Feck.

Facing a quandary that my recent examinations of morality just doesn't help. I think I know what I'm going to do, but I'm not completely sure it's what I should do. Maybe posting here will help me clear my head a little.

I've been living here just over a month. My roommate is a strange person, and further proof that people who categorize anyone as either good/bad, evil/pure, sinful/righteous, etc etc, is oversimplifying. It's true that he has been known to steal from thrift stores and sell his ill-gotten booty online. It's true that he sometimes shoplifts food for his dog, or switches price tags. It's true that he drinks most of his SS check, and doesn't keep up with the utilities very well. But dammit, he's also in many ways a very moral and upright person. He will not sidestep the truth to your face. He does not let hypocrisy slide. He strongly rejects the claims so many people he knows make about how hard their lives are and why they deserve a handout because they have problems (are black or adopted or have mild fetal alcohol syndrome). And he is generous and caring and all that. He believes in treating people with respect and compassion. He's a stalwart atheist, yet in many ways he reflects an idea central to Quaker beliefs, that we all have the capacity to understand and follow God's will toward the world. He believes in being good to those who need it most.

Anyway. we're losing this place around the first of October. The landlord has apparently been skipping his mortgage payments on a couple rental properties, and the bank is taking them. So, we have to move out soon.
Problem: Ethan needs a place to live.
Problem: Ethan has $50 left in Oregon, and maybe $200 in an account at home (being sent West soon).
Problem: Ethan needs to be able to keep his Tracfone supplied with minutes, and needs to be able to buy bus fare to attend interviews and (if hired somewhere) work. Without these two items, he will be unable to make more money.
Problem: If Ethan buys an hour of minutes for his phone, he will only have $30 left.
Problem: All Day bus passes cost $4.75. Ethan will therefore be able to buy 6 days' worth of bus passes.
Problem: Ethan will not receive any more bus fare assistance from OFSET until the 18th (10 days from now).
Problem: It takes at least 10 days to mail anything from Vermont to Oregon.
Cumulative Problematic Circumstances: Ethan has $50 to spread between phone, bus, and housing expenses for the foreseeable future (until first paycheck or arrival of last $200).

Solution 1: Find a new place to live with Don. Move there as soon as we have to vacate this one.
Perks: Remain on Don's good side; help him to afford a decent place to live after this one (thereby doing a good deed).
Drawbacks: A) no way to tell how much my share of rent would be or if I could pay it. Right now I'm paying $300/month; if I don't have a job by next week, I'll only have $200 to my name. And if I don't have a job by mid-October, I'll be completely broke and unable to stay in the new place. B) In any case, requires a definite hand-to-mouth existence even with employment, meaning no opportunity to save up for necessities like getting off food stamps, buying a real cell phone, etc. C) This would also require continued exposure to his friends, who like to make me feel like total shit whenver possible. They also enjoy engaging in rough S&M-type foreplay while Don and I are in the room (the guy keeps smacking the girl and she moans ecstatically for him to stop...it gets really disgusting--and this is in OUR living room, no less). D) Given Don's extra money-making activities, not to mention his two good friends' continual plans to rob the girl's parents, there's always the possibility that I could get dragged into something as a naccessory simply because I heard about it and didn't report it.

Solution 2: Move in with my cousin -once-removed's mother-in-law (in her 70s) before the end of September.
Perks: This lady is very friendly, with a penchant for bluntness, a repertoire of good stories, a history of helping those in need. Never charges more than $200/month, and is willing to reduce my costs further in exchange for some repainting and other chores. Would allow me to save up money from my hypothetical job and eventually get off government assistance. Ida has also promised to help me learn to drive.
Drawbacks: May screw up my friendship with Don, who as I mentioned has some definite good points. May also greatly reduce his ability to find somewhere to go himself. Ida is also, if at all like her son, probably not especially tolerant of many things that mean a lot to me (civic participation, grassroots-level organizing and change, well, tolerance). This could lead to some friction in the future.

So, yeah; at this point, I think Solution 2 seems most beneficial for me. But I can't help wondering if that just makes me selfish. What's going to happen to Don if I take off? Do the benefits of moving in with Ida justify the potential consequences? What about staying with Don, same question? What is the right thing to do here? The path I have chosen? Or that which places more trials in my own path?