<prompt> Human: This may be unclear because I only have an anecdotal understanding of my home situation. I live in southern New Hampshire. Ill be 18 in August, and graduate high school in 2016. Ive lived in my home, with the help of a section 8 voucher, for over 10 years. Recently the electric company PSNH was absorbed by EverSource, which to the best of my knowledge is some conglomerate utility company. Anyway, my mom had been paying whatever she could to them for all this time 50 a month here, 100 there while racking up a debt of nearly 12,000. We are also supposedly under protection of medical need of electricity, as my mother and brother have asthma. My mother apparently missed a payment with EverSource for 200 this month. This is normally not a problem if she calls immediately but I guess she didnt. Normally the Public Utilities Commission keeps these companies from shutting off services like this but because she didnt call, according to my mother they gave EverSource the ability to collect at will. They demanded the reasonable payment option of 3,000 a month for 4 months. When we couldnt pay, they shut off the electricity. Here lies the problem, without electricity, Section 8 wont provide us assistance with the rent we pay. We have no income though I work at Wendys full time over the summer and part time during the school year and cant afford the rent. So my mother came up with a plan. She proposes we get a different place, move in, and get utilities under the name of her fiance. I dont even know if this will work but I do know that I dont want to have to move. I only have 1 year left if high school and I dont want to spend it homeless or uprooted. Im here for help because I dont understand and Im hoping someone can help me learn about my own poverty. Im trying very hard to break this cycle and save my family. I guess my real questions are;Is there anything I can do personally?Why can they shut of the power when my mom needs it? She is in terrible health, and there is a very strong possibility she has cancer, but thats a different, simultaneous storyIs there anyone I can turn to for assistance?Is there ANY chance of me saving my home this month?I know this is probably too lengthy and vague, but Im very desperate. I will do my best to clarify as things develop but I need to turn somewhere and the adults in my life arent quite as fiscally responsible as the type of person Im looking for. Thank you very much if you at least read this.Edit: its been a day and Id like to thank you all very muck for your help. Not much has changed in the last day. My parents are taking the same course of action, and the electricity is of course, still off. Ive decided to call Eversource as soon as possible to try and have it explained to me thoroughly and Ill examine my options again then.Of course I wont be using my own credit in any of this, Im saving that for things I know I can deal with. The way I see it, I wont have credit at all until my student loans.Assistant: You should contact a Community Mental Health Center. Seriously. Hopefully you and if you have any younger siblings have at least an active Medicaid file. You and your family have a lot of different issues, and from the sound of it - you desperately need help. if you have Medicaid - you can see if you could bill services for a Care FacilitatorCase Manager to help you and your family. They would help refer you to all the different nonprofits in your area - charities, churches, etc. along with other social services offered by Federal, State, and local government. They can even refer you for legal and financial assistance.Human: I just fear that social services have done all they could autistic brother on social security, everyone on Medicaid, food stamps, Section 8 Im trying to think of alternatives. We arent apart of any churches or anything. I fear in the end my mom was somehow irresponsible or this was just unsustainable from the beginning.  <response>: I doubt it. They offer more services the greater the need. Maybe there isnt anything you can do, but it wouldnt hurt to check on that. Something else - you are not responsible to fix your family. I wish I had known that when I was 17. It would have saved me years of pain, trauma, depression, severe anxiety that I still wrestle with now. It is a good thing that you want to help out. But you cant let your familys dysfunction define who you are. I know Im just a guy on the internet, but you have to let yourself off the hook. There are dozens of things that have to go wrong before you get to the point where your family - and absolutely none of them are your fault. When you graduate from high school - try and get a good trade skill and job or go to College and move out on your own. My guess is you have no idea what youre even remotely capable of yet because of your circumstances. One last thing - you may really dislike me for saying this - but I would honestly think about giving a call to Department of Children and Family Services in your area. The last thing they want to do is to take kids away from their parents and split them up - which is always everyones big fear. Every DCS worker I know has said the government makes terrible parents. We dont want to do that. But if you have younger siblings and if you yourself are about to homeless - something drastic needs to change very, very soon. And they need to step in to help your family get back on its feet.I hope this conversation on reddit will be helpful. 