I agree with 99% of what you wrote but my only question is -- is Julie high functioning?
I'm no psychologist but Julie's behavior seems to be mid-functioning at best. She is unable to keep either herself or her environment clean; she does not seem able to perform simple, repetitive tasks; she cannot prepare the simplest of food items; she cannot find a minimum-wage job; and she cannot even ride the bus by herself. Seriously, compared to her, CWC seems like a paragon of independence.
While I have no idea how much of this is a true inability to do these tasks, as opposed to an over-reliance on everyone else to do them for her, I just don't see Julay ever being able to live even semi-independently.
I would definitely call her high functioning. Reasons why:
1. She has actually had several relationships and does display an understanding of what is appropriate, but her impulsiveness is clearly an issue for her.
2. She has an idea of what is needed to survive and honestly what she needs to do t get there, which many midfunctioning individuals struggle with. They have some ideas of what basic things they need to do (eat, have meds, shower, etc) but don't understand at all how to get it done or even why usually.
3. She also indicated that she received some level of trade school learning and regular education which is not considered appropriate for midfunctioning. Midfunctioning can count, maybe read or sign basic words, but not on Julie's level.
She has no distinct inability to learn or do these things, she was and continues to be in an environment which failed to educate her in life skills early on. This is not uncommon and if her case worker knew anything, they would enroll her in a life skills course stat to begin learning how to get to independence. Even a job skills coach could help her out with directing her on what to do at a job, help mediate with coworkers, etc.
Now, this is the tricky thing with high functioning individuals, their understanding of indepedence often means "i do what i want yayyyy" rather than "I adult and pay bills". They know their disability also enables them to get away with shit, so notice every time she is directed to be useful, it suddenly turns into everyone else has a problem and she is doing all she can yada yada. This is actually why I find high functioning groups so frustrating, they are extremely savvy, but often choose irresponsibility and rely on their disabilities to get them out of trouble. Midfunctioning is a 100 times easier to deal with because motivations are much easier to see and their social abilities are not even close to Julie's, even if they struggle more with physical behaviors.
Also: sad tits be sad. Too bad the titties can't be saved like the blanket was.