Jannie
“Dear Steve,
I’m pregnant and unemployed, I have about $13,800 in debt and I’m about to have no place to stay, I’m receiving unemployment right now, and my car just got taken away from me.
Is there anyway that you or anybody else could help me?
Jannie”
The Answer:
Dear Janie,
Sadly, this is not the first or even the 50th time that I’ve seen the same situation. I’m so sorry that you are having to live through this.
At times like this the best resources are going to be from local government, friends, family, community resources, and your church or religious organization.
There are resources, limited as they might be, but you need to get yourself in the local support pipeline. Since I have no idea where you live, you’ll have to hunt them out. I would suggest that you first start with the local women’s shelter. Your town might even have one specifically for pregnant women.
The shelter will then be able to better direct you to toward local benefits that will be available to you. You should then look at food assistance programs like SNAP (formerly food stamps), WIC and see what housing and medical support is available.
My advice is that you try to to not get overwhelmed in solving all the issues at once. Start with shelter, food and access to medical care. Then you can move on to income.
We can tackle the debt once you are back on a firm footing where you have a place to live, food in and some prenatal medical care. Until then, don’t worry about the debt at all. It’s a mess, but it can be cleaned up latter.