Hours to work a miracle

I wrote this because I’m angry and frustrated. Angry because the people we elected to represent us in decision making matters, people who are supposed to be more knowledgeable than we ordinary citizens, dropped the ball big time and they did it more than once. I’m frustrated because no matter what I do to try to get my life back on track, circumstances beyond my control make things go horribly wrong and as the whole world is getting to know right now, it’s very disturbing to find that you really have no control over your own life.

…I have only a few hours to work a miracle.
That’s when our house is due to go up for auction in a foreclosure sale.
I know we aren’t alone; there are thousands of us out here losing our homes. Some people will be lucky, they’ll be able to work something out with their lender or take advantage of some home save program. Either way it requires you to have enough income to afford the plan.
What happens if you don’t make enough money?
Nobody seems to be addressing this issue.
When we bought our house in 2000 for $72,000.00 both my husband and I were working.
In 2003 when the company I worked for went bankrupt we lost 2/3 of our income overnight. Between April of ‘03 to present, with the exception of 2 ½ years spent going to college full time, I’ve applied for over 700 unique jobs. I’ve been asked to interview by 7 of those companies, 4 since I finished school. The last interview I went on had over 170 applicants for a single position. Even so, it seemed the most promising opportunity to date. They just informed me that they decided to hold off hiring because of the economy but they’re going to hold on to my application for when things get better. By then it will probably be too late for us. With the current financial crisis, jobs are going to be even tougher to find. I’m really beginning to feel like I’d have a better chance of winning the lottery than of landing a job. How are we supposed to save our house when we don’t have enough income for anyone to consider working with us?
Hope Now, Hope for Homeowners, workable solutions…none of them is going to do any good if you can’t make the payments.
Unlike Wall Street, there’s no bail out on our horizon, in fact there doesn’t seem to be any viable solution at all, at least not anything that can be done in less than one days time.
We have no place to go. We can’t afford an apartment. We have no family who can take us in. We don’t have any children, are too old, too young, don’t make enough money, make too much money. Waiting lists for subsidized housing are years long.
I don’t want one more person to tell me they feel sorry but they can’t help us.
I’d like to find someone who actually cares. Someone who can tell me where to find some real help. Someone who can tell me where all the jobs I keep hearing are out there, have gone.
Does anybody really care?

I am 53 years old. I am permanently partially disabled with arthritis in both knees.
What that means is I can’t do anything that requires long periods of standing, walking, lifting or carrying and I’m not disabled enough to get SSI or disability. I really don’t want disability anyway; it really doesn’t pay all that much and I want more from life than just survival. I have more years of experience than I care to think about, but experience doesn’t mean much any more. I graduated college with highest honors, Phi Theta Kappa. But I only have an Associates Degree and I learned very quickly that that doesn’t mean much either. I’d like to get a Bachelors Degree but Where am I supposed to live and how am I supposed to pay for school if I can’t get a job? Aside from these last 5 years, I’ve been working since I was 14; sometimes 2 jobs; not having a job makes me feel really miserable.
My husband just turned 59. He works in a small factory plating wire for the music industry. In 1998 he was making $9.19 an hour. His gross pay was $367.60. Gas was $1.25 a gallon and heating oil was $0.89. It cost $15.00 to fill up the pick up and $244.75 to fill the oil tank. Today he makes $11.90 an hour, grosses $476.00 a week; it costs $45.00 to fill the truck and $1050.00 to fill the oil tank. Over the ten year period from 1998 to 2008 my husbands pay has increased by less than 30%. The price of gas has gone up by more than 200% and heating oil has risen by more than 325%. This doesn’t even address the rise in the cost of food, clothing, housing services and utilities.
Is it just me or does anyone else see something wrong with the cost to income ratio?