Commuting to Costa Mesa (Huntington Beach: section 8, apartment, rentals)

[eahlers]

Hi,

Me and my husband are struggling to find an apartment in our price range. He must go to college in Costa Mesa for his GI BILL which gives him roughly $2100 per month. I get $590 a month. We have two kids. We're looking for a 2 bedroom to save money.-maybe even swing a 1 bdr but it's so hard to get the approval for that from a landlord with 2 kids. We have no pets. This would be a temporary housing situation anyway until I get back to work (I'm on disability)

What are some areas near by where we should look? We would rather commute than live in a ghetto/crime ridden place. -I'd like to be able to walk around without being eyed up like a piece of chopped meat. We have to consider that it costs $80 to fill our ford explorer up and it only gets 12 mi to the gallon. We can't trade it either at the moment. I don't like the idea of HUD or section 8 either. I'd rather go inland and commute if it would save money.

Maybe I'm asking a lot, lol. But maybe there's some insight here from locals.

[EscapeCalifornia]

There's plenty of cheap rentals in Costa Mesa but that's not much to work with if I'm reading correctly that your total income will be $2690/mo. 1/3 of that puts you just under $900/mo for rent which isn't going to happen for more than a studio in a bad area. Forget moving inland to save money. You'll burn up the little rent savings in gas several times over. Maybe you could rent a master bedroom in some old lady's house and share that.

[DinsdalePirahna]

Costa Mesa has many decent areas that are not ghetto. You can also find decent rentals in Huntington Beach.

My friend is renting a nice small one bedroom, in a nice neighborhood off Wilson Street for $950. Thats about as low as you are going to find anything in OC

[eahlers]

haha...well...it's a nice try I suppose.

[eahlers]

I heard though if I am not mistaken that some landlord will consider your pell grant as an income? That'd be 5500 over a span of 4 months, and then the army gives 1850 back per pell grant, plus a quarterly book stipend.

1375(Pell)+2690(GI plus SSD)+462(Army/Pell)=4527

I mean, It's really not that hard to live below your means. We have no overhead. Just stop eating fast food and buying brand name. We don't watch TV either. So our only dilemma is to give the landlords what they require which is x3 the rent in income.