<prompt> Human: TL;DR:Legally Blind and Albino. Bad parents and just finally beginning to get somewhere in life. I am going to be homeless August 1st due to the unfortunate financial circumstance of my current landlord he is losing the house on very short notice. I have a part-time job, and return to college in September financial aid loans cover schooling 100, I pay nothing upfront as things current stand. I make around 1.4k a month with good job security but have little savings. Im located in Western Massachusetts. I have no one to turn to. Any and all help would be appreciated. ---Edit 2 1:13PM EST: ME BEING LEGALLY BLIND PLEASE STOP ASKINGStill here everyone just getting a few minutes at work to browse. I want to address those who are questioning the whole legally blind thing. I am not going to turn this into an AMA. I can do one if you want but thats not what this subreddit is for. I just want to address this really quickly. Being blind and legally blind are two different things. One is seeing nothing the other is seeing everything really badly. Just put it this way I see 1k everyone sees 4k. Thats what I deal with. TBH I cant even tell the difference in the two because I am so blind. But to address this again. I use this to read books and documents that are not electronic. For seeing things at a distance. I use an x4 telescope. Its called spot viewing. Its not ideal but it is good for small things. For like menus at fast food place I just go on my phone and look at the menu. For menus at like fancy places I use my phone and take a picture of it and zoom in. For walking around I look both ways x6 before crossing. I can see big cars coming at me but I cant see the type of car until it is right in front of me. For using computers and devices, these things have built in magnifiers. For android its triple press for windows its windows button and the plus symbol for ubuntu you need to enable it through compiz config but it has one. I dont want people thinking I am lying because I can do things. I can do things because I think about solutions instead of crying about the problem. I deal with things differently but I work through it. As for typing and writing papers. I can not see the keyboard unless I am 2 inches away but at this point I dont need to look at the keyboard anyway. CS major here so like thats something you should have locked down. Furthermore for those thinking I am here for the Karma. This is a throwaway. I plan on not using this other than to keep some people updated as they have asked me too. I didnt come here for pity or internet points I came here for advice and thats all. So please not to be rude but stop asking about how I am able to do this and do that if I am legally blind. I have learned to deal and get passed my disability. I only added to the post because it has to do with my SSI and what I can and cant do for financial solutions. Like I cant just go work a job as an uber. Saying I am legally blind covers that in two words. Same for the albino part. Knowing I cant be outdoors at all makes it easy to understand my problem. Again not pity, just clarity. Edit 9AM EST: Wow second post on PF. I am so in shock. I use to be a guild leader for over 100 people in GW2 and even my recruitment posts were never this big.Thank you everyone for the advice. Today before work I plan on applying for low income housing and calling DTA for the EBT card. Also my GF gave me the number to the shared living people so I will be contacting them as well. I just want to say I was in tears. So many comments I was not expecting. I have always been the bottom feeder to everyone around me. Always saying how they hate people on SSI because we dont do anything. This has really hurt me in life. Both emotionally with relationships and in social gatherings. The whole what do you do for a living? has always been a hurt to me. Seeing all this advice, seeing all the good comments people have to say, really touched me. I truly am in shock. My story is real I would never lie about the things I say. I really have no reason too. Not many blind, hispanic, albinos in western mass. So if you want to find me, go for it. We can chill and play some Paladins, HearthStone or Melee the one true smash game, I kid no flame wars. Maybe a beer, but I am broke so Ill take water. Now to what I have learned. As some users pointed out I am collecting SSI. I apologize for the misinformation. I thought it was SSDI however it is just SSI. So the deduction still stands. As for setting up a go fund me, that wasnt me. I have never taken money from people that I dont need. If you really want to help donate to a charity or a foundation you support. Thats better than some random dude on the internet. Just find one that puts close to all of the money donated into actually helping. For the users who talked about disability resources from the college. Yes I have come in contact with them already. The last college I attended I worked for the disability councilor there helping students learn technology that helps them with there disability. I really like helping people, Thats why I applied for the help desk. While there my boss disability councilor helped me do the transaction with the disability center to the college I transferred to. To add a little more. I am in contact with Commission for the Blind as well. they helped me obtain a laptop and a magnifier. Laptop MagnifierTo those asking about how blind I am. To use the computer I use the windows magnifier x2-3. For reading books I use this magnifier For walking around I do not use a stick or a dog. I just hope to god drivers dont hit me while crossing. Thats all I can do. So my vision is like this. Being legally blind means you can not see what most people see at 200 feet at 20 feet. So essentially. What you see at 200 feet I dont see until 20 feet. So driving is out of the question. I am both near sighted and far sighted with a astigmatism. Not only that because I lack pigment in the eyes lights are a huge issue. Imagine a game with really bad bloom effects. Like Skyrim when a dragon spits fire at you and it gets really bright. Well imagine that with almost every light source. To everyone that may be struggling, I know I am and I know others are too. Please dont ever give up. Reach out and find help. The hardest thing is asking for help but trust me most humans are willing to help. College has taught me to ask for help. Just please never take the one trip ticket to death. I have attempted and thought about it many times its never the answer. You can get through anything. You are strong, just remember to think back to all the other hard moments in life and remember you are here now. I will continue monitoring the post as the day progresses. Again thank you so much everyone. Seriously thank you so damn much. I have never had this type of support. ---PF- I seem to have found myself in quite the situation... Little Background:Albino, Legally Blind since birth, come from a bad upbringing go to bottom of post for a brief summery of my life and have been trying to fight my way out since I was emancipated at the age of 16. I collect Social Security Disability Income due to my vision obviously at the rate of 765month from SSDI with an additional 149month via a Supplement Check This is given to Massachusetts residents who collect SSDI for being legally blind. I am currently located in Western Massachusetts. I am a 23 year old college student majoring in Computer Science. I decided to go to college in hopes of getting a job in the field of computers ProgrammingIT. My goal is to remove myself from the system when I become more financially stable as I do collect SSDI because I am legally blind and for no other reason. In a step to obtain this long term goal I have recently been successful in the landing of a gig at the campus Help Desk. This is an actual part-time job and not a work study position so I am not limited on the amount of money I can make I am a trust fund student employee however it is through the school so I need to be enrolled to be able to keep the position. I have been working there for about 3 weeks. The Situation:My friend and I have been renting an apartment from his father for the last 3 years. Everything on the books. I do know how some people will lie due to collecting from SSDISSI. We however have not. I started college a year ago and it has been going great. However when my friends dad purchased the house he signed a really bad agreement and he didnt realize until recently. This deal was made in 2012 much before I or his son moved in. We moved in, in 2014.Essentially the agreement breakdowns into this: The house cost 45k. He would pay monthly payments until he paid them back all of the 45,000 with an additional 6 on top of that. It gets bad because there is a clause that states if he did not pay it back by August of 2017, they would perform a balloon charge for the remainder of the 45k he may owe the 6 lawyer fees. The agreement that was made was not done through a bank and was instead made directly with the previous owners. As it stands, I can no longer live here, even if he could sort this out its a situation that is not very stable and I no longer feel as if he could offer me housing security. Here are my earnings broken down: My Monthly Income from the Help Desk: 11hourly wage 23avg hrswk 4wks in month Thats 1,012. I get paid Bi-weekly. What I collect from Social Security Disability Income State Supplement Check 765 From SSDI Please note that SSDI deducts 1 dollar for every 2 dollars you earn, discluding the first 65 you earn, so this will vary. link to law 149 From State Supplement Check This is given to me because I am legally blind. The equation determining my total monthly income:This is to determine what social security will be deducting from my SSDI 11 23 4 - 65 947 My work earnings minus the first 65 earned. 947 2 473.5 My adjusted work earnings divided by two to determine SSDI deduction 765 - 473.5 291.5 The SSDI subtracted by the deduction amount found in the last equation Putting it all together: 291.5 1,012 149 1,452.50 SSDI adjusted My work earnings Supplement Check My expenses:Cell phone - 45 a month for 8gb. Planet Fitness Gym - 20.20 a monthThats it for what I have to pay for expenses that are on autopay What I have done so far:I have already spoken with many friends and some friends are able to give me a coach to surf on. However this is not optimal when collecting SSDI as I need a solid address with a lease to prove my expenses. I do not have parents to give me shelter. My mom lives states away and my dad is a deadbeat. I plan on applying for low income housing come Monday. However this can take months. I will also be applying for Food Stamps EBT errbody eats. I will also go to the local food pantry but that is only given at a bi-weekly bases. I could live at a homeless shelter but college is just around the corner and I cant be dealing with that, school and work. I need something that is stable, somewhere I can leave my belongings and assets safe. I dont have much so what I do have I really need to keep. Now the school I am attending does offer campus living. However I am a commuter and have applied and filed FAFSA out as such. Also if I live on campus I am locked into a 3 year contract with the college. Not the best idea for me, but an option. Another option I have is renting a room at a shared living apartment where you pay 350 for the room, everything included. This price spikes to 400 during the winter monthsschool months do to heating, etc.... Now what I am really worried about is this. During school I will have less than 20 hours a week. Realistically 16-18 with the ability to obtain more hours via covering shifts That means my income goes down to maybe 1.2k or less. That also means during the adjustment months for SSDI I will have almost no money to work with. SSDI takes at least one month to readjust to the new income. The really scary part is that I need to get school supplies. Books... The dreaded books... Financial aid should help cover some of their cost and my friend has informed me that a lot of textbooks have a copy put on hold for students to use within the college library. My story in as little as possible: Please no pity party. I just want you to understand where I came from and why I am trying so hard to move forward in life. I am really scared PF. I have been through more than you could imagine to get to where I am in life. I really have seen it all HAHA, I am blind, you can laugh its funny. I was raised by my mother until I was 11. I was sexually assaulted when I was 8. I bounced between foster homes because my mother didnt want to deal with me when I was 11, and when I did live with my dad he had outstanding warrants on him for drug dealing heroin and that forced me back into the foster system. I emancipated myself at 16 while still in High School and moved in with a close friend. I lived with what I thought was my best friend at the time, only to later find out he hated me and had wanted to just see me commit suicide he was my only friend at the time and this was super hard on me. Before turning 18 my mom had told me she saw me turning into my dad. Addicted to H and by 21 expected me dead. My dad told me that I was a piece of shit gamer faggot and would never amount to anything. I have always faced huge amounts of bullying because of who I am both physically and emotionally. Im hispanic but look like Im white because Im Albino...man I didnt choose any of that. I have even had to live out of a car because while living with my dad his ex had kicked us out. Showering in a gas station is not fun when you are in middle school. PF if you have any advice, any suggestions, please post them. So far I see the shared living as my only hope but I was just looking to see if there was any advice that could help me out. Any lawyer advice that could help remedy this. Anything that I overlooked. I am just reaching for anything right now. PS. Happy fathers day. Also my birthday is the 28th Thats when I officially turn 23, So happy birthday to me. Quick edit: Sorry if the formatting isnt perfect. I tried my best.  <response>: 400month for rentutilities and a stable address is really, really good in most college towns. As long as those apartments are safe and quiet enough for you to get the sleep you need, Id say that should be your plan A at this point.The good news is that you are a diversity in computer science, and it is hella fashionable to offer scholarship and internship opportunities to minorities. The childhood of adversity means your scholarship essays should be easy as anything, so milk the scholarship system for all it is worth. Get your resume into the diversity box when hunting for internships as well -- having internship experience at a company whose name the interviewer recognizes is incredibly useful for getting your first real job as well, which will help you pay off those loans faster after you graduate or even drop out, if you choose to. Do a couple summers of internships and you can call it a year of work experience, and come into your first post-college job at like 75-100k salary. If you cant find any other internships, look into GNOME Outreachy and Google Summer of Code. As for textbooks... There are a few textbook hax. Read the fine print on your scholarships and loans to see if they cover books. A lot of that kind of funds technically cover books and sometimes student housing, so use it if youve got it. Dont buy the books before the first day of class. Go to your profs office hours -- before the first class, if possible -- and explain how tight your finances are and ask if they have a book you could copy the relevant sections out of or could recommend how to get the book for cheaper. Ask if an older edition of the book will have the same content. Check the book out for like 2hrs from the school library and photocopy or scan it. Bonus points for checking it out during summer break, when nobody else wants it -- stalk the profs website for the syllabus from the last term they taught the class, to figure out what book it is. Torrent that shit on the internet. If you use a screen reader, the PDF copies might not actually work, but your university might have a disability access whatever that could help you out. If youve gotta buy a book, look into sharing it with a classmate, and look into getting it cheap on ebay or whatever. For food: Definitely use food stamps if you qualify. In some places, qualifying for certain federal student aid affects your eligibility. See if your university has a student food pantry separate from the towns social services Look into whether there are gleaners in your area. Theyre an organization that takes sell-by dated stuff from stores and distributes it for free to people in need, who then eat it by the use-by date. Use reatcheapandhealthy to make the most of the food stuff you have available. If you find bland food boring, you can try to grow culinary herbs from seeds or cuttings, usually available for free from local gardeners. Takes 5mins a week to water them but keeping them in your room makes more oxygen and is good for you :Seriously though, youve made it through a lot of shit so far, and you can keep making it through now. Youre gonna be OK. Even if this particular university doesnt end up working out for you, there are a whole bunch of ways to continue pursuing computer science and get a really good stable job at the end of it. 