If I may chime in for a moment...
I don't know the entire scenario of what your friend is going through
It's v3ry unfortunate that with the way this world is and has been for the past two years+ there are immeasurable amounts of people who are sadly suffering right now and in different ways.
I'd say that if her situation is where she's having difficulty coming up with rent monies and paying their bills etc
Then Maybe she should consider going over to the welfare office to receive some type of temporary assistance until she is able to get her medical issues taken care of and able to get back up on her feet. Plenty of people right now are in that same situation & dealing with evictions. People cannot eat or afford to feed their kids. Absolutely horrific.
If your friend worked on the books then she should be able to pull some sort of money/ possibly retirement from her local social security office.
I know a couple of things because a very dear friend of mine fell on extremely hard times, she was in a bad spot. I'm happy to say that in the end she DID get help. She was HEAVILY blessed with a one bedroom apartment believe it or not through public assistance for the elderly/disabled. The program she is on goes by her income. Her rent is reduced down to what she can afford to pay.
She had to wait some time and was placed on a list but the ending result couldn't have been any better for her. She is doing much better now.
Again I don't know your friends situation but maybe tell her to look into what her state offers, it usually starts with how much income does she have & does she have any assets, does she have any dependents -etc.
& of course there are always those pesky 800 numbers that she can call to inquire on =)
these are some quick & basic thoughts off the top of my head.
God's blessings to yous!☆
She worked in hotels for years. Before that, she worked booking musical acts and the like in my area. I don't know how much you understand how about hotels but the average wage for a front desk clerk is $8-$10 an hour in my area. She was one of my employees. She made $12 because she was much loved. Personally, I'd have given her much higher but the owners were cheap. Even I, as her manager, didn't make more. The average rent for a one bedroom in my area is $1200. Electricity alone runs in the multiple hundreds of dollars a month no matter the time of year. Most people are hanging on by their teeth and many have learned to work the system to survive.
She has applied for all of those things available and is currently living on what remains of her unemployment (unemployment in my state is $210 a week at its highest. And the politicians think that's too high. I made $45000 a year at a different job and still only got $190 a week after that job), her savings, and snap cards. In my state, those things take alot of time to go through unless you know how to work the system and we don't.
She doesn't have any assets. No car or anything. She normally rode a bicycle everywhere but now can't even do that. There are no buses. I have no idea why there aren't any buses. She doesn't have independents.
Now the last thing... I have very few friends since I moved down to the US. Most of them are my husbands friends, not mine (although they are really great guys). She is the one I'd consider an actual friend. She's about 20 years my senior with a mouth on her that she can't control but is a very awesome person. I'm trying to help. Not take advantage of anyone, or hurt anyone. I don't know about you but the last time I looked, kindness is a virtue. I wasn't asking YOU for money. I was asking for advice on how to help someone I care about. I didn't ask because we didn't know about things like welfare. I asked because I know my state and they don't want to help anyone for any reason. As for welfare, my sister in law with two kids received $200 a month total from welfare. You think that helps?
Everyone knows about the places you talked about. But she is desperate enough that she's asking her church for help.
I was trying to avoid bringing all this into the conversation. Now you took it in a direction I didn't intend and now the thread will be closed. So thanks so much. Your passive aggressive condescension is greatly appreciated. That doesn't help my friend or stay true to the thread because you couldn't be kind about someone I care about and I WILL defend myself.
I don't want to lose access to this forum. I love this place but I won't say nothing on an attack on someone you know nothing about. If you have nothing nice to say, perhaps it's better to say nothing at all.
