"I have rent to pay, and car payments, and credit card bills, and all the economic detritus of modern life."
So does everyone, but how long has the site seriously tried to make revenue? Not long. The truth is, the moment a site becomes so much work that you'd like to get an income some day off of it, that's the moment when you need to start seriously thinking about revenue. It's not something to wait on, because if you do, your options may be limited when the crisis finally hits.
That doesn't mean that communities built around sites shouldn't come to their aid, but it ideally shouldn't be a life or death matter to the site, if possible. Life or kneecapping, perhaps... but death? Ideally not.