How Are People Surviving on SSI?

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Depends.I keep my food expenses down by growing a garden.Not an option for apartment dwellers.Defenitly something all should do of they have a piece of tillable ground.It amazing what amount of food can be grown on a small space.My problem is unexpected expenses.My car radiator has a hole and I can't fix it till the first.I could ask family to help but I don't like to do that.Not that it really matters right now,no money for gas either.lol
I'm always broke the last part of the month but as long as the bills are paid and the animals and I have food it's ok.
Living expenses are really cheap in my state so that helps.There are also some programs that help with energy expenses in the summer and winter.

Actually there are ways to garden in an apartment especially if you have a balcony though indoor growing is also not impossible. But of course it wouldn't likely provide enough food to live on, also you'd have to buy equipment which could vary in costs depending on how you go about growing.

That's true if you have good light on the balcony.Peppers and tomatoes grow fine in containers and just a few could provide a person with some fresh veggies all summer.Herbs and greens also do well in small pots.Cucumbers and strawberries do good in hanging baskets.The plus side is there isn't many insect pests on a balcony.Ive seen some pics of incredible roof top gardens,just amazing.I use lights to start off my summer plants,tomatoes,squash.etc..so I'm sure it would work well for year round.I just use the tube fluorescent plant lights,they are not as expensive as some plant lights.If people have access to a community garden that's even better.

why is everyone saying they cant survive on SSI??
arent there places where disabled people can live based on their incomes?
i heard of apartments that disabled people can get that they just take 30% of ur income and leave the rest to you. im not on ssi yet but im going to be going on it.
i figured, with ssi you get about 700$ a month rounding down. 30% of that would be 210$ for rent, leaving me with 490$
electricity should be roughly 40-50$ a month at maximum, leaving me with 440$ internet 80$ at maximum, leaving me at 360, then also you'd qualify for foodstamps and semi-free health care
im planing on living by myself anyway in florida, or the carolinas, so i would never need roommates (dont want them either)

I think they are saying that SSI alone isn't enough money. Food stamps and income-based housing are considered separate.

I certainly could not afford a place on my own, but then again a lot of people in my age group that have jobs can't afford a place on their own either. You could try applying for subsidized housing for people on disability, but the waiting lists can be long....aside from that you basically need room-mates.

There is subsidized housing, but you have to sign up and then you get put on a waiting list and it can take over a year before anything opens up. Its not exactly the easiest process and it can take a very long time.

I applied for it and it did take a year before hearing anything back...but since then I've gotten into a relationship and me and my boyfriend live together and not so sure subsidized housing allows for you to have your S.O living with you plus once I heard back we had already gotten a place with room-mates and we've agreed to stay for the lease so couldn't very well follow up. I suppose they could have found another couple maybe...but then of course what would I do if it was against housing subsidy policy to have my non-disabled boyfriend who works living there? Neither of us want to live separately.

I pay 315 for rent and currently my boyfriend is handling our utilities because after rent it leaves me with roughly 400 dollars for the entire month, which goes a lot quicker than one might think though the past month and this month it seems I've been able to budget my money to stretch out a bit further and even have a little left to carry over the next month. You can live on SSI without subsidized living, but not really by yourself.

I recall my first apartment was just $220 a month, or $485 in today's dollars. One advantage I have is that I can buy in bulk and eat the same thing every day.

One possibility would be to rent a room from an older adult--you might even get a big discount if you could help out with their activities of daily life.

was it in a safe area?




couldnt someone just put there names on multiple waiting list? and get whatever chooses them first?
and is there time limit on how long they can live there? O_o
i never want to have roommates at all. i want to live by myself. down south in florida, carolinas, texas or alabama.

Yes, but depending on where they live or want to live, even that may not be helpful except in the long-term. The housing voucher waiting list for the city I lived in when I was first homeless was closed indefinitely because there were a zillion people already receiving subsidized housing in that area. Most waiting lists for hundreds of miles here in California are years long if not closed.

And some waiting lists give priority to people who already live and work in that area, so a person who signed up for a housing voucher in that area would be even lower on the list and have to wait even longer for a voucher.

Once a person is given a voucher, the logistics, time, and money required to get to that new area and search for housing can be very difficult for poor people, especially if they are juggling inflexible work schedules, childcare, and unreliable transportation. They may have to get social services like food stamps transferred to the new area or have their food stamps cut off so they can re-apply. These things have happened to me.


Not unless rules are different in different regions. I have subsidized housing.

It was actually pretty safe--along one of the main roads the police use in a small town.

[quote="starkid"]
Yes, but depending on where they live or want to live, even that may not be helpful except in the long-term. The housing voucher waiting list for the city I lived in when I was first homeless was closed indefinitely because there were a zillion people already receiving subsidized housing in that area. Most waiting lists for hundreds of miles here in California are years long if not closed.

And some waiting lists give priority to people who already live and work in that area, so a person who signed up for a housing voucher in that area would be even lower on the list and have to wait even longer for a voucher.

Once a person is given a voucher, the logistics, time, and money required to get to that new area and search for housing can be very difficult for poor people, especially if they are juggling inflexible work schedules, childcare, and unreliable transportation. They may have to get social services like food stamps transferred to the new area or have their food stamps cut off so they can re-apply. These things have happened to me.

[quote]



ah I see.
well here's a picture of all the places i'd want to move to once i get on SSI:


i want to live by myself, but i want to be in safe place so no one breaks in and steals any of my computer games or my electronics. I'm pretty sure im bound to find a place within all of those states i highlighted on that map.

Income based housing is very limited. Wait lists in big cities like Miami, Chicago, or San Francisco can be 20 years or more to get section 8 or public housing, even if you are disabled. Small cities have shorter wait lists as the private rents are lower, so its pretty much only people who have very small incomes, like SSI that need them. In those cities, an ordinary retiree with only social security as income, or a full time worker in a minimum wage job can find a small apartments. I used to live in an apartment community that had many section 8 units. The building was fairly well maintained, but was not brand new, and for example did not have dishwashers in the kitchens like many fancier apartments. The rent calculations for public housing usually include a utility allowance, so the 30 to 35% (proposals are being made to change it to 35% by Ben Carson at HUD) of your income that is offset by your electric bill, gas bill (if you have gas), so say you use 30 dollars a month on gas for heat, hot water, and cooking, your rent payment drops by 30 dollars in the calculation. The same applies for electricity. There also is a medicine expenses component as well, if medicaid for example covers most of the costs of your meds, but say you have to pay 2 dollars to get each medicine filled, and you take 5 medicines, that lowers your rent by 10 dollars more for example. SSI benefits are low because they are not intended to meet all your housing needs if you rent. If someone had a house and the mortgage was paid off, they could potentially afford to maintain it provided it was a modest house having low taxes and insurance requirements, and was cheap to heat or cool. The way the whole losing 1 / 3 of SSI thing works is that if you pay less than your share of the rent or household costs is that SSI treats you as receiving free room and board and lowers your benefit by a third. There also is a new proposal in the 2019 budget to automatically reduce SSI by a third for everyone who lives with another adult, as SSI has to review every grocery receipt during the year, plus household bills to figure out if you pay a fair share or not. Hopefully in the future they can work towards restoring full SSI for people living with roommates or relatives, as before the late 90s that was the case. If people living alone were able to get a little more SSI, then there would be more options to rent a 500 dollar apartment (yeah, most popular cities don't have these, but there are cities where such apartments exist).

After I ended up homeless for a few months, my parents bought a trailer home for me in a low income, but decent trailer park not far from their summer home. I pay them almost $400 rent a month out of the rent assistance part of my SS assistance. That covers their lot rent here, the mortgage and insurance on the trailer, and maintenance. I also get HEAP money which goes toward my home gas bill, I get Medicaid, Food Stamps, and cash assistance toward non-food groceries and bills.

I occasionally buy stuff at the Salvation Army, I buy stuff at the big box discount department stores, and most of the groceries I buy are store brand, which are cheaper. I don't get cable TV, just cable internet, and I watch any TV or movies I want on the internet, as long as they are from free sites, as I can't, and won't pay for video sites. I grew up when TV and radio was provided to the public for free, as it was all paid for by commercial advertisers, so I am okay with ads. My car is currently off the road due to needing a lot of repairs, and due also to some health issues of mine, so it is currently uninsured. It's very old, so I don't owe any money on it. I don't charge things on credit cards, so I avoid paying credit card interest. I've managed to stay out of any major debts, but I am always low on cash.

Government assistance is not meant to provide a good living for anyone. It is only for providing the bare minimum to get by on. If you cant accept that, get a job or win the lottery.

I was on SSI & it was impossible for me to afford my own place. I just posted this in another thread but it's relevant here too

My girlfriend is planning on staying on SSI for the rest of her life due to mental & physical issues. She has a Section 8 housing voucher which pays most of her rent. It allows her to rent from private & public places. It's based on her income, utilities, & medical expenses. She had to live in a low income place for a year before they approved her. The waiting list is probably longer now. She also has food-stamps(SNAP) which goes by how much her rent, utilities, medical expenses, phone costs, & her income of coarse but the GOP is trying to majorly cut & change the program. She also gets fuel assistance which is a one time payment for her gas which we use alot of in winter cuz Vermont gets pretty cold. She has Medicaid too.

I was on SSI before I started working & the Louisiana state Medicaid s#cked. No docs in my area would accept it cuz it didn't pay them enough so I had to have private health insurance, later insurance through work, & then COBRA 1ce I quit working & the COBRA health care cost me about half my SSI check. None of my insurance covered mental stuff other than meds so I had to pay out of pocket to see my psychiatrist. I also had copays & deductibles with all my non-Medicaid insurance. Getting my own place seemed impossible when I was just on SSI & not working. I'm on Social Security Disability now & get alittle more than SSI but it also gives me Medicare & Medicaid pays for it. All the docs in Vermont that me & Cass seen accept the state Medicaid so we don't really have health care cost other than copays for prescriptions which isn't much, full cost of nonprescription meds, & full cost of miscellaneous stuff like supplements & 1st-aid items.