[isbjorn16]

> I'm sorry to hear that, is there some problem with SNAP and Medicaid that's preventing him from taking them? Is housing just so costly where he lives that he's insolvent despite not being below the "poverty plus" lines for those programs?

Nailed it! Seattle is not an inexpensive city. Before expenses he's actually doing quite well for himself, in theory - especially compared to federal poverty guidelines - for a college drop-out. But those guidelines that are probably pretty feasible in West Virginia or Kansas are so far beyond useless to someone in a larger metro, it's kind of insane.

So no dice on SNAP or expanded Medicaid (Apple Health, in WA). It's a shame because without the insurance premiums, he'd actually be able to make all of his loan payments, even without extending them or doing an IBR type thing.

[microcolonel]

I know it's probably not the first time you've heard this, but moving just slightly out of Seattle (I'm assuming the family ties are pretty damn important, I know it's a huge part of why I'm still in Ontario, so no big moves) could have a huge impact. I recently moved in to my mother's house because I don't want to live the ramen life again while working at a startup. She was, in turn, able to afford this place because it's in Hamilton, ON and not Toronto.

To my eyes, it seems that high-minded zoning and planning (especially insidious nonsense like minimum house sizes, lawn setbacks for bungalows that would be enough for a five-storey building), and the mindset comes with, have made and kept housing extremely expensive in major cities in the U.S. and Canada. I think you can do a lot better outside of Seattle, with the main bottleneck being transport time (and possibly not being able to stay with the same company).

I know it's a cliché, but I think a lot of people will find that they like the slightly-less-exciting life in a second-tier city once they're there; I know I prefer being in Hamilton to being in Toronto in many ways. On the flip side, I know somebody who seems to really prefer living in Seattle despite working in Redmond. These are, of course, the more privileged thoughts that you can have about where you live.

P.S. if you reply and don't see anything pop up; I'm probably not just ignoring you. Hacker News has this health-promoting but annoying feature of rate limiting submissions for a given user. When I hit my limit (which is often), it often takes about four hours (or possibly more, dunno) to clear.

[isbjorn16]

Oh, I feel the move; we're actually from rural Appalachia. He came to Seattle because I'm here and I supported him financially for close to a year until he finally got his feet even remotely under himself. The wilds of Western PA are a rough place to get a start for anyone, and not having a college degree makes it even worse. He spent 4 years trying to find a job other than being a cook at a crusty hole-in-the-wall dive bar with no luck. I convinced him the opportunity was at least better out here, and he made the leap. His wage went up 230% from before and he's closer to 30 hours than the 18 he got previously, so it's far more lucrative, but the COL is also at least 400% more (you can rent an apartment where he lived prior for about 350-450$ a month). Without public transportation of any sort, though, you also need a car, insurance, gas, blah blah blah - and the ~550$ he made a month gross just wasn't going to cut it.

He really is better off here, but he'd REALLY be better off in a second tier city - exactly like you said. That's hard to pull off when you don't have a couch to crash on for a while while you get started, though. At this point he's tried literally every option besides hitch hiking and being homeless, and he isn't too keen to try that; at least now he has a roof and rice and beans, you know?