Just because the story is believable doesn’t mean that the people who are in the story are without responsibility or fault.
When you get into a lease agreement you should know how to pay going into it. If your landlord doesn’t take a form of payment you can handle you don’t sign the lease in the first place. That’s your life responsibility as a functional adult. Paying rent every month isn’t a surprise. Being low on funds isn’t an excuse and being low on funds isn’t the issue at hand.
I also don't think the author is in a victim mentality, it is more like a reminder to other developers that they can do so much better.