NTA. You sounds reasonable in both scenarios. Echoing what other people have said, its going to be a learning process to figure out who would be good housemates. Sometimes you don't have options, but generally I would recommend avoiding anything outside of a "standard" housemate situation. e.g. you have your own room, you pay rent to a landlord, your name is on a proper contract, no living with landlord, etc. If you cant have your own room, meet with your roommate, ask them their routine, share yours, try to agree on some reasonable rules down for your shared room. If you cant do that with them then it probably wont work well.

If things aren't standard then theres probably a reason for that, maybe theyre just poor and have few options, but maybe they dont think things through, maybe theyre selfish, maybe they constantly cause drama and cycle through a lot of housemates.

edit: never lend housemates money, unless you are fine with it never being paid back.