Not just to relocate. But to relocate into a permanent situation with no hope of change. Firstly, none of those cheaper rental options fit that bill very well, those aren't places that can be relied upon for years and years. Additionally, moving away from one's support network and from the best opportunities is a hell of a thing and not something to be taken lightly. People here are pretending that this woman can simply guarantee herself a future that is more comfortable than the one she has right now by finding some cheaper apartment somewhere, and that's a proposition that is questionable at best.

Especially in this case where the end result was that she ended up just crashing on her daughter's couch, moving down to Olympia or whatever to rent out some questionable super cheap room somewhere seems like it would have been a much worse decision. Perhaps she was just waiting long enough to justify "giving up" and having to rely fully on her daughter.

It seems like the only two people she had in her life are in the Seattle area, and she had relied on them for financial support in the past. If she has car trouble or additional health problems, then that's going to be very difficult to handle

Why are you so defensive about the mere existence of a homeless person?

Unfortunately she's not here to tell us. Maybe someone could send her a link to sign up and do an AMA on HN?

Her life has situations we cannot see from this perspective and we have not lived through. It's unhelpful to discount her situation with a smug "She could be doing XYZ better".