# How easy is it to end up homeless? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 9, 2020, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-easy-is-it-to-end-up-homeless/922555 "2020-10-09T12:32:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-easy-is-it-to-end-up-homeless/922555/41 "2020-10-12T02:51:59Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Why was she still getting child support when the kids were over 18? As **needscoffee** explained, she became homeless after her youngest turned 18 and she no longer received support. > [@Monty](#): > > Don’t some support orders include children under 21 who are in college full-time? As far as I know this was only support from the state and I don’t think it would provide for that. And these kids were definitely not in college. ---
**Author:** ![JaneDoe42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janedoe42/32/14104_2.png) [@JaneDoe42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneDoe42)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-easy-is-it-to-end-up-homeless/922555/42 "2020-10-12T03:13:43Z")
About child support: Say a person is ordered to pay 100 per month until the child turns 18. For the ease of doing the math, this will be a period of 10 full years. The total obligation to the parent is 12000 per court order. A year later, the person doesn’t like paying 100 per month out of his/her pay check, so quits the job and starts working under the table. Nine years later, the child has turned 18 and the person gets a job with pay checks. That person still owes the parent 10,800 as well as lots of court costs and penalties. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-easy-is-it-to-end-up-homeless/922555/43 "2020-10-12T03:23:24Z")
I knew a woman with a small child who got in trouble with the landlord, it went on her record as an eviction, and she could then rent only from predatory landlords. She said that was worse than being homeless, so she lived for years mostly in her car. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-easy-is-it-to-end-up-homeless/922555/44 "2020-10-12T03:31:56Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > As far as I know this was only support from the state and I don’t think it would provide for that. So not child support from the father, but state support? (welfare or aid to families with dependent children or whatever its called nowadays) ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-easy-is-it-to-end-up-homeless/922555/45 "2020-10-12T03:45:54Z")
That’s all I know of. I didn’t know her well, she was the neighbor of a friend. I never heard about a father or got the impression there was one in the picture. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-easy-is-it-to-end-up-homeless/922555/46 "2020-10-12T03:59:46Z")
For me it was as easy as sharing an apartment with three other people, working a low paying job with no benefits as an orderly at a nursing home with a schedule that changed every four days, then getting a severe case of the flu in the middle of winter at the same time the two of the roomies got transferred to another state and the third just disappeared. Lost the job, lost the warm place to come to from the job, lost the ability to buy food, and lost the right to health care at the one time in my life I needed it the most. How easy is it to end up homeless? It is as easy as falling off a cliff. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-easy-is-it-to-end-up-homeless/922555/47 "2020-10-12T12:28:47Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > I think it was a Harvard School of Public Health study that said that about 50% of all personal bankruptcies are _because of_ medical bills. > [@nearwildheaven](#): > > And if they aren’t directly due to medical bills, they’re due to OTHER things that go along with serious illness or injuries, like lost wages, travel expenses, child care, restaurant meals, etc. Elizabeth Warren was an author on two papers on this. Their methodology has been questioned: > **[Myth and Measurement: The Case of Medical Bankruptcies](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5865642/)** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-easy-is-it-to-end-up-homeless/922555.md?page=2)