Wow, this is amazing. Thank you so much for all the information, I'm literally crying right now. Can I ask how you know all this?
After the better part of a year in this situation in Florida, I managed to get a friend to put us up two hours north of NYC, but there was a change of plans and we need to leave by next week. So all those amazing people are slightly out of reach right now but we'll definitively go if we manage to get to NYC, but we can't because there's no-one we can stay with.
The main problem we have right now is Catch-22. We need a job to pay rent for a roof over our heads or buy food. We need a roof and food to apply for jobs. We don't have any more savings left to keep us coasting by, any more family left that can help, or any more friends that can put us up. We managed to stay off the streets up until now but it doesn't seem like an option anymore. No-one wants to put us up, even for the promise of back-paid rent, and no-one wants to give us a job. We're at wits' end, really. We have two college degrees each for christ's sake. If we were in NYC proper we could go in person to do all of those things but we're not. I completely agree with your assessment and will definitively start looking on craigslist. Re: R, doing some programming once in a while between applications keeps me sane, which is absolutely a priority right now. I don't know why I just wrote out all of this, sorry.. thanks for all the advice