Financial talk

My husband and I are fed up with Vermont. We are renting an apartment right now, but have told the landlord that we are leaving at the end of the month. We are behind in rent due to husband's surgery a few months ago, and we won't be caught up by the time we leave. We are thinking about moving to Ohio to be closer to some of hubby's family, plus the rent is quite a bit cheaper there. But we have bad credit. We still owe our landlord money. If we stay here we are going to be farther in debt. We are currently late on our car payment due to my husband's surgery and trying to juggle bills. We are moving so we can get in a better situation with our finances. Any advice on how to be able to maneuver this in less than a month? We really don't want to ask family for help, and we do not want cosigners. Our friend has said that we can use her as a landlord reference. Would this work, or would they find out real landlord? I do not want to use her unless I have to.