I'm trying to help a friend, but I don't know how. I'm hoping one of you can help me point him in the right direction, or tell who he should go to for advice.
Briefly (haha, not my strong suit!), my friend is 56, substantial history of drug use and incarceration, now 15+ years clean and incarceration free. He's been homeless for long periods of time, living mostly in his vehicle. He's never held a job, at least until an irregular part-time on-call job he has now (and finally he's paying into Social Security in hopes of getting 40 quarters' credit). He is a talented handyman with substantial experience in electrical work, home remodeling, etc. He's spent most of the last many years making money by recycling, and doing handyman work and odd-jobs for friends like me and people who were referred to him by their friends and other customers.
A bit over a year ago, he inherited a house from his long-time pastor and wife when they passed away. The house is worth about $1.25M, according to the last time I checked Zillow. It's free and clear.
Despite that, he's still basically living as if he were homeless, sleeping in his vehicle in various places. He rented the 2 bedrooms out to friends of his who rarely actually pay him. So he doesn't really have any income flow from that.
Because my friend has no steady income, he can't get a home equity loan or line of credit; he has no way to prove he can make payments on a loan -- and he probably can't. So basically, he's sitting on a house he owns free and clear that's worth a substantial amount of money, and he can't access any of that equity. He's not old enough to qualify for a reverse mortgage.
In the process of deciding to get my own reverse mortgage last year, I learned about HEI and HEA programs. (One of those has a 10-year term and the other a 30-year term.) Even though it doesn't really involve credit, per se, those programs do require a credit score of 500 or 550. My friend had NO credit score at all. None. So I encouraged him to go to his bank and get a credit card. He did that, and now after several months he told me he has a score of 706. As soon as he got it, he messaged me, "It seems to still do me no good." So I tried to explain that getting the credit score isn't going to instantly change anything, and that he's now got to DO something with it.
And that's where my question to you comes in: What can I advise my friend to do, or who he should talk to? He can't afford to pay a financial advisor, at least not yet. What direction can I point him in to get some basic advice about how to access some of the home equity so he doesn't have to live like a homeless person, get only brief periods of sleep in his vehicle, and drive a vehicle that's falling apart? Ideally I'd like to see him eventually have some sort of structured something, maybe an annuity, that grows in value and pays him a steady monthly income for the rest of his life.
Anyway, if you could please give me some advice on what direction to point him in to make SOMEthing happen, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks much.