If I were a landlady

Were I ever to own rental property (not likely, as I will never have the financial resources to even so much as buy my own home), and if I were to ever sell such property to be razed for development, I would make it a point to write to my tenants and to explain the situation to them and to offer them first rights to any additional rental property that I had, in compensation for them losing their homes. But then, this is how my mind works, and sadly, with all of the Extreme Makeover of my hometown and the mass demolition of older rental homes and apartments, people are being displaced and having to scramble for whatever rental properties are left, and more are slated to be demolished, including my home. So the supply of rental properties is growing smaller and the demand is growing larger, driving prices up very high for the remaining units in this city. I guess that's good if you own rental property, but not so good if you are looking for some. Many very posh and swanky new apartment complexes geared toward the college crowd are being built all over town, with every amenity that you could possibly want: central air, free wi-fi, free cable with HBO, free huge plasma TVs, recreation/game rooms, fitness clubs, swimming pools, enormous kitchens with dishwashers, washer/dryers in each unit and more. These facilities are obscenely expensive and geared toward kids who grew up in McMansions who can't conceive of ever roughing it in a rooming house or dormitory built decades ago. I'm 55, I live in a tiny student apartment on a street made up entirely of student housing, have a 9" table top TV and more books than any human being ought to have.

This is presenting itself with a huge problem as I try to look for new housing: apartments that I have viewed so far have been far too small for all of my books and bookcases. I hate the idea of not being able to take all of my books with me and perhaps having to crate some of them up and put them in storage. I suppose I should get rid of some of my books that I will probably no longer read, like some old paperbacks and such, but books are so hard to part ways with. Clothing, that's easy to say goodbye to, especially stuff that both no longer fits and stuff that I have not worn for decades and likely won't wear ever again. I'm keeping a few old dresses and jumpers for old times sake because they do still fit and occasion may still present itself for me to dress up, but for the most part, I am pitching enormous amounts of clothes going back decades. I also need to get rid of a lot more as well. I have the basement full of old crates of just junk and have already thrown away several crates of stuff already, but have tons more to go yet. Thank goodness the local computer store said that they would take my old computer equipment and recycle it for me, because I have many crates filled with ancient computers: a 286, a home built 486 and my Gateway Essential 433c desktop that this laptop that I am now using replaced. Going through all of this stuff that I have been working on is like looking at the past 3 decades of my life. Some of it makes me feel sentimental, some sad, some happy.....a whole host of emotions as I sort through so much of my life. In a sense, I feel weighed down by having so much stuff cluttering both my apartment and the basement, and it is a bit liberating to be freed of it all. But I'm also incredibly sad and angry at losing my beloved home and struggling so hard to find new housing when the supply has been so sharply reduced in recent years. I know that I cannot count on it, but I am rather hoping that next year, I can call my old landlord and ask for one of his other apartments if any are available. Right now, I am struggling with trust issues over not being told about the sale of this house and having to find out about it in the newspaper. I am troubled that we tenants were never notified of this so that we could decide whether or not to stay or go. By the time we all found out, it was too late to move, as all of the fall rentals had been snapped up. Whether that was done by design, I do not know, but it strikes me as a cruel way to make us all find out about it. The minute that the ink was dry on the deal, we should have received a letter in the mail notifying us of the sale and planned demolition of the house so that we could seek other housing before fall rentals were snapped up. That we were never informed and never offered other properties by our landlord has left me with some serious trust issues. Friends tell me, well, your landlord owes you NOTHING, but I disagree. After nearly 30 years of loyal and faithful tenancy, I think that he does owe me, big time. I feel like I got dumped like a hot potato on a housing market that is scarce and expensive. And I am seriously beginning to despair of ever finding another place to live before I have to be out of this place. Could I find roommates, I would have my pick of 2 or 3 bedroom homes or apartments, but 1 bedroom apartments are as scarce as hen's teeth in this town. And expensive on top of that. I feel incredibly vulnerable right now because I fear that the rest of my days are going to be spent as a transient, moving from place to place without ever again having a stable home. I could never afford to buy a home, so failing that, I'm never again going to have a place on which I can count on staying for a good long while. Those days are over, and now I am at the mercy of an ever tightening market for affordable housing. Since I'll never again have a stable address, time to get a Post Office box, since I fully expect to be moving every few months for the rest of my days. I may just have to crate up my stuff and store most of it from now on and hope that I can pay the bill to do so. Sucks to be growing older and finding out that you can never again have anywhere to call HOME. :-(