My 77 year old father is living paycheck to paycheck
I’m a 31 year old male living on the opposite side of the country from my (divorced) parents. My dad is 77 years old, and over the last 10 years has been very down on his luck with health issues (throat cancer in 2017–after chemo, was in remission by 2019/ slipped in 2022 and had a brain bleed and was hospitalized for 2 weeks—-8 months to recover fully / diagnosed with leukemia in 2024, and is now finally in remission and doing much better as of January this year).
Despite all of this, my dad still works 4 days a week, as a receptionist/front desk person at a condo building; I’m not sure exactly how much he makes, but I assume it’s around $700-$1000 a month (low minimum wage state). He also receives social security in the amount of $1600 a month. That is his only income.
His rent is $1400 a month, and he has a car + insurance payment of $400 per month. He regularly asks me for money (2-3 times a month, no more than $100 each time), which I am more than happy to send to him. I know he feels embarrassed when he asks, which I do my absolute best to make sure he knows he has no reason to be embarrassed asking for anything from me.
My family always provided for me during my childhood and I lived a good life, more privileged than many. But it seems like they were really struggling behind closed doors because as soon as I moved away from home at 18 years old, our house was foreclosed within 6 months. They divorced shortly after that as well. Ever since then my father has been working hourly jobs to pay his bills.
The reason for me writing this post now is because today, he had a tire blow out on his car and he asked me for $160 to help repair it. I finally asked him more about his finances, and he told me he has $125 to his name, and is living paycheck to paycheck. He has no credit card and no savings whatsoever. Often times he has to make $100 stretch 10 days or more, since social security only pays once a month, and that only covers his rent.
I would love nothing more than to cover him financially so he can stop working, but unfortunately I’m not in the position to do so. I am engaged, getting married this year, and my fiance and I plan on buying a home in the next 5 years. One of the things I want to do is have a home with enough space so my dad can live with us and stop working. But I’m afraid this may take more than 5 years, and I don’t want my dad to work until he’s 85.
I am looking into applying him for him to get into affordable housing. Is there any other assistance programs I can apply for him? Has anybody else been in a similar situation? And if so, what did you do?
Sorry this is so long, and if you read all of this, thank you. Any suggestions are really appreciated