Meghan Trainor. Independent artist who rose to fame and success. Personally I love her music. But then I noticed on her pink cd Title she also produced her first album. That meant a lot of money.
I found out recently she grew up on Nantucket. For those of you unaware, Cape Cod is a region of Massachusetts where the 1% population has summer homes, and these consist of over half the properties.
Nantucket is where the 1% of the 1% live.
So Miss Trainor is an amazing artist. But not an American Cinderella story. She haf a hell of a head start.
(Kind of like Trump calls a million dollars a small loan).
I have been living on Cape Cod since May after I graduated college with a Bachelor's Degree, renting a room (I've come to realize illegally) in a private residence.
When I first met my potential land lady she seemed like a nice old lady. She invited Mom and I to Easter Dinner with the family. Which was nice.
I told her about my hamsters, all three of them. She told me I would have use of one bedroom and the conjoining closet. As a tenant I would have rights to the kitchen and laundry.
After I told my late land lady I was moving out and began to settle in, it all fell to pieces.
She decided she didn't like how much stuff I was bringing in from the car. She swore I only told her I had two hamsters. Laundry was never included. I only had half the closet.
The list goes on.
Naturally my mother and I (we rent independently from each other in the same house) have been trying to find elsewhere to live since.
There was false hope given for a time, but we have been home hunting since October. Combined my mother and I can afford rent of 1200 a month, slightly more if utilities are included.
We both have full time work and competitive pay for the area.
We have been home hunting for five months. We have been shown illegal, sketchy, inconsistent, and pitifully small homes. We have dealt with "apartments" without their own entrances that were the second floor of a house with a "kitchen" that was a mini fridge, a single electric range, and a crock pot. We have been confronted with a land lady who insulted us, implied I would get knocked up, said she didn't want drama like ambulances driving into the lot, emphasized the men around to open jars for us, demanded we tend to her rose bush and weed the garden, and insisted we slide $1100 a month in cash in an envelope through her mail slot, even though she wasn't around that often.
Last month we were passively rejected for an apartment after having to pay 100 in application fees. While we waited to hear word on the 1250 a month apartment, the ad was posted back on Craigslist. He didn't even have the decency to tell us he decided against us. The reason? Because we couldn't move in right away (a week or less).
(This was the second time we encountered the insanity of someone wanting tenants who could move on instantly)
Most recently my mother and I were turned down for a cottage because the renter knew one of the other applicants through a common friend and the other roommate offered to trim her dog's nails.
Honestly I was most insulted with her need to explain, and that this happened when she wrote to me about our house wanted ad.
Mom has contacted various housing authorities on Cape Cod. Their suggestions have been to check Craigslist (we do, daily) or to relocate back off the Cape because we shouldn't expect to afford Cape Cod Rent on the average Cape Cod Salary.
Yes you read that correctly. When I spoke to my nurse practitioner and mentioned a lack of affordable housing, she referred to a "certain element that sort of thing draws".
You know, essential personnel like nurses, cops, teachers, and firemen. Once I went to Walgreens and learned all of their pharmacists lived over an hour and a half away, off the cape.
Cape Cod belongs to the rich. They own most of the properties as second homes for Summer Getaways. An all too common ad I find looking for a place to live is "winter rental", meaning September to June (if you're lucky) so the renter can move in for the summer or else rent by the week. Even more annoying, these are rarely posted in the short term section of Craigslist.
My mother contacted a congressman's office. The run down is that they can offer contractors incentives to build low income and affordable housing, but the towns in Cape Cod constantly refuse to let them build lest the already existing properties lose value.
Basically this is like saying no you can't have a prepaid flip phone because then my iPhone 6 may lose value.
Side note, Sandwich considers 1800 dollars a month affordable housing.
I don't think enough people realize this is happening. Even less understand how severe and wide spread it is.
We hear around from the workers of Cape Cod-receptionists, wait staff, cashiers-this is all too common. The majority of the year round population still lives with their parents, hoping to inherit the house. Not because they want to but because there are literally no options, and these people are the life blood of Cape Cod.
People like my nurse practitioner have been above the poverty line so long and so much they no longer acknowledge that the people below it are not there because they are lazy or stupid.
Or worse, those of us who fall just above the poverty line but very much under middle lower or upper lower class.
Because my mother and I realized too late we were renting illegally, we can't protest our situations because we have no legal renter rights. The facts are we have no right to laundry and to leave a spoon out of place in the kitchen causes enough lecturing and yelling that I have opted to gain 30 pounds rather then eat a well balanced diet. My mother rents the attic, which has only one exit access, no insulation, three or four leaks in the ceiling, and a ceiling light activated by screwing or unscrewing the bulb. The stairs lack a rail. The solution offered to the cold situation (note: New England winters are brutal) was that Mom keep her door open so somehow heat from the radiator two floors below would somehow maneuver around two winding staircases and warm her room.
There are now six residents, and we are down to one working toliet. The other will probably be fixed after the wifi which is to say never.
Additionally there is black mold. We are not sure where only that it exasperated my health so badly that I began to suffer a gasping Cough the ER doctors believed to be Asthma or Whooping Cough (both tests were negative and my lungs clear of fluids).
I am now taking over the counter allergy meds on a near daily basis.
This is why I say the American Dream of rising to be even moderately okay is dead. My mother and I work our hardest, seek out better employment with higher pay constantly, and we are trapped in an illegal house share that is literally threatening my life.
All because there isn't enough reasonable housing available on Cape Cod for two honest and hard working adults.
Because we can't move in 2 days after we see a place.
Because we can't find more then 1200 a month without risking food expenses.
Because we already are risking food expenses if anything goes wrong.
Because a upper class land owner fears his six bedroom summer home on the beach will lose value if a lower class member of the community can afford to live in the same town.
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