#renting
Luke and I were talking about Netflix history and I wanted to see what my actually first dvds were. And look at that still had the OG emails! #netflix #netflixdisc #DVDs #mailorder #renting #rentbymail
https://www.instagram.com/p/B05mrFNH_-k/?igshid=zs0l5d04t2uy
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The hubs and I rent a back house in a nice area of Long Beach. We got a great deal on it, but the major downside is that we have to share the kitchen of the main house. Although our landlady says we have free access to everything in the house, whenever I’m in the kitchen I get the third degree about what I’m using and how I’m making things. She always comments that she makes everything in the microwave or that whatever I’m making is making her so hungry. (Then I feel obligated to ask if she would like some.) And almost any time I step away from the kitchen to let something cook, she goes in and inspects it.
Well this week, both of her grown children are in town. Yesterday, I had a friend over to swim, and as I was walking her out of the house, I ran into her daughter. I said hello and smiled, and she just looked at me. At first I thought it was just me, but Josh commented later that night that he said hello to her and he got the doo-doo face. Today, her son arrives, and he ALWAYS eats something of ours in the fridge. One trip, he ate almost all of Josh’s leftover spaghetti that he was planning to take to work. (He left the nearly empty container in the fridge.) Then, the last time he was here, he cut my cantaloupe in half and ate it.
Tonight I planned on making a stovetop chili, and I know my landlady is going to ask if I made enough for everyone. I just don’t even want to deal with it. Can I have pizza please?
Side note: I got home after midnight on 4th of July to find my landlady sitting at her table waiting for me. She was in a very grumpy mood, because she spilled Jello all over the floor and the fridge when she was trying to put the tray in the fridge to cool. The minute I opened the door she said “I HAVE A PROBLEM!” Then she explained what happened, and she asked me to inspect the kitchen to see if she missed any spots. BOY DID SHE! She missed most of the floor, the outside and inside of the fridge and freezer, and the kitchen countertop, which was now taking on the red jello color. I honestly thought it was a joke… But she’s in her 80’s so I was like meh… I’ll just keep my mouth shut and take care of it.
But I had a serious talk with Josh on Sunday and told him that I want out. I would honestly rather pay more and have my freedom than be there anymore.
Our current landlady is the very image of one of those landlords who’d be spared the guillotine.
She’s an older, polite, maternal (white, middle class) woman who just happened to have enough money to buy a spare house, and is renting it to top up her pension. She reads The Guardian and asks after my family and does the occasional repair when necessary. She’s not one of those evil landlords.
She also just repeatedly lied to our faces about our contracts to try to get us to forfeit most of the rights we have as tenants. She also visits frequently, criticising how we live and reminding us that our home belongs to her. She also condescendingly and unnecessarily explains to us how boilers and washing machines and carpets work.
She explains to us how rentingworks.
She explains it with an indulgent smile, like a grandmother talking to a child, as if she’s being terribly patient about correcting our misunderstandings.
And she lies.
She lies because as much as she wants to convince us, everyone else, and even herself that she’s a good person, our entire relationship is based on the power she holds over us. She uses her wealth and position in society to extort payment from us, who have nowhere to live. We sacrifice to her the majority of the income we spend our lives earning, just so we can have a roof over our heads. But any time we don’t show proper deference to her, she could have us out on the street in weeks or months. We’d lose our home, because to her it is merely an asset which in no way belongs to us, the people who live there.
Today she repeatedly lied to us about our contract, and about the law, because she wanted us to have the minimum legal power possible. If I didn’t organise with a local tenants’ union, I wouldn’t have known my rights. And if I didn’t have the security of being a member of that union behind me, I never would have had the guts to challenge her. My housemate had no idea she was lying, and would have trusted her, signing away what few rights we had under the law.
As part of this tenants’ union, I’m always fighting with the worst landlords - the ones who keep people living in squalor, the ones with a dozen properties, the ones who are violent and abusive. But today has reminded me that even the “nice” landlords are still scum.
A genuinely good person who has enough spare money to buy a spare house (which is a lot of money! they wouldn’t need more!) would just let people who need a home live there, not bleed them of their income for the privilege of a warm place to sleep.
Never trust a landlord.
But more importantly, join a tenants’ union, and take back the power they hold over you. It was one of the most empowering things I’ve ever done.
- In London, I recommend London Renters Union.
- In Scotland: Living Rent.
- In the rest of the UK: ACORN.
- + there are tenants’ unions all over the world, and housing co-ops where everyone who lives there part-owns their home and there’s no landlord to answer to
Here are various links to tenants’ unions and solidarity networks involved in tenant organizing and support around the US:
Nationwide
- Homes for All / Hogares Para Todxs [national org, unsure of locals]
California
- Tenants Together[statewide]
- Alameda Renters Coalition
- Berkeley Tenants Union
- Center for Community Advocacy [Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties]
- Los Angeles Tenants Union
- Isla Vista Tenants Union
- Oakland Tenants Union
- Pasadena Tenants Union
- South Pasadena Tenants Union
- San Francisco Tenants Union
- Mountain View Tenants Coalition
- San Diego Tenants United
- Santa Cruz Tenants Association
- Protect Culver City Renters
- Glendale Tenants Union
- Sacramento Tenants Union
Colorado
Florida
Georgia
- Housing Justice League[Atlanta]
Iowa
Illinois
- Autonomous Tenants Union[Chicago]
- Metropolitan Tenants Organization[Chicago]
Indiana
Louisiana
Massachusetts
- City Life / Vida Urbana [Jamaica Plain]
- Tenant and Housing Association of Worcester
- Springfield: No One Leaves
Minnesota
- InquilinXs UnidXs por Justicia (Tenants United for Justice) [Minneapolis]
Mississippi
Nebraska
New York
- United Tenants of Albany
- Crown Heights Tenants Union [Brooklyn]
- New Settlement Apartments – Community Action for Safe Apartments [Bronx]
- The Greater Syracuse Tenants Network
Oregon
- Portland Tenants United
- Southern Oregon Tenants Union [Jackson County]
- Springfield / Eugene Tenant Association
Pennsylvania
Texas
Virginia
- New River Tenants Union [Christianburg]
Washington
Washington, D.C.
The goal: new cat
The challenge: be a perfect tenant
