What a predicament, Jean! For those able to tolerate winters (that our global climate catastrophe are making milder), most of the cities along the Great Lakes - not Chicago, btw - are affordable and if you get a place closer in to the old original city, can be surprisingly walkable.

I lived in Cleveland, Ohio for 24 years and never owned a car or even got a driver's license. The trick there was to live along one of the major commuter bus routes but close in to the city.

The Ohio City neighborhood is good for that and so is Lakewood, an inner ring suburb on the west side. Lakewood has the added bonus of being close to Lake Erie.

Good luck!