Not impossible. Depends on how willing you are to work. The Memphis Police Department Dispatchers currently make 71k a year and change with constant overtime opportunities. Its not difficult to get to well past 100k. And the city council just approved a 5% raise for them. No college required. Just a high school diploma or GED.
There are jobs like that all over the place. Just have to be willing to make those sacrifices. Another example would be an OTR driver. Gotta be 21 for over the road but you can get some forms of CDL at 18 in TN and then at 21 hit the road. If you are willing to let him live with you while he's home, he could bank some serious money over the course of a few years and get started.
Then, of course, there is the military option. A job where you can have housing provided under certain circumstances.
Options exist for people. People aren't willing to give up the keeping up with the joneses lifestyle. Hard times make strong men, but people are too scared of hard times to make those necessary changes.
And look, I'm not immune to it. I carry a good bit of credit card debt right now. I made some recent life changes and have started to make serious progress to get myself out from under it. If I can maintain my current trajectory, and avoid any major disasters, I'm looking to be free of the credit cards by this time next year.