I hate being on SSDI and have started to struggle to get off it or at least supplement it. A major problem is that I'm trying to get back into the game at an age when most people are starting to think about retirement. So, I have two strikes against me - age and disability. At the moment I am living very simply with my SSDI payment supplemented by my small part time job. My major concern is that my housing is completely dependent on a section 8 housing voucher and congress continues to make cuts to that program. I live in fear that I will lose my voucher and at age 60 be turned out into the street.
I was homeless once before and I ended up spending the summer camped out on public lands up in the mountains. The experience actually ended up being sort of cool - I was living in a beautiful setting, and I had a snug little tent and all my camping gear. I'd build big campfires out of juniper wood at night and toast hot dogs donated from a charity in a town about 30 miles away. I bathed in a crystal clear (but very cold!) mountain stream and even had my cat along for company. By October I was admitted into a rural housing program and managed to make it back indoors before the snow began to fly.
But if they demolish the HUD programs, I'll be looking at sleeping in my car in the winter, and I'll never make it through that, no matter how wonderful my summer camp might be.
