Help finding a cheap apartment (Seattle, Bellevue: low income, section 8, for rent)

[01010001]

Hi everyone, I'm a quiet 34 year old male who is a live-in caregiver for my 67 year old mother. I'm trying to find the impossible and I'm hoping, maybe, possibly, someone on here can help. We are planning on moving out to either the Seattle area or Portland area. There are numerous reasons we want to move out there but I won't go into all that here (it would be several paragraphs long).

Okay, so here's the deal. I currently have no income to speak of other than what I've saved up over the years for the move out there. My mother has a low monthly social-security fixed income. Our monthly expenses will be paid for by her low income to begin with, then eventually once I find a job I'll be contributing significantly. Deposits and moving costs will be coming out of my savings. Finding a job from this distance (Minnesota) is nearly impossible, so hopefully I'll have more luck once I'm out there. I realize it may take several months, but I have better chances when I'm actually out there and can have interviews in person.

In October the place we are currently staying in is going to be doing major renovations to the apartments and they need everyone out. There are also other reasons we need to be gone by then, so that doesn't leave us a whole lot of time. Both of our criminal background checks should be squeaky clean, and we have good references (including the current landlord). We've tried to find housing that's based-on-income, but absolutely nothing is available that soon. Everything has one year or longer waiting lists. So, plan B is to find a regular priced apartment that's cheap. We can only afford around $400/month ($450 is the absolute max and that's really stretching it far, even $400 is going to be rough). I have found apartments that cheap, but they are reaalllly far out like in Aberdeen. There's got to be something somewhere closer though. Here is some more info: no stairs (because of my mother), 1 or 2 bedrooms, must accept a small (20 lbs) dog (female Welsh Corgi Pembroke, very friendly and well-mannered), and be somewhat close to either Seattle or Portland (an hour or less).

I've been frequenting Craigslist, Padmapper, Hotpads, and a few other sites. I check them multiple times daily, but I'm just not finding anything. There's a lot of spam on them though for that price range, but I email them anyway just in case. I've called the Housing Authorities (most of them have been super rude!) and some other organizations without any luck. So can any of you nice people out there suggest anything? Please don't reply with something like, "don't move here" or "just give up." That's not the kind of response I'm looking for, if you don't have something helpful to say please move along, thanks. I realize the odds are against us, but I'm trying anyway. We really want to move out to the PNW for a lot of reasons, and this will probably be the last time she can make such a long journey in her life. After my father passing away a couple of years ago it is now just the two of us, there's no other family to speak of.

Thanks for any kind of help you can send our way.

[tobester]

You might try looking here:

Senior Housing Assistance Group - SHAG - Affordable Senior Housing in Washington State

But I'm guessing there is no $400/month housing anywhere in the Puget Sound region.

[01010001]

Thanks tobester, SHAG was one of my next places to call. Someone else mentioned them to me recently but said they also have waiting lists, and living there with her might not be allowed (even with a doctor's note). I'll definitely call and see if anything comes of it, but I suspect I'll be running into the same brick wall.

[Seacove]

Portland has a lower cost of living with the same weather/environment as Seattle. With a fixed income, that might be a better choice plus the drive to the ocean would be shorter, what about Astoria?

[01010001]

Yep, I'm definitely considering Portland too. Here's my post over in the Portland forum: //www.city-data.com/forum/portl...apartment.html

Astoria (that's where The Goonies was filmed, right?) is about two hours away from Portland which is a bit too far. One of the main reasons for wanting to live closer to a bigger city is so I'll have more job opportunities and more things to do. Where I live now (southern Minnesota) is kind of out in the middle of no where and I'm bored out of my mind.

[spotlesseden]

you can look for income restricted apartments. But i think those are still $600+ a month.

[Hemlock140]

Your mother could qualify for a nice one bedroom, some in nice areas like Redmond and Bellevue. As a care giver you might be able to get them to give her a 2BR and let you stay there. Unfortunately there is a waiting list and it could be years, and probably a residency requirement to avoid the County paying for people to move here just fro subsidized housing. I know someone that was paying only $200 based on the low Social Security income. More likely you will need to find a homeowner with an in-law apartment and I'd expect that to be about $600. This is just an expensive area.


Subsidized Housing - King County Housing Authority

[01010001]

Yep, the waiting list as I said in my original post is the biggest issue with that idea. Eventually she will go into assisted living and I'll get my own place. That could be anywhere from 6 months to a year from now. She is currently paying about $200 a month for rent. She used to have a Section 8 Voucher in the distant past but doesn't have it anymore, and I hear those have 7+ year waiting lists (it's possible she might not even live that long). We have a doctor's note that basically states she needs me, so that should help if she was to get accepted into a senior citizen building. We just need to come up with a temporary solution until there's an opening, but it's complicated by the fact we need to be out of here by the end of September / beginning of October.

[LucaBella]

Originally Posted by 01010001

Hi everyone, I'm a quiet 34 year old male who is a live-in caregiver for my 67 year old mother. I'm trying to find the impossible and I'm hoping, maybe, possibly, someone on here can help. We are planning on moving out to either the Seattle area or Portland area. There are numerous reasons we want to move out there but I won't go into all that here (it would be several paragraphs long).

Okay, so here's the deal. I currently have no income to speak of other than what I've saved up over the years for the move out there. My mother has a low monthly social-security fixed income. Our monthly expenses will be paid for by her low income to begin with, then eventually once I find a job I'll be contributing significantly. Deposits and moving costs will be coming out of my savings. Finding a job from this distance (Minnesota) is nearly impossible, so hopefully I'll have more luck once I'm out there. I realize it may take several months, but I have better chances when I'm actually out there and can have interviews in person.

In October the place we are currently staying in is going to be doing major renovations to the apartments and they need everyone out. There are also other reasons we need to be gone by then, so that doesn't leave us a whole lot of time. Both of our criminal background checks should be squeaky clean, and we have good references (including the current landlord). We've tried to find housing that's based-on-income, but absolutely nothing is available that soon. Everything has one year or longer waiting lists. So, plan B is to find a regular priced apartment that's cheap. We can only afford around $400/month ($450 is the absolute max and that's really stretching it far, even $400 is going to be rough). I have found apartments that cheap, but they are reaalllly far out like in Aberdeen. There's got to be something somewhere closer though. Here is some more info: no stairs (because of my mother), 1 or 2 bedrooms, must accept a small (20 lbs) dog (female Welsh Corgi Pembroke, very friendly and well-mannered), and be somewhat close to either Seattle or Portland (an hour or less).

I've been frequenting Craigslist, Padmapper, Hotpads, and a few other sites. I check them multiple times daily, but I'm just not finding anything. There's a lot of spam on them though for that price range, but I email them anyway just in case. I've called the Housing Authorities (most of them have been super rude!) and some other organizations without any luck. So can any of you nice people out there suggest anything? Please don't reply with something like, "don't move here" or "just give up." That's not the kind of response I'm looking for, if you don't have something helpful to say please move along, thanks. I realize the odds are against us, but I'm trying anyway. We really want to move out to the PNW for a lot of reasons, and this will probably be the last time she can make such a long journey in her life. After my father passing away a couple of years ago it is now just the two of us, there's no other family to speak of.

Thanks for any kind of help you can send our way.

Tough tough situation, being broke myself, I've spent a lot of time looking for safe cheap housing, and it's very rough. I did come across a 2 bedroom for $475, but they required at least one of the occupants to pay $180 for a meal plan, but hey, that's not bad to have the food made for you. Here's the website that shows low-cost and senior care housing Socialserve.com - Find Affordable Housing

The main thing i want to say to you is that you need to be paid to be your mother's caregiver first and foremost. If you do move here, you'll need to contact Copes to get the process started, just mention it to DSHS, which is where you'll be going for all you and your mom's services.

$400 rent just doesn't really happen here. It's too good a city, and it would be so very hard to make it here, so you've got to work on creating more income for yourself, which is why i say get paid to be the caregiver, but it's going to be very hard to find someone willing to rent to you since you don't have a more traditional well-paying job. Seattle is just not cheap... you may be better off looking at Idaho or Oregon...