The Other Shoe Has Dropped

Christina Websell wrote:

Is there such a thing as housing provided by the local council,
authority or whatever you call it in the USA? rather than private
landlords? If so, could you apply for it?

There is subsidized housing here, yes. Often referred to as "the projects".
They have a terrible reputation for high crime, gangs, drugs, etc. I
don't know if all subsidized housing is like that (having been lucky
enough not to need it), but that's certainly the perception, as well as
the reality in many places. I think many people who have even a shred
of other options would take that over moving to the projects.

Ginger-Lyn, could you possibly get Section 8 housing? That's disability
funding (from the government) to pay the rent for an apartment in a
privately-owned building where the owner has agreed to it. They have
long waiting lists, but it might be worth seeing if you could start the
ball rolling. I don't know if you are officially on disability, though.
I know this is much harder to get in these draconian times!

I've never heard of any sort of pet deposit or pet rent here. It
sounds like a rip-off to me. A deposit is often required when moving
in to a privately rented property to cover any damage that might be
done, but that applies to everyone, not just pet owners.

I don't mind paying a pet deposit, myself. But then, the ones I've
been asked to pay were pretty reasonable, and were a one-time payment
(a "one-off" as you'd say ). It was a small fraction of my monthly
rent, and it gave me some peace of mind that if my cats were to cause
any damage, it was taken care of by the pet deposit.

In fact, sometimes when I've been apartment-hunting, I've answered ads
that explicitly said "no pets", because I've learned that it really
means no *dogs*. If, after I said I had cats, they were still adamant
about that policy, I would offer to pay a pet deposit, which sometimes
worked.

Then again, I've never had to pay extra *monthly* rent for my pets,
and paying per pet is ridiculous. There should be one deposit (but
$250 sounds very high), and that's it.

Joyce

wrote:
Christina Websell wrote:

Is there such a thing as housing provided by the local council,
authority or whatever you call it in the USA? rather than private
landlords? If so, could you apply for it?

There is subsidized housing here, yes. Often referred to as "the
projects". They have a terrible reputation for high crime, gangs,
drugs, etc. I
don't know if all subsidized housing is like that (having been lucky
enough not to need it), but that's certainly the perception, as well
as the reality in many places. I think many people who have even a
shred
of other options would take that over moving to the projects.

In my area the subsidized housing is all located in parts of town where you
wouldn't want to visit without a gun, let alone live in! This is backed up
by crime statistics shown on the local news all the time. Note to visitors:
avoid the southwest Memphis area.

Ginger-Lyn, could you possibly get Section 8 housing? That's
disability funding (from the government) to pay the rent for an
apartment in a privately-owned building where the owner has agreed to
it. They have
long waiting lists, but it might be worth seeing if you could start
the ball rolling. I don't know if you are officially on disability,
though.
I know this is much harder to get in these draconian times!

This is a good suggestion! Of course, government red tape and all that but
still worth pursuing if GL meets the qualifications.

I've never heard of any sort of pet deposit or pet rent here. It
sounds like a rip-off to me. A deposit is often required when
moving in to a privately rented property to cover any damage that
might be done, but that applies to everyone, not just pet owners.

The pet rent situation was new to me when I shopped around to move in 1998.
Before I moved into this apartment community it was very rare to see an
additional monthly fee for pets. Now it's very common.

I don't mind paying a pet deposit, myself. But then, the ones I've
been asked to pay were pretty reasonable, and were a one-time payment
(a "one-off" as you'd say ). It was a small fraction of my monthly
rent, and it gave me some peace of mind that if my cats were to cause
any damage, it was taken care of by the pet deposit.

I've never encountered a rental situation where some sort of pet deposit or
fee was not required.

In fact, sometimes when I've been apartment-hunting, I've answered ads
that explicitly said "no pets", because I've learned that it really
means no *dogs*. If, after I said I had cats, they were still adamant
about that policy, I would offer to pay a pet deposit, which sometimes
worked.

Then again, I've never had to pay extra *monthly* rent for my pets,
and paying per pet is ridiculous. There should be one deposit (but
$250 sounds very high), and that's it.

I've seen apartments listed with pet deposits (or non-refundable fees, in
many cases, thanks again to Karen for pointing out the wording) as high as
$500! Mine was very reasonable, $125.

Jill

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
wrote:
Christina Websell wrote:

Is there such a thing as housing provided by the local council,
authority or whatever you call it in the USA? rather than private
landlords? If so, could you apply for it?

There is subsidized housing here, yes. Often referred to as "the
projects". They have a terrible reputation for high crime, gangs,
drugs, etc. I
don't know if all subsidized housing is like that (having been lucky
enough not to need it), but that's certainly the perception, as well
as the reality in many places. I think many people who have even a
shred
of other options would take that over moving to the projects.

In my area the subsidized housing is all located in parts of town where
you
wouldn't want to visit without a gun, let alone live in! This is backed
up
by crime statistics shown on the local news all the time. Note to
visitors:
avoid the southwest Memphis area.


Hmm. My idea was not such a good one then. There are nice estates of
council houses here and I just thought it might be a possibility in the USA.
What a pity.

Tweed

On May 16, 7:34 pm, wrote:
Jack Campin - bogus address wrote:

Some of y'all may recall that among my myriads of difficulty was that
the landlord was selling the apartment building. He did, and after a
couple of months with nothing from the new landlord (not even an
introductory note), today in the mail I got a lease.
Now, I have been on month-to-month for *years*. Why should I have to
sign a lease? And it is the most restrictive, punitive to tenants lease
I have ever read.
And the worst part? He requires a $250 pet deposit, and $10 extra rent
a month *for each pet*!

Maybe you don't have to sign it. Over here sitting tenants have rights
that can't be nullified by a change of ownership, there may be something
like that where you are. Is there a citizens' advice bureau (what we
call it - a public agency to tell people what their rights are) in your
area?

This goes by city in the US. Some cities - getting fewer by the year -
have what we call "rent control", a set of restrictions on landlords
over rent increases, evictions, etc. In cities with rent control, there
is an official rent control board, where she could address complaints
such as this. But in those cities without it (which is the vast majority),
there may be a grass-roots organization (ie, not a gov't agency) that
has researched local tenancy laws and can advise tenants of their rights.
Since Ginger-Lyn lives in a city, there is likely some sort tenants-
advocacy group there, but I don't know.

I think it's good advice, whatever it's called. Ginger-Lyn, do you
have any advocates you can ask about your rights? This seems extremely
unfair.

Joyce

There should be two separate brochures, "Tenants Rights" and
"Landlord's Rights" available. You
just call and ask for them and they mail them to you. I don't remember
which agency it was,
but it came from the state capitol. I bet that info is available
online too.
Good, longterm tenants should be taken care of by the landlord,
because they don't come
along every day. Her landlord should know this. Maybe if Gingerlyn
just had a good talk with him
there could be some compromise or he'd make an exception. It would be
worth a try.

Sherry

Jack Campin - bogus address wrote:

Some of y'all may recall that among my myriads of difficulty was that
the landlord was selling the apartment building. He did, and after a
couple of months with nothing from the new landlord (not even an
introductory note), today in the mail I got a lease.
Now, I have been on month-to-month for *years*. Why should I have to
sign a lease? And it is the most restrictive, punitive to tenants lease
I have ever read.
And the worst part? He requires a $250 pet deposit, and $10 extra rent
a month *for each pet*!


Maybe you don't have to sign it. Over here sitting tenants have rights
that can't be nullified by a change of ownership, there may be something
like that where you are. Is there a citizens' advice bureau (what we
call it - a public agency to tell people what their rights are) in your
area?

Meanwhile, *don't* sign it.

Requiring a new deposit from a sitting tenant would be a criminal
offence here. It's called extortion.

Well of course, each state (and even each city) can have its
own rules, here in the U.S. Until I lived here, I would
have said a sitting tenant was only required to pay the
regular rent increases - but then I always rented where the
owner/landlord lived in the building, or in the house
next-door. However, as those of you who've read my tale of
woe in another thread know, whatever landords can legally
demand of TENANTS, they are under NO restriction when it
comes to discontinuing previously supplied amenties
(concierge service, etc.) no matter how long they have been
supplying them. (Not unless they are actually part of the
lease - and previous owners were clever enough to list them
in a separate document given to new tenants, nothing about
them appeared in the lease itself.)


============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ==============
Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760
http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/ for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975
stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557

Christina Websell wrote:
"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
wrote:
Christina Websell wrote:

Is there such a thing as housing provided by the local council,
authority or whatever you call it in the USA? rather than
private landlords? If so, could you apply for it?

There is subsidized housing here, yes. Often referred to as "the
projects". They have a terrible reputation for high crime, gangs,
drugs, etc. I
don't know if all subsidized housing is like that (having been lucky
enough not to need it), but that's certainly the perception, as well
as the reality in many places. I think many people who have even a
shred
of other options would take that over moving to the projects.

In my area the subsidized housing is all located in parts of town
where you
wouldn't want to visit without a gun, let alone live in! This is
backed up
by crime statistics shown on the local news all the time. Note to
visitors:
avoid the southwest Memphis area.


Hmm. My idea was not such a good one then. There are nice estates of
council houses here and I just thought it might be a possibility in
the USA. What a pity.

Tweed

Sometimes I *really* wish I lived where you do, Christina!

Jill

On 17 May 2007 19:31:31 GMT, wrote:

There is subsidized housing here, yes. Often referred to as "the projects".
They have a terrible reputation for high crime, gangs, drugs, etc. I
don't know if all subsidized housing is like that (having been lucky
enough not to need it), but that's certainly the perception, as well as
the reality in many places. I think many people who have even a shred
of other options would take that over moving to the projects.

The rent on government subsidized housing is the same everywhere even
though the cost of living differs. This makes them fairly useless in
low cost of living areas. We have subsidized housing in my town, but
because we have a low cost of living here most people call those
buildings the high rent district. The government charges $200-300
dollars more per month than local private landlords charge. The
private owned places are bigger, and have less rules.
Debra in VA
See my quilts at
http://community.webshots.com/user/debplayshere

I am sorry, Lee
Ginger-lyn wrote in message
link.net...
Some of y'all may recall that among my myriads of difficulty was that
the landlord was selling the apartment building. He did, and after a
couple of months with nothing from the new landlord (not even an
introductory note), today in the mail I got a lease.

Now, I have been on month-to-month for *years*. Why should I have to
sign a lease? And it is the most restrictive, punitive to tenants lease
I have ever read.

And the worst part? He requires a $250 pet deposit, and $10 extra rent
a month *for each pet*!

If I wasn't on pain meds, I'd get drunk tonight. I don't know what I am
going to do :-(

Ginger-lyn
in tears

jmcquown wrote:


Oh lord. Purrs for your nerves and for an easy and quick solution to this
problem are on the way.

Jill


Thank you, Jill.

Ginger-lyn
Finding out just how very difficult it is to type with Trill under my
right arm and Cosmo sitting next to my left arm.

Matthew wrote:
"Ginger-lyn" wrote in message
link.net...


Ginger You may want to review the tenant land lord laws in your area. Also
since you are month to month you many want to look for a new place. I am
sorry you are going thru this.

Thank you,. Matthew. The tenant-landlord laws are pretty much tilted
almost exclusively toward the landlords. :-(
There used to be a Tenant's Union, but they disbanded quite some time ago.

I dread the idea of looking for another place. I'd need a miracle to
find one that rents for as reasonable a rate as this one, has two
bedrooms, a basement, etc. I've lived here 22 years; it long ago quit
being an apartment; it's my home.

Ginger-lyn