Support for Starving Artists…
And students, and everyone else in SoCal or the Riverside area, there are low-income programs to assist you. I have been applying for all these programs recently (and used to be on them in Long Beach) as being an artist and a student sometimes just doesn’t translate to economically sustainable. I was always a little perturbed that because I don’t have dependents, I don’t qualify for health care and other assistance as easily as people with children, but there are still things out there to help you childless citizens. I have rounded them all up for you, one easy stop:
California Lifeline offers low-income assistance telephones. I had to cancel my telephone service with Charter because they couldn’t get an application out to me, and kept giving me the corporate run-around, so I went with AT&T.
Riverside Public Utilities assists qualified low-income residential electric and water customers with their utility bills and deposits with their SHARE program.
Southern California Gas Company has the CARE program which offers income-qualified customers a discount of 20% or more off their monthly gas bill. Plus they have a one-time assistance of $100 starting in February 2010.
Also, I just found out that Bank of America, who has been steadily beefing up my Cash Advance balance every month with their sneaky 19.99% APR, is changing their policy the end of February, where now any amount you pay over your minimum balance will go directly to paying down the Cash Advance balance. Before, it only payed your Purchases balance, which for me has a much more respectable APR. So come March, pay those suckers down and get out of debt for reals!
No matter where you live, seek out assistance as it is there for income-qualified residents. And if you’re an artist or a student, surviving on student loans and or credit cards, that is YOU!