Much of center city is decent to even good. There's a few glitchy spots (missing/perilously steep curb cuts in places, construction in others). And of course the problem of vehicles parking on sidewalks/blocking curb cuts/crosswalks.

The cruelty is the point. The entire social safety net is two tin cans tied together by string at this point.

I'll ask my FIL when he gets back from his trip. He used to be involved with it, and stopped in the 90s either from lack of time or board bs. I'm not sure which, but I'm sure he'll love to tell the story!

You can write a note explaining your situation, just like you did here, and upload that as proof. Make sure you also sign and date it.

I was approved for regular medicaid within 30 days (I want to say it was like, 2 weeks, but that was prepandemic) because I'd quit my previous dayjob and I was going self employed. My income from the self employment the previous year had only been ~7k because it was alongside my dayjob, and so limited what time and energy I could devote to it. Since I left the dayjob, they didn't count what I made there towards my income anymore. And then I was able to get the form by calling the medicaid customer service line, had my GP do it, and sent that in.

I'd highly recommend if you aren't sure, try calling the PA benefits center once you've moved. They can do the application for you/check if there's other benefits you can be eligible for while you're at it.

From my experiences:

1. CCBH will be your mental health service provider. They can sometimes have longer waitlists, but if you call them and tell them you need to see someone soon, and are flexible about time and distance, you can almost always find SOMEONE.
2. If you work, and take ANY medications at all, mark the box on the medicaid form that says you have a disability. You can get MAWD and it's sliding scale medicaid up to ~80k a year, with minimal premiums (A friend of mine makes ~50k/yr and pays ~$20/m, zero copays). You may need a GP to fill out a form saying you take "health or life sustaining medications or has other medical needs that require ongoing care".
3. Specialists will have waitlists, but the same is true if you have commercial insurance, and IME my wait times have been the same or shorter with medicaid than my SO who has top tier commercial insurance through his dad's employer.

If you take ANY medicine, even if you get your GP to prescribe your allergy meds, and work, you can get MAWD coverage in PA which has sliding scale medical coverage up to ~80k. Talk to the PA benefits center if you don't believe me. It's how I get my medical coverage, including mental health services.

Yup. And reregistered in her new state as well, and has voted there MANY times since without issue.

I really need to figure out what list they're using. They keep sending mail for my sister who moved out of state more than 5 years ago!

A lot of get out the vote organizations have outdated lists. My sister still gets mail here urging her to vote and she moved out of state ~6 years ago! It's nonsensical to assume fraud when bad database management is FAR more likely.