You are fortunate to be a CA resident (if not, you wouldn’t be eligible for need based aid in CA).
You are likely Calgrant eligible. That’s a good thing. As a sure thing, are there any Calstate schools you can commute to?
I would suggest you file your FAFSA as soon as possible. There are some forms of federally funded need based aid that are limited per college campus. Federal work study is one of them. You ask how to balance work and school at the same time. A school work study job will have some flexibility and will work with you when you have things like exams and the like. In addition, your earnings from a work study job will be excluded from the FAFSA financial aid calculations in subsequent years.
For most students, managing 10 hours or so of work per week is fine. For others, that’s too much, and others can handle more than that. Some depends on you major.
Really…to do the FAFSA, you need log in info and so does one of your parents. You will need parent and your 2018 tax returns, and assets as if the day you file the form. Really, it’s not complicated. You don’t want to miss out on limited funding because you apply later, and it’s all gone.
Re: loans…if you take the maximum Direct Loans for all for years, your total in loans will be $27,000. Repayment will be about $300 a year. That’s less than a lot of car payments. If you want to live in a dorm, you may find this Loan is needed. OTOH, if you get sufficient aid, you don’t have to take the loans…but keep that option open…just in case.