Want Advice for Brother’s Financial Situation

Hi everyone,

My brother has always had mental health struggles but now I feel like it’s put him in a really tough spot. He doesn’t have a college degree so has been working retail for almost 10 years. He recently hit rock bottom and is now in $10k in credit card debt and owes some more to his old landlord (he had to break his lease and move back to my mom’s). He doesn’t pay rent but does pay for his food and whatever is left of his student loans from the one year he went to college. He also totaled his car around the same time he moved back to my mom’s and is trying to save up for a new one, but he works two part time jobs at the moment and is only bringing in about $800 every two weeks. He has some help getting to work but does have to walk part of the time, and he’s not in great health.

I had to talk him out of buying a $2400 car that’s nearly 20 years old and has 150k miles on it, because he wants to not only use the car to commute, but live in it, too, and he would just be throwing his money away. He does not want to live at my mom’s. I don’t know how to help him or what advice I can give when I live out of state and he has limited ability to help himself (he’s pretty depressed and kind of hopeless at this point).

I was wondering if anyone had any advice as far as debt management or ways my brother could get financial counseling or otherwise, like any government programs (he needs psychiatric help but doesn’t have insurance so I don’t know what to do about that). I’m hoping if I can help him feel better about his ability to manage his debt and save money, that he’ll feel more capable and could get himself in a position to get the help he truly needs to succeed. Thank you!