giving him an example interview question "Why do you want to work at x restaurant" his entire answer is "You have good food". When we try to work on more descriptive/personal answers with him he will pay attention for a moment but cannot come up with anything on his own. He lets us fill in the blanks, agrees with what we say, and then says he is tired/can't focus. This happens pretty much every time we talk and is frustrating because he used to be able to answer interview questions like this adequately, several years back when he had jobs in college. I know he has the knowledge to answer these questions but cannot tap into it. He has had 2 short term jobs in the past year and both times he had the jobs his ability to communicate improved greatly. It degenerated quickly thereafter, though.

My brother's job coach is no longer feeling confident about finding him employment since he is not able to answer interview questions confidently. He MAY be eligible for public assistance, but we really aren't sure. We don't live in the same city as he does, so it is tough for us to make a difference here. I'm scared he will be out on the streets soon. Living with my parents is probably not an option, and they insinuated that being homeless might teach him some kind of lesson. Is it really possible that he could learn a lesson from that? He doesn't seem to understand his financial situation now at all. He is receiving food stamps but has yet to even start using them--he just keeps letting others pick up the tab for him and then they complain to me about it.

What should we do?

I don't know where you are, but have you tried to see if there are any asperger employment assist places in your area? Try to google it, some paces have them. They educate employers about hiring and using aspies.

Is that different than a job coach and VR? His job coach has "educated", or at least explained his strengths and weaknesses to everyone he interviews with and she goes with him on interviews. Thr issue right now seems to be that he is too depressed to function in the interview/disinterest in the jobs, inability to communicate in general, ???

Would he be interested in joining wrong planet? At least he might have a chance at a supportive group of aspies here. Yes, it sounds like depression. I feel badly that I don't have an answer. All I know is that I feel like I went through the wringer with jobs for a few years, but was living at home (I am in my twenties). Being on my own with no family definitely made me think faster although I was quite depressed. Although that is not for everyone. Maybe you could ask ' what would be a good time then?'

If he joined, maybe he would see that many of us have struggled with employment.

I just found out about my AS last year.

I really do wish I could help.

Feel free to PM me, sweetmeliss . I may not have the answers, but I will try to think about them.

You say that he used to be able to interview fine when he was in college, that means that he has the capability. I have a feeling that it's the depression that's affecting him, is he in any sort of therapy or on any sort of medication? I think that if you want to solve the issue, he's going to have to work on his depression first.

It is not something I know much about, just something I read on this site, than I googled it. There are places but I have not yet found one in my country. Not that I have looked that much yet. I think they have businesses that they work with, that hire aspies, and provide a working environment that gives acceptable results for all parties concerned.
I think that even a job coach (not knowing much about them, I admit) would have an uphill battle with most potential employers, if they are ignorant of what aspergers is all about. They would be resistant to what they worry will be 'difficult workers'.

I really have to find the name of the company that uses 75% autistics as its work force - then you could check if it is in your country. (They do program testing, or something)

I know it is tough, but please don't despair. There are still things to try. He only needs one job.
And I agree with managertina, in that he may benefit by looking around on this site. It could help to see he is not alone.

I explain that I am autistic in the cover letter of all my job applications so that they know why I do not converse well during an interview. However, I don't know if this is helpful by letting them know why I have trouble with the interview, or harmful by making them think I have an undesirable trait, so I don't know if your brother should do this or not.