Today in the world of trying to obtain social welfare benefits in the United States: my roommate called the state's DSHS office to recertify their SNAP benefits today. They were on hold for 4 hours.

This is pretty standard. They've been struggling to get various benefits for the past 3 years, and failing. They regularly spend hours on hold, daily. Most of the time, the phone system hangs up on them.

They called 211 over a year ago to ask about housing assistance. 211 told them that if they wanted assistance, they should put all their stuff in storage & go live in their car.

Note that roomie has a TBI & chronic vestibular dysfunction; they're dizzy or have vertigo 100% of the time, 24/7, whether they're awake or asleep, it doesn't matter.

So they can't drive. Some days they can barely stand up, they're so dizzy.

They applied for SSDI. It took a year, from Nov. 2021 to just a few months ago. They were denied: the woman who did the psych eval flat-out lied on her assessment of roomie's status.

Roomie isn't applying for jobs anymore; they probably can't work anymore now anyway, unless they get some kind of treatment.

There *is* treatment for the condition they have. It takes about 2 years & costs about $15,000 USD.

In the past 3 years they've applied for over 600 jobs. They got maybe 3 interviews.

They don't bother anymore.

Last year, roomie applied for housing assistance. Their application made its way through one of the local orgs over the course of about 5 months or so. At the end, roomie got a letter denying their application. When they called to ask why, they found out a) they already had a duplicate application in, & b) funding ran out a couple months previous so too bad, so sad.

Just about every org or department roomie calls refers him to another one. It's referrals, referrals, referrals, meanwhile the clock keeps ticking, his injuries get worse, his condition deteriorates... places want to see his medical records. Well he hasn't had medical care for the past 3 years...

He was denied Medicaid twice. He finally got on a state plan like a month ago. Now he's trying to establish care, but places either don't have openings for months, or they schedule and cancel on him - and don't tell him about it.

An interesting thing he's learned: if he connects w/ppl in offices in the Eastern half of the state, which is more conservative, ppl are skeptical, dismissive, maybe not rude, but they imply that maybe he's not in *that* dire straits, maybe he's even lying...

...while if he connects w/ppl in offices in the far more liberal Western half of the state, ppl talk to him like a human being, listen, remain neutral & nonjudgmental.

Quelle surprise.

I'm able to keep us afloat for now, & suffer no negative repercussions for doing so. I also have the ability to leave, if need be.

I have all kinds of opinions on the lack of social safety net in the US. I see them lived out via roomie every single day.

Many programs require that ppl have no assets to qualify. Roomie has a retirement fund, back from the day when he could work (and did - worked his ass off)... but he doesn't have the paperwork for it. His ex was in charge of their finances & kept such info under lock & key, so when she kicked him out, she kept it.