Unfortunately, your plan doesn't even need to make loans. If your plan documents don't allow you to make a withdrawal under your circumstance, you'll need to separate from employment to get access to the 401k funds.

I suppose you could stop paying your rent and pay your other obligations making an eviction notice inevitable, but you may want to consider some other way to raise funds, like a second job, selling off items you don't need, or if you really are deep in debt, consider filing bankruptcy. You should leave your retirement funds alone if at all possible.

Good luck.

Ultimately the person you have to prove one of the reasons to is your plan administrator if your plan allows for a hardship distribution.

Get the hardship form and fill it out and start the process. It is up to them in their judgement if you really need funds to avoid eviction, for example. You don't first have to be served an eviction notice.

I agree with IMHO that you should do whatever else you can first rather than take the funds from your plan, but if you have no other option then submit the application and see what happens before you stop payments.