It'll stop getting worse when it starts getting better and the trick is to look for the small bright lights rather than wait for the full solution. You managed to get a short term temp job. That's a start. When I've been in similar situations (and I've been desperate for jobs a few times), even a short temp stint has been a step in the right direction. And even before this contract ends, keep looking for extentions or new jobs. I've generally been lucky by tracking down every temp agency in the vicinity and stopping in at least once a week to remind them that I'm still looking for work. My first job assignment here in the UK was just by luck. I went in to the temp agency to pester them again for the fourth week on the run and by random chance they had just had a job come in 10 minutes ago. They put me through a typing test and I got started the following week. If I hadn't been there insisting, I'm fairly certain they wouldn't have given me a chance. It helps not being too picky too. The "highlight" of my working life was my summer working at the public toilets in town in the little booth charging each person the equivalent of $1 to enter.

The same pestering goes for beaurocrats in the financial aid office. In my experience beaurocrats do not think until somebody pesters them enough to do so. They follow the daily routine and need a bit of shaking up and pestering to use common sense. So march down there whenever you can and keep calling when you can't go to the office and keep pestering until they help you find a solution.

And in general, never give up. No matter how bleak it seems it will get better again. And remember that there are a whole bunch of people over here rooting for you!