Starting over at 35

My girlfriend and I are both in really unstable living situations and trying to pool our money to get a place together but we can't get anything without a cosigner and I'm worried.
Our plan was to do all this in August, but some things have changed and she may have to move in with me to this dilapidated building where I stay with no working utilities.
We're on the waitlist for government housing assistance but I'm afraid it's not going to kick in fast enough.

I found a rent to own deal on a place in my hometown a couple of years ago, and I've got it almost paid off (it was dirt cheap) but bringing her to that area with that political climate feels almost as bad as bringing her into this nasty building.

I feel like my options all suck and I can't decide which thing is gonna suck worse.

If we move down to the land I bought, we could potentially have a really great starting point but we'd have to leave all our friends and my brand new job that I like. I was barely an adult when I left and I have spent more of my life away from my hometown than in it at this point.
Also my lot needs a culvert put in for the driveway in order to be road accessible, there's a huge drainage ditch so we can't park on it currently.

But we dream about traveling together and celebrating milestones in our lives and we just want that sense of normalcy, that keeps getting obliterated by financial setbacks.

I was supposed to be on a low income medical care program and none of that was applied, apparently because I now have all kinds of collections calling me for bills I was told I wouldn't have to pay and I have no way to prove it.

It's like I'm trying but nothing I do is fast enough and being patient and waiting for things to get better just isn't an option.

I tried doing gig work and ended up spending more than I was making on vehicle maintenance and gas.
I rent a car from another neighbor behind me and she may need it back at some point.

Am I overlooking anything here that might make sense?
Also we both have cats with veterinary care needs (hers has breathing problems and mine's geriatric with a heart condition)

I have a full in-state scholarship which I am really trying to utilize this year so I can get into the science field, but committing to school with all this going on is so hard.

I'm 35 and have worked in food service until now, and it used to pay good, but not anymore so I changed to manufacturing.

I just don't know what to do anymore.