I finished the draft of my book, which I have been working on for 3 years, and I am feeling pretty stoked! Yesterday I found one beta reader; perhaps I should use more, but the first one is my first goal... get that goal and then I can go ahead with more beta readers. I spent too long looking at the different publishers, and I still haven't chosen one. This book is an historical non-fiction work... I just want it published!
For the rest of this post I am talking about how people are treated over poverty and rent and where they want to live. That includes me - I'm a retired woman and I have been following the politics of rental since COVID. When I moved last year to be closer to my family, I chose a single bedroom unit for less than $300. Except I have been discovering what's not good of this unit for me. There is only one entry/exit which shares access with every other tenant on this level; there is no balcony on the other side of the unit; there are 15 steps up and down that I have to walk every day, and my legs are tired; the oven is rusty; the ceiling is peeling (even after being painted before I moved in); there is too much dust which just happens to come inside from the main road through this area; there are no sound limits through the neighbour's walls; there is no aircon; the mailboxes are very difficult to check - very low and in front of the garden that is too close. Months ago, I requested a permanent set of curtains in my bedroom to stop the afternoon summer sun actually getting into that side of the unit, and I am very grateful that the owner had them put in. That's pretty much the only excellent thing that has been done for me.
When I reached retirement age, I had my name put on the Housing Dept list for a community unit. A couple of weeks later I got a notice from the property agent to ask if I was moving out. No, I was not! I only put my name on a list, and I might have to wait for a couple of years for a property to become available for me. At the beginning of this month, I received another email which informed me that my rent was going up when I reached the end of my two-year contract. It was going up by $60 a week!! Perhaps I should have ignored that notification, because my contract did not expire until 2024. But I have aphasia, and my brain works by itself and told me I should be upset/angry and start looking elsewhere now.
I tried looking through property websites, most of which quoted rent for a one-bedroom unit or a studio unit as $350 a week, and some $450. Almost all of these were called a "granny flat", and I, seriously, am wondering how many landlords actually have their own "granny" who could never afford $350. Why, just why call a single bedroomed unit/flat a "granny flat"?
I have my name on the lists with retirement villages, which have many people on their own list. To find something I can afford for the rest of my life would work for me, but the only one I attempted to get in to inspect, after telling me that I was definitely considered, was signed up by a person chosen by the private owner. I had already been into Housing Dept to arrange for the bond, and they had told me that, even though the rent for that unit included a meal a day, the cost was just over the limit the HD had placed on beneficiaries like me, but they were happy to support me. Which didn't happen.
COVID has led to payments increased to workers, but very little to beneficiaries, which sees us move out if the rent goes higher than we can afford. That's what leads to homelessness. These days so many of the advertised units/flats are rented as furnished. I wonder why this is happening now, when it didn't happen a few years ago? I have my own furniture and belongings and I have the right to live with my own stuff.
Very recently I completed a survey and a submission for the Queensland state government where they are looking into availability of housing. They have a website page which looks at Housing Support for Aged People (for people like me) and Housing Pathways for Young People (which probably includes everyone else). If you can provide your own submission then please do so, whether you need a home or already have your own. This suggestion is directed at people who aim to earn what they need to pay for rent, certainly not at the property owners (unless you will support us too!).
A year ago, when I moved closer to my family, I didn't really feel that I could be facing homelessness throughout my future life. I also never considered that the agent would tell me months in advance about the rent increase. But I already knew I could not afford $350.
I think of anything I could do: speed up the publication of my book (but I can't guarantee an income from it); win the lotto sometime in the future (but I can't really afford that). I guess that, now, I can think about the useless stuff that people with too much money spend on.
I won't miss that stuff.
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