If you are living on a low income, apply at your housing authority for a Section 8 voucher. It's a federal benefit, and it's portable. You can take it anywhere in the country. What's considered a low income in Boston might be more than what's considered a low income in rural Missouri. It can take being on a waiting list for a few years to get it. If you have any kind of disability, physical or mental, you move up in line a bit.