Around here, at least, there are small one-to-three person shops that build websites for local companies, repair people's computers, things like that. And there's Geek Squad and equivalent jobs at bigger companies, that has a better hourly pay for some jobs it sounds like. Stuff like that.

By programmer standards they won't pay well, but likely more than $11/hour. And it's a start, and it sounds like you can obviously do some work.

So maybe instead of going straight for upgrading all the skills, start by trying to upgrade your pay by working for one of these? That way you get some benefit immediately, which might help with motivation.