Thanks for your genuine help.

I don't have a reddit account but could try tomorrow. I am ideologically opposed to using reddit but can override that and try anyway. It's a large community after all.

I have a lot of experience with plugs, muffs, musician-specific molded flat freq response earplugs, and noise cancelling headphones and earbuds.

Even using plugs and muffs doesn't work for loud power tools like a miter saw. The vibrations are too much. A small slip up with earmuffs and a single miter saw cut puts me in hell for days on end. I can't live in cities. I have issues in any structure generally, but have found that bose noise cancelling earbuds are good for sleep in a residential suburb/rural area.

Plugs increase my perception of T. Even covering my ear increases it.

Bose noise cancelling buds seem to alleviate the T. There are other brands that apparently are effective for managing T. iqbuds iirc. More $$$. I do not have any headphones or muffs at this time.

I was a prof. musician briefly, played loud rock music for a long time, worked in high end music studios, worked loud construction jobs incl'g concrete cutting, and somewhat frequented loud dance clubs as a teen. It added up to a reduced quality of life and struggle for the past >20 years.

I can get by on light noise jobs with buds and muffs, but surpisingly many contractors think I am a dork slinging wheelbarrows around with muffs on and won't bring me on public facing jobs.

Eventually, any sustained exposure to sound invokes stress, then anger. This has consistently been the case on any attempt to do blue collar work in recent years. The only solution that works is low stress (hence -- in part -- current situation of no coding for years), and low noise (I sleep in a peaceful spot in the countryside outdoors).

I am still walking all the time. I am very healthy as a result physically but working on top of that in any sustained capacity has been challenging.

I've exhausted resources here that will work. I can get rental assistance if I have a lease in hand. It's there for me but I need a place first. Getting a proper lease will require professional work and proof of recent income. Chicken / egg / hard boiled.

The shelters here are not suitable. I really just need to work in my profession, which is computers, build some capital and regroup. It's possible. Uphill is far more appealing to me now than constantly mulling suicide due to destitution. I've experienced a gnarly cycle of being partially housed to inadequately housed to unhoused, back and forth numerous times this past year. Each downgrade invokes more stress and helplessness. I'd like to try a different path now.

Yes, I've sought lots of help locally, have been robbed, conned, and exposed to criminality by drug users and the like. I've learned more than expected about street life and the struggles of the poverty wage class. It's a bitter sweet mix. A number of folks with little will give you the shirt off of their back. Humbling experience in many respects. I'm still here because many people don't view relationships merely as transactional. It's been an eye opener.

I've kept notes on help provided by others and would also like to compensate them in return when possible.