During the pandemic a ton of people saw an opportunity to move in a low COL area and get a remote dev job. The market is flooded with people with no degrees / bootcamp willing to work remotely. This was kinda working while companies had no other choice than to hire remotely due to the sanitary situation.

Now that we are back to normal; many companies are going to hire in-site. The one that aren't have an immense pool to choose from. And you having no degrees and being out of work for a long time means you are at the bottom of that pile. Unfortunately, this is the consequence of your decision to favour your short term comfort over your long term employment (I know I am going to get downvoted to oblivion for this).

At this point, you need to act as if you were new to the market and target junior positions. Since you cannot afford high COL, maybe aim for mid/low COL cities, and get ready to relocate there - possibly getting a loan to afford the move. If you can; try getting some form degree, online certification, etc. Everything a new dev would be doing; but use your experience to speedup the process and get good grades.

Good luck !