If she could get some kind of grant to do education for what she does that might help (may have to be for kids though, as adult education in the US is now commercial.)
Does anybody in Philadelphia get to live in boats? (Are there stable communities of boat-dwellers anywhere?) Owning a small boat (they might be sold by a previous resident who is leaving the area, cheap) is a good way to have a cheap(er)(sometimes), semi-permanent place to live in some areas. In the not too distant past it was like that in the Bay Area, with lots of small marinas, some of which were also communities of boat dwellers.
Don't know the situation now. Back then it was somewhere in cost between living in an RV and renting. (RV's are another possibility but they can also be a trap when they are not in good shape, as can boats)
One friend I had back in the day had spent I think around $30k to buy a small piece of a much larger boat that was shared by a bunch of people and used as a home and office space. It was in Sausalito. At Gate Five. He got a small suite of rooms out of the deal. It was a pretty big boat. Similar communities exist even on the usually insanely expensive Peninsula. (i.e Silicon Valley) At the edges of the Bay. Worth taking a trip around the edges of your local waterways to explore them on a nice weather (weekend) day and ask residents.. who will often be out enjoying the sun or working on their boats- now you know where to look. Also check out web sites for boaters. See the one below.
That seems like both potentially fun (if one makes the right choices which would seem to me to need help) and has the potential to be suitable for a semi-normal life.
At least with self-owned boats of moderate size, depending on the local environment for boat residents it may or may not have an advantage of being able to move it if your ability to tie it up in one place ends.
In SF, over the years I've had a number of friends who lived on their own, or shared boats. My mom who lived in Sausalito for a while in the 50s, before I was born, had friends who did too, back then. All sorts of artists and writers lived there back then and as far as I know, at least some still do.
Its (sometimes) less expensive than many other kinds of housing/rentals. Plus if you fix your boat up, you get the benefit of that work, not your landlord.
Flat boats, houseboats that are more for inland waterways than the ocean seem to be more appropriate for long term living. Bigger sailboats (with motors for backup) that are seaworthy are popular for living too, and there is a huge 'cruiser' community who travel and live on boats now. (Check out "Cruisers Forum" for info. The very cool boaters charting and navigation program OpenCPN is maintained by a core group of people who hang out there)
Boats aren't always cool.. they only are when they aren't holes people pour their money into - or traps for the unwary, which has always been my biggest fear (and should be Fran's)
This is where having a community of online supporters can really help. She has the best chance of finding a stable housing and work space if she's flexible in what she does next.
If only it wasn't for all that old "boat anchor" equipment it likely would be a lot easier for her. A small number of modern tools could likely replace a whole rack of old test equipment and work so much more flexibly she would never look back as far as most of it.
If in the future she finds a place to expand (not unlikely as many people get more resourceful in creative ways as we get older) she likely could rapidly accumulate a similar wealth of old test equipment quickly because of this housing and work space crunch. If someone has access to a vehicle, they often can get tech stuff for next to nothing, because its often advertised in local papers, craigslist for free, or close to it, if somebody would just come and pick it up.