The 1099 route may have been an option but here in NY State it's an expensive gamble.

It's a gamble. 

Buy a fresh Pineapple for $1 or a can of SPAM for $6.E. 

Bit of a gamble to rent in SoCal long term non rent controlled and before you know it buying is not an option for some who end up priced out for good.

I’m in Virginia and have another mailing address I can use I just don’t want the tenant to get spammed.

Now if you could get a loan for the credit card amount at a lower interest rate then ya, but getting more debt on a gamble to maybe save 100-200/month to pay off your insane interest rate CC doesn't seem like something i could ever do.Granted everyone has their own situation and not any situation is the same but based off what you have said soo far, even paying your credit down now, you are not sure how long your single income is going to last for so you will probably be using that Credit card and accumulating more debt.

It’s like gambling.

Bidding on the first property on auction.com back in 2010, without any experience, insight or analysis in real estate or buying a property. [ Almost a gamble ]Went in all blind, with just the intention of flipping and with investment of 170K netted a profit of 54K.

I still think a gamble but maybe with a management plan it could work out.

So anyone that Googles your name is likely going to think:  "Great, another spam message for a realtor that will say anything to try and get me to list my house."