If you can sell the desktop for enough money to buy a good-enough laptop, you should do that. The desktop is just dead weight until you have a place where you

If you can sell the desktop for enough money to buy a good-enough laptop, you should do that. The desktop is just dead weight until you have a place where you can permanently set it up, and if you believe you an use your programming skills to help you get back on your feet, you need to be able to use those skills now, while you don't have a place to plug in that desktop. But really, look for a stable job, any job. Uber/Lyft is not that, especially with the uncertainty in your car situation. Your eventual goal might be to do software freelancing, or to get a full-time job using those software skills, but you may not be able to get one of those kinds of jobs now.