Good reading. Been in similar straits before. A fair amount self inflicted but I never took a penny of public assistance. Besides, I am a white male so I wouldn’t get anything.
As Reverand Ike used to say: the best thing one can do for poor people is not to become one of them.
Same here. At 19, I moved out on my own. Could barely feed myself on my low paying minimum wage job. I rented a garage room from a woman with 4 kids on public assistance (welfare). That opened my eyes. 4 kids each from different men. She traded food stamps for booze. Welfare paid her rent, and the rent I paid was gravy for her. Then a friend had problems with abusive drunken parents and he came to share my room - he was 16 without a job so I covered the rent. We moved on within a half year, and things got steadily better. He got a job, I got a better job, and he moved on and became a cop (and still is one after 40 years). Put myself through college. I still remember those days when I only spent a dollar a week for lunch. Never took a penny in handouts.