SSI: Not Enough for Rent

I already had an article ready for today, and then this showed up in my Inbox:

Study Finds Average Rent Cost Higher Than Entire Monthly SSI Payment of Many with Disabilities via Disability.Gov.

So guess what I want to talk about! You got it...
Please feel free to take a moment to recover from the shock that SSI payments are just not enough to live on. Are you okay? Want a drink? A towel? A fainting couch?

There was recently a cost of living increase, by the way. Heh.

Besides finding some clever ways to say “fucking duh,” I really do not have anything to add to the facts of the matter. Well, I will say that it does parallel my lived experience.


It is difficult to complain when I feel damn lucky just to have the system to work at all for me.

Politics matter: you need to remember this when you hear that the Administration has put SSI back on the table as a gambling chip. You need to remember this instead of calling the people against it “emo progs.” You need to remember this when you visit your relatives trying to live a life on money that is not even rent. You need to remember this when the language of “makers and takers” gets louder again (and it will).

You need to remember that we are part of the 47%. We did not want to be here. We did not get here on our own. We did not decide to injure or sicken ourselves so much so that we could get a check that would not even cover basics.

This leaves us no room to do or be anything other than disabled.

Remember us.