| Bad credit can and will affect your ability to rent an apartment. Some communities will have a "points system," where if you are given points in different categories. Others require a higher deposit. Still others will take your income into account when making a decision. Different apartment communities have different requirements, and you would need to contact the ones which you are considering to find out if you would be facing a problem. When we declared bankruptcy the complex we wanted to move into required that we put down a year's rent as deposit, which was not possible for us (if it was, we would've just bought a house LOL).
One option you may have is to find a building that is privately owned; or someone who is renting a house/townhouse/duplex. Often private parties do not have requirements as strict as complexes do; so you may catch a break.
I can't advise you on filing a lawsuit as I have never had to do so; but having declared bankruptcy, I can tell you that there are lawyers who will charge you an arm and a leg, and others who charge a flat fee for filing (and there is also a way to file without the assistance of an attorney but it's pretty hard to do). I chose a very good lawyer who charged us twice what the flat-fee lawyers do, but we got the benefit of having their assistance after the fact, when a couple of our former creditors still sent us collection letters (often the flat-fee lawyers stop helping after the bankruptcy is discharged). In fact, we filed three years ago, and our lawyer is STILL available to us should we need his services for anything even remotely related to the bankruptcy. When mom said "You get what you pay for," she was right. LOL | 
