This fall I started collecting SSDI. I'm very grateful that I got approved right away and it took away the fear I had that I might end up in a shelter. (I never saved for a rainy day, and had unstable employment for years. I'm living alone.) I've been able to keep living in the apartment I've had for over 5 years. It is a very low rent apartment (in a small complex with nice people) and the proberty owner does accept Section 8.

18 months ago I got on a waiting list for Section 8 housing voucher. My hope has been to get the voucher and then use it to stay right here where I am. Cheap though my rent is, it takes half of my SSDI check, which leaves me scrimping by on very little. At the rate I was moving up in the line, I expected that I would get the voucher by March of this new year.

Before Christmas I called to see if the line had moved and I got a shock. I had been moved backward in the line from number 600 to number 1200. I had never been moved backward before. It can take over a year to move a thousand spaces. Plus, maybe I'll get moved backward again. (I've already submitted the doctor's verification of disability, which pushed me 500 spaces forward.) Now I'm in a quandary.

If I want to get housing assistance sooner, one way would be to apply for an apartment in a HUD complex. I'm kind of afraid of those places. Walking from the parking lots to the apartments can be scary. Plus, my walking is hindered by me having an arthritic foot that is getting worse and worse. Another option would be to apply for an apt in a senior complex, and those places are much safer. Of course, the better the place, the longer the wait to get in, though not necessarily.

I feel bad at the thought of having to leave where I am living and where I have neighbors who I know. Where I now live, I park right by my door. There are no steps to climb.

There is a senior complex place near me, but the apartments are very small. It's an elevator building. I would have to cope with the move, which is hard with my degenerative disc problems and knee and foot arthritic problems. I would have to get rid of probably half my stuff (which might not be a bad thing.)

Maybe I should just go talk to them at this senior place. It's a high rise building, and I would miss being able to have my bird feeders. On the other hand, I would be paying a third of my income in rent, instead of half of my income. Maybe there would be other advantages to going there. It's a nice place, from what I've known.

Still I wonder if there is someway I could get help staying where I am. No place will be as cheap as where I am for the government. That's what's too bad. Anywhere else I go will be bigger rent for the government program to pay. Like the subsidy will be higher. I'll save money by moving, but the goverment will pay more. This is one of the ways that our country wastes money. Where I get my mental health care is supposed to help me with housing issues, but I get no help/advice on anything. I have no case manager.