The worst place I’ve lived? In terms of amenities, when I was homeless I stayed in abandoned buildings or slept on rooftops. (That was peak violent crime era - early '90s - needed somewhere safer than the homeless shelter.) Slum apartments with shared bathrooms and no A/C (in the deep south in summer). Couchsurfed for awhile, stayed in a drug dealer’s run-down trailer which wasn’t very nice and occasionally woke up to a shotgun in my face. Section 8 housing next to the projects - cab drivers wouldn’t go near it when I needed a ride home from work, they dropped me off blocks away; wasn’t unusual to have a crackhead trying to break in at 3 AM looking for someone else because he’d ended up on the wrong floor/wrong apartment.
Moving up out of that is difficult. But you can do it. Key is to find somewhere stable/safe enough to not interfere with work, and where you can stay long enough to save up. For me, that was finding friends in a stable/safe place that would let me stay on their couch as long as I helped out.
I have to second the rice cooker idea. Cook as much “pure” food as possible, and stay away from the ramen and Hamburger Helper bullshit.
I didn’t have that, but I had a coffee maker for awhile. In addition to coffee, the hot water could make instant oatmeal, ramen, soups, etc. I also sometimes ‘cooked’ things on the electric heater.
