Seventeen-Year-Old Wants to Get Emancipated in Texas

My question involves guardianship in the State of: Texas

I'm 17, and i have a job, and i'm soon to be a manager of this job after only a month and a half of working here, which greatly shows my maturity and responsibility, once i finish my paper work. Living in hud housing i can live on my own very close to work (within walking distance) and im wanting to be emancipated. Or a cheap apartment will do fine.
There's issues going on at home and serious uncomfortably and stress. I'm incredibly unhappy here and i need to get away from it.
I've lived away from my parents before for 6 months while i was away with my brothers working a full time job while going to school, and everyone i know could EASILY tell i was much happier, i was rarely ever angry. At my old job everyone thought i was 23 before i told them how old i was and i worked there for a good month (only quit because the manager didn't like me so he was basically harassing me and calling me out in front of customers if i made a tiny mistake) I basically pay for all my things and my parents don't pay for my medical bills. And i don't buy groceries cause my parents get them and i'm trying to save up, but if i was living on my own i wouldn't mind buying it myself, i know how to ration food. Right now i have a tooth that needs fixed and my dad wont pay it, his excuse is that he needs his fixed when he's 52 and his are ruined from not ever brushing his teeth and he honestly doesn't plan on fixing them, he just wants a newer car.
I payed a phone bill of my own, and bought my own phone, for several months. I'm only on my parents now because my old phone cracked from the ice and if i sent it in for warranty it would have taken 2 weeks and i needed a phone for work.
I've bought the only things i have for entertainment and i've always been very independant, at school i always got compliments from teachers and counselors that i was ambitious and incredibly smart and mature.
I feel like i could get emancipated easily but i'm not fully aware of all the laws and processes for this state because for the last 16 years i lived in georgia.
I want to know what rights i will be getting besides the obvious, and a few hoops i'll have to jump through to get it done.
I honestly want to live on my own, not just to get away from myself, but i feel ready to be an adult. I only have a year to go but that year can change a lot. I normally wouldn't mind waiting but with everything that's been going on i know that i need to get away from here or i will have a mental break down. (i've had a few series of stress issues and panic attacks when i was younger, when i moved out and lived with my brothers they got better, and going to work means getting away from my parents so that also helps)

I just really feel like it's what i need.
I know i can do it, and i know it means cutting off any expectations from them, and it might even make my relationship with them, or my family as a whole towards me, worse, but honestly, i'd rather be happy, and my family doesn't have tight lines anyways, i'm disappointed in how all my siblings have turned out and my parents just aren't suitable to be around anymore.

So bottom line, i need someone to lay out the laws and procedures of emancipation in texas.
I know people are probably going to say "you should just stay with them it'll be too hard" but i'm pretty sure i'm capable, and i've wanted emancipation for years.

start with reading this:

http://www.expertlaw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35076
http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.u.../htm/FA.31.htm

Thank you, i'm keeping that saved, i'm horrible at searching through the..ordinances? I believe thats the correct term. Any more information, if anyone has it, is greatly appreciated

The bottom line is that if you cannot show the court that you're able to live completely independently, supporting yourself, emancipation is not an option.

There are no ifs, ands or buts here. It's extremely straightforward.

Independently INCLUDES independent from the support of taxpayers.

You can run away at 17 in TX. As long as you provide your own shelter and work, provide the local police and your parents with your where abouts, they cannot drag you home. Bringing a boyfriend or other person into the picture can bring harboring charges or worse.

I know i can leave but i can't sign my own contracts or open my own bank account and my mother tries to control my money and if i use it for something she disagrees with she just yells at me and tells the whole world about it. I also want to back home to Georgia soon, i grew up there and i was ripped away from my roots and i've been having major headaches ever since i moved back in with my parents for six months now, and this heat is ridiculous.
I don't want them having control or access to my money, and without emancipation that's not an option. Not to mention all the other issues going on in this house. And furthermore, if i can't sign a contract to a house, or live with someone else without problems, where am i supposed to go? That's where that law drops. You can run away, but you'll end up coming back because you'll have no where to stay.
I want to live in my own place, i have furniture (no they didn't buy that either, the bed was given to me by a neighbor who had no use for it because they were moving and it was a guest bed, and the dressers were and old friend's. Bar one that used to be my sisters, but i don't like that one anyways.

I know there are no ifs ands or buts, really i don't know what makes you think that i see it that way. All i'm asking for is what procedures i have to go through and what papers i need. I know it's 'straightforward and serious'
I know i have to be independent, and i'm fully capable of doing so. I know how to manage everything financially and i know how to take care of myself.. Other than living under their roof, i'm relying on myself for basically everything.
All my clothes were secondhand from my own choice, my parents don't buy me clothes anymore, they don't buy me anything except food and when she's at the store she might pick up some hygiene items for me because i'm not always with her when she goes the store.
Also, no where does it say i can't have help through low income housing, it simply says i can't ask for help from my parents. There's full grown adults that get help from those sort of things, that's what they're there for, and if there is something against it, i'll get a second job, or simply go back to georgia, like i honestly want to, but i need to get a car first. The place i'm looking at is in walking distance of work so i won't need to drive to get there or the grocery store, and in the mean time i can save up, and then i'm going back. In Ga apartments are the same price for what i'd get on low income housing, otherwise i wouldn't need it but rent is ridiculous where i'm at.

I get it, i'd have to be independent, i KNOW that. All i'm asking is what paperwork i would need and what's the process i have to go through.

No, that's not where the law drops.

That's where the law accepts that around 99.9% of teens don't have the resources, maturity or capacity to live alone. You're no different.

So here's your freebie.

How are you going to do the following?

Pay full market rent
All utilities
Health Insurance
Clothing
Food
Transportation
Sundry items

Emancipation is about need, not wants. Think, "parents died on crash, minor needs ability to sign contracts".

It's no different in Georgia.

So, who is providing your housing and utilities at the moment?

Quote:

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Quoting Foxxfrost

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Also, no where does it say i can't have help through low income housing, it simply says i can't ask for help from my parents.

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Just because YOU don't seem to understand what INDEPENDENT means, doesn't mean that a JUDGE won't. There is NO court in the country that is going to emancipate you so that you can be supported by TAXPAYERS or programs supported by taxpayer dollars. Emancipation is granted on basis of NEED...not simply to teens who don't have the patience to become adults and who are not FULLY 100% capable of supporting themselves WITHOUT financial aid. It will NOT happen. You need to be prepared to pay the going market rate for rent.

Let's put it straight like this. My fathers a pervert, my parents are alcoholics, they're extremely verbally abusive and they refuse to help me with medical needs before i get an infection in my jaw or the several other medical problems with my "woman organs". My siblings can't help because they're all in their own tight places.
As i said, if going off of low income isn't included, i WILL go back to georgia and get a fully paid apartment, for the SAME price as i would in low income HERE. I can qualify for a fully paid appartment there and still have a bit over a thousand left by the end of the month.
Food is easily rationed, i don't need cake and junk and fast food, in fact those things make me sick to my stomach because i have serious acid reflux which is going untreated because of my parents, i have no way to a doctor.
I have plenty of clothes, i don't need high end fashion and all these crazy accesories, i don't wear jewlery, and i wear maybe 13 dollars worth of makeup that lsts me about 6 months.
I've had the same shoes for a year because i don't care if they're dirty. I have converse because of the type of feet i have and because they are very durable and if they get dirty, it really doesn't matter cause it wipes off.
I don't need high expenses.
Where i would preferably live, all i have to pay for is my phone bill, which will only be 50 a month because i don't like phone contracts, internet, and electric.
I don't watch cable, and i don't need any other bills to pay because they give gas and water free in most appartments there.
I would be making more than 3 times the rent to live in an appartment there for a 1 bedroom.
I'm not getting a gas guzzler for a car and i don't have much social life so i wont be driving it unless it's for work or every couple weeks i go to the grocery store. Unless the clothes are for extremely special occasion and i need to see the fit, i buy everything else online other than food.

It's not hard for me to manage money, i'm actually quite smart with it and i try to get my mom to understand but she wont, she wastes money she doesn't have.
So as far as paying things? i'm pretty sure i have that settled.
Bout 500 in rent maybe, and everything else to bills and necesities and still have around 1-200 to just save or spend.
I'll have a full time generalmanagement job in a week, and i can get a transfer.
I'll get over 1k a month from that job, and i might get a part time one on the side, and there's a possibility of me getting a roommate later down the line.
I am prepared to pay the "going rate"
But guess what? austin is OUTRAGEOUS on rent. We are paying the same price for the smallest single wide trailer than we did for a 3 story house with a basement and attic, with an in-ground pool and a huge yard, in georgia.
I don't /need/ the hud housing, but it is nice if i can get it so that i can be here for a bit longer to get money saved up before i take off from the state to a new job.
There is one appartment in the area that has a reasonable rent, the rest is about 1k for a one bedroom apartment with no appliances or utility payed.

And health insurance? i get it from my job.

I'm not a random kid deciding "i don't like my parents, i want to leave even though i only make minimum wage and i'm too spoiled to not waste my money on 30 pairs of earrings and 90 dollar shoes every month"

I don't need anything like that. Food, clothes that fit, shoes to walk in.
I can walk to work, I'm not lazy, and when i get a car, it's still not that bad.
So i'm sorry to sound incredibly rude right now, but really, so do you.
I KNOW it's not easy. i KNOW it's a challenge. But one year only makes the difference of less stress and pain coming from my parents and less risk.
Introduce me to another "teenage kid" who has been offered management jobs at several jobs, and is getting one in less than two months of working somewhere, instead of all the other m.i.t's they already have trained.
Introduce me to a kid that has a fully level head dealing with finance, business, and expense.
The only way i am immature is i do joke around, everyone does. And i do get angry. But everyone does. But i'm not going to cry and throw a fit because i can't have shoes with diamonds on them. All my clothes were either bought second hand, were gifts, or they were from my elder siblings. I'm a child of 6, and i'm the only one that's trying to get myself together. After all of my older siblings realized how much worse my parents got, they all wished that they could help me, but they can't. So i'm helping myself. It is NOT a want. I don't really want to grow up yet because my last few years have SPED by. I never got to have a teenage life. Ever. I've never partied and hung out at the mall or gone to the movies with friends, i don't have friends in my phone, they're all family members and work. I've been in relationships, but usually i find out the person isn't worth a breath of air. I can't be social with people my age because it's awkward, i don't find humor in what they do, ever since i was in elementary school, teachers and counselors and such were my friends, i'd sit after school and just talk to them all the time, and draw for them. I'm a wonderful student and a great worker. This isn't something to take lightly, and it's really bothering me that all you guys are doing is shooting it down because i'm not ONE YEAR older.
A year is literally nothing as far as maturity goes. I feel no different than i did a year ago, or the year before that. 4 years feels like 1. But a lot does happen, and that's why i know i need to get out as soon as possible before i regret not taking the chance to.
You think i want to live by myself and be lonely outside of work and the one friend i do talk to? No, i don't, but it's better than dealing with what i do. It's way to personal and home related to just spill all over the internet, so i don't expect you to understand.


So please, if anyone is going to reply to this thread anymore, i'm done listening to people bash it down, just tell me what papers i may need, some resources that could help, and what/whom i should contact. That's why i made this thread. Not to get told i'm just a bratty kid with no sense in my brain just because a number is one less.

- - - Updated - - -

If i didn't think i could do it, i wouldn't waste my time asking people and defending myself because people think it's impossible for someone to take care of them self ONE YEAR before they would HAVE to anyways. I'm getting a head start because i NEED to leave this house. Like i said, too personal, i just need resources and answers, not flame wars and a waste of time.

And if the judge rejects it, they reject it, but i'm going to try anyways because it is what i need and i know that i can do this.