hi.

my landlord is taking over my apartment for personal use. i need to be
out in a few weeks. you seem to be building a monopoly on vacant
spaces in this city, and you won't rent to me because i've defaulted
on my student loans. this is effectively cutting off my right to
housing.

but, this is not a good reason not to rent to me.

my loan default is a real thing, this is true. however, because i live
on disability, there is essentially no way for the state to collect on
it. i have done my due diligence and applied for loan forgiveness, and
they have told me that although i am permanently disabled i am not
"severely" permanently disabled, which is some kind of kafkaesque
nonsense. but, what it means is that, while the loan will continue to
collect interest for the rest of my life, this has no actual effect on
my income.

the fact is that i get around $1200/month from the government, every
month. this income cannot be touched by any collection agency. nor is
it under any threat of market failure - i cannot get fired, i cannot
get laid off, and i cannot get outsourced. if you were to compare me
to a wage worker, and you were to measure my value as a tenant solely
on my ability to pay, you'd have to conclude i'm a far safer gamble
for the reason that i'm immune to market forces.

i understand that you don't want to rent to people who manage money
poorly. but, student loan defaults are going to be an increasingly
common fact of life in this city, and if you are going to command so
much of the empty rental space, you should really be approaching the
situation a little differently.

i have been in this unit for four and a half years and i have never
paid my rent late. these payments will come in every month into
perpetuity. it makes no sense to deny me housing for this reason -
because i am a model tenant.

j

i want to be clear about how this company works.

let's say you went to school for a few years, came out with a degree in sociology - which means you get to be a manager at mcdonalds. but, let's say you actually are a manager at mcdonalds. so, you're working a 40+ hour work week and pulling in something close to $1700 a month. but, it took you a while to get there, and in the process you defaulted on your loan.

you have a steady job. a little authority, even. you want a $900 apartment. and, why not? you can afford it.

this management company will not rent to you due to the default. it doesn't matter that you're making more than enough money. it's an inflexible position across the board. 

and, they seem to be in charge of at least half of the vacant properties in the city - properties that should be occupied by low income people that probably don't have very good credit. 

is this even a human rights violation? i think there's a good argument for it. but, that's not exactly at the top of my mind, right now.

i could maybe file once i find somewhere.

that apartment i went to see was a little small, but i expected that.

the two reasons i couldn't consider it were as follows:

1) it had a really big window on the front entrance. i want the unit up a few floors to cut off broken window access. the less windows, the better. this place had smash and grab written all over it.

2) the front entrance was a shared porch with the unit beside it. there would have been somebody chain smoking a foot in front of my door.

this is windsor.

it's becoming clear that i'm going to have to appeal, probably as soon as i get the review in the mail.

i'll need to pay rent on wednesday if i don't find anything tomorrow, which at this point is pretty much certain.

i'm also realizing that it's less that the city doesn't have rental spaces - it does - and more that the market has been taken over by this management company. what happened to windsor, that had such low prices four years ago? marda. this company is inflating prices by introducing a management layer. and, they're refusing to rent to anybody that has defaulted on their student loans. i'm almost willing to argue it's predatory. but, somebody needs to step in and break them up...

if you're a building manager, you really ought to separate yourselves from this company: they are leaving spaces empty over issues that do not affect a tenant's ability to pay, and cutting off large segments of the market. it's not sustainable. it's just going to land people with steady incomes in the shelters.

and, the city should be questioning if they have too much market power and trying to find ways to break them up.

i'm sleepier than i should be. but, hopefully i can get some progress down tonight.

today didn't yield much - i'm going to look at something tonight that's a bit smaller but would give me an extra $50+ in my pocket a month, maybe $100 in the summer, but he got really apprehensive when i told him i'm on odsp. people have a lot of prejudices about this, and i'm fully aware of the problem of productionism, especially in a post-industrial area like this where there's so much unemployment, and it's created these hierarchies of exclusion. it's up to me to convince him that this attitude is just literal stupidity - i cannot work by doctor's order, and i have the safest check in town - but it's not the easiest thing to do. you'd think self-interest would be easier to enforce, but conservatism goes out of it's way to enforce irrationality and anti-intellectualism. i can't get fired. i'm guaranteed rent. pull your head out of your calvinist ass and recognize the superior tenancy value that i offer...

i have an appointment in the morning, but i don't even know if i'm going to go. i didn't realize that it's on the ground level. i'm curious, though.

the review was dismissed, as expected. i gave them a call about the leave date, and it hasn't changed. the review claims that i didn't raise the issue of 83(3)(c) - that's just false. i can think of at least twice that i raised it. so, the adjudicator seems like she realizes she's wrong, and is trying to back track by pretending i didn't raise the point. that's why she's not a judge, right? but, i can't review a second time.

unfortunately, the adjudicator has handed me a perfect case for appeal: she agrees that i would be right if i raised the point, then claims i didn't raise the point. but, i did raise the point. and, we can check the audio. so, now i have no choice but to appeal.

so, i'm considering launching an immediate appeal when the documents get here, just to get it out of the way. i can drop it at any time, i believe. i wasn't expecting a stay on review, but i wasn't expecting such a quick response, either. now that it's in front of me, and it's just wrong, i kind of feel like i have to act as quickly as possible.

i left a message with legal aid as well. i just want to go in and talk it over, make sure i understand the process and i didn't overlook something that's going to screw me over in the end.

but, i think that's it for listings, for the day. i should be more optimistic: if i find something i can get a appointment for every single day, i'm making good progress.

i'm going to eat. i finished the facebook section yesterday, and should close some discs tonight. i could ship tomorrow.

that was a bust.

the ad said $725 all inclusive. it's $725 + hydro. so, i'm looking at $750. he was representing a firm, and i wasn't going to take him down. this is on the extreme limits of what i can consider. is it better?

well, the existing tenant is a heavy smoker, and the apartment was full of cat shit. she's moving downstairs.

so, i would be moving into a unit with a heavy smoker downstairs that doesn't have a problem living in cat shit. that's not better - it's a $80/month rent increase with no benefit to me.

if it was just the habits of the previous tenant to deal with, i could air the place out. but, this is just a recipe for conflict. we're going to start fighting from day one. i could not get along with this person well enough to live in the same building as them.

my self-interest is not in moving into this unit. i'll have to keep looking. and, i now have fifteen days left to avoid an appeal.

today is a listings day. but i need to shower, first. yuck.