@austinmshauri I’m a girl btw, if that makes any difference 
I do have emails that she doesn’t have access to, that’s what I’ll use to do all the jobs and applications and stuff. I have that covered.
If your mom won’t let you leave the house and you are 18 call the police, she has no right to keep you there against your will. Look for a room for rent not an apartment. Can you contact a local church?
You started the thread by asking how you can pay rent and tuition without any financial aid. What we’re saying is you CAN’T, so you have to tackle the problem one step at a time. The first step is to find somewhere to sleep at night. If you can stay with a friend or relative, do that. Then find a job. Once you find a job, you can then find a place to live more permanently. School is a long way away.
It is almost impossible to afford college on your own without getting aid, and in order to do that you have to file a FAFSA. If you have an uncooperative parent, you may have no choice but to wait until you are 24 and can file as an independent. You can consider the military and there are certainly a lot of CS opportunities in the military.
There are no easy answers.
Find a room to rent. And go get a retail or fast food job to start paying that cost while you look for a better job in your field.
The housing+loans situation with your mom just sounds like a recipe for more trouble.
I don’t know where you are in CA, but just for proof of concept, the program for homeless youth in SJ serves ages 18-24. http://www.billwilsoncenter.org/services/all/housing.html Even if you’re nowhere near here, you could call them and ask for referrals.
I have been through a similar process with a young friend of mine. Even though the process of becoming “officially” homeless is difficult, it can really be worth going through as it can help you to qualify for resources that you wouldn’t have access to otherwise. Keep documentation of everything you are doing so that you are amassing proof of “extraordinary circumstances” for future financial aid. If your school in SD is a private one that allows deferred entry, talk to them about postponing your matriculation. (Public U’s will unfortunately require you to reapply, though hopefully getting in when you are ready won’t be a problem.)
Hang in there - sorry you are going through this.
You can go to a homeless shelter, to the Y for a cheap room, etc. See if you can couch surf with friends for a few weeks. Living in a room near campus with your mom sounds like a terrible idea. If she won’t fill out FAFSA, then any external loan you get will be private (and that idea doesn’t add up – if she doesn’t really have income, no one is going to loan her money, either).
You can put your mom’s address down on applications if you need to temporarily. Someone with an AA in CS should be able to get a job in something like a computer operations center or something VERY QUICKLY. Less than 2 weeks. Once you have a job, you can apply for a credit card, and although the limit will be low, you could probably stay in some very inexpensive housing until you’ve gotten a few paychecks and can find a more permanent place to live. You can often find someone wanting to sublet one room in a house or apartment on Craigslist, too. They often aren’t even super strict about security deposits, etc, as long as you can pay.
You honestly will just end up dropping out of school partway through this semester if you go to college this fall because you have no actual way to pay your bills. Get away from your mom, get a job (get 2 jobs if you need to, one using your AA and maybe an additional one on evenings or weekends for a little while). Once you’ve gotten yourself some measure of financial stability, then start making a plan for how to get to college.
The comment farther up that you shouldn’t have applied as a transfer student might matter (but might not if your mom will never fill out FAFSA). If you hadn’t graduated from your HS program before you completed your last community college class, then you would apply to colleges are a FRESHMAN, not as a transfer (they still will usually take the credits). Freshman often get better financial aid. But if your mom won’t do FAFSA, then you aren’t getting school aid anyway. That is the piece that really screws you. I’d do what you have to do to get away from your mom. The good news is that you have a salable AA degree. Go use it. Stop messing around with trying to pay for college right now.
Your sense of what parent “usually” do is off. SOME parents cosign leases, SOME parents help pay for college, SOME parents let their kids live with them after they turn 18. Continue working with CalWORKs, and tell them about your situation. They are most likely going to take your work regarding any abuse - they are used to that kind of story. No, they won’t make you prove anything or force you to press charges. Legally your parents are no longer required to support you, and it is in the best interest of the state to help you establish independence. If you work through an agency, you might even qualify eventually to apply for financial aid without your mother’s information - or they might lead you to scholarship programs that will help cover your costs, again without your mother’s involvement.
At this point your best option is to work full time, and learn to support yourself. If you can afford to pay for 1 or 2 classes, that’s great. Otherwise you will have to wait until you are considered independent.
One other option - work this year, and treat it as a gap year. Reapply to more affordable schools, or those with significant merit based scholarships. Because you earned your AA at the same time as HS graduation, many schools will accept you as a Freshman applicant - contact the schools that interest you and ask them. Worst case, they say no, because you have the AA you are considered a transfer, but that’s not going to happen everywhere. Your counselors at the high school should have told you to apply as a Freshman.
Parents usually don’t cut their kids off and kick them out with no notice or preparation. I had a buddy in HS who knew early on at 18 he was “on his own” but his parents where not schmucks about it. They gave him time to transition. He went ahead and started a construction business building decks when he graduated.
I think there is lots of good advice on this thread. Perhaps google “emergency homeless services” and the name of your city. I also recommend you make sure you take possession of your important documents like birth certificate, social security card, and driver’s license. You will need these to get a job.
I also agree going to your local church and asking for help is a good option.
School will always there. Don’t get too ahead of yourself. Taking school off the table now doesn’t mean you’ll have to wait until you’re 26.
Focus on your immediate needs.
It sounds like you really need to get out from under your mother’s control. Any chance you could get your father to send you enough money to get you started? Not a lot, just enough to leave her house and rent a room while you get things in order - ideally a CS job, but retail or equivalent if that’s what it takes while you navigate the system.
I’m sorry you are going through this. While it isn’t necessarily a parent’s obligation to support a child once they turn 18, turning a young woman loose without adequate preparation to survive is reprehensible (IMHO). I might be a little biased, as today my twin daughters turned 18. Yes, they are now technically adults - but in reality they are still children and have so much left to learn about the real world. If our goal was to set them free today without support, we would have not only warned them, but understood our parental responsibilities include preparing them.
Imho you should go to your college and talk to financial aid folks. They can explain your current options and may guide you towards useful resourses. No need to be shy, they’ve heard it all and they are there to do their job by the book, not to judge you.
OP isn’t going to be able to afford residential college right now. She needs housing and a job. CalWorks can help with that. College can come later.
@CupCakeMuffins Without the FAFSA filled out, the college is very unlikely to provide any assistance.
Please don’t even attempt to come to San Diego.
We have a HUGE homeless population, and, unless you have children, it will be very difficult to be prioritized for finding a bed in homeless housing in San Diego, where our rents are very expensive ($2000 per month).
(If you got into UCSD, that college is in LA JOLLA where the rents are even more.)
Not only that, it is dangerous for a young girl, lacking resources or experiences to try to make ends meet.
If you have: no money, no friends, no support system, no place to live, no computer access, no financial experience, then you have no way to go to college, in one of the most expensive markets on the west coast. You need to work and save some money.
You may not qualify for CalWorks because you have no children. They stipulate “families”.
You can try job corps, but you need to have your income verification forms. You’ve already said that Mom is unwilling to provide information.
Another thing maybe to try is contacting a women’s shelter…your mother is abusing you.(emotionally). They can hook you up with resources.
I think getting the job is the direction that you need to go. I think you have to cut ties with your mom. She’s abusing you, holding you prisoner.
The best situation would be as a live in nanny. I think you could offer child care, get to know the host family, and perhaps learn enough from them about how to live independently after you’ve saved up some money.
Do you have a driver’s license? That’s often a requirement, though if you find a situation in an urban area like San Francisco, driving may not be a requirement.
Another option would be a live-in caregiver. These are hard jobs, but they come with room and board. Maybe part of a live in team in a group home where you would receive on the job training.
Finally, a live in housekeeper might work.
The basic idea is to find a job with a living situation that will allow you to save some money so that you can get an apartment on your next job.
I’m curious, if dad is sending $1200 a month to Mom for care of you- why can’t he just give that money directly to you?
Btw- You no longer have to worry about getting your mom in trouble with DCFS - you are an adult now.
If Mom has no income, how does she plan to move to San Diego and rent an apartment??
The predicament sounds very complicated and confusing.
don’t go to college now. there is no sense in taking any loans and taking on debt you cannot pay. you should not go unless you have a workable plan to pay for all your college until you get your degree, and right now, you don’t have that.
your priority is not college right now. that will only shackle you to debt which you may never be able to pay off. your proprieties are, escape your prison and secure a room and food.
see if there is a Workaway place near you that will let you work for a room and meals. here is the link for California (which I assume is your home state)
make friends with the host and start building a social network. when you feel comfortable share your situation with them and ask their advice.
do you have your own computer or does Mom own it?
Contact Job Corps
https://www.jobcorps.gov/students
They should have one in your county.
In San Diego County, they have built and maintained camp sites, cleaned beaches, cleaned and painted schools all while being provided room and board and pay.