Daddy’s Slumlord Rant!

The following “rant” is a recap of the desperation that led us down the “We gotta do something, now…” path.

This has been a public service announcement, from the “friends of slumlords everywhere… not!” network. Thank you for your support… LOL!

[Let the Rant begin!]

My family lives in South Mississippi. Biloxi, to be specific. It’s one of the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina.

Now, I bet you’re thinking that the hurricane was a long time ago, and we should be past it by now. But you’d be surprised just how slowly things have moved towards “recovery” around here.

FEMA came in, and made their usual mess of things. My silent prayer is that they learned a LOT, and it will be reflected in the way they assist those along the Mississippi that just got hammered by flooding. My heart goes out to each and every family up there, because believe me, I know what they’re going through.

Families here scrambled to find a place to hole up in, while they tried to rebuild their lives. And, a lot of rental housing was destroyed. A majority of it, if you believe what you read.

So landlords here did what landlords do best, in a crisis. They raise the rents. After all, it’s about supply and demand, right?

And since some many people needed housing, the landlords knew that they didn’t have to be as diligent about things like maintaining properties, making repairs, you know, the usual things…

If a tenant didn’t like it, he could just move. There was a waiting list a mile long, for a safe place to sleep at night…

In our case, the “greed” factor seems to have exceeded the “need” factor, in our landlord’s eyes. She refuses to make even minimal repairs, in fact, the units were never repaired after Hurricane Katrina, they were simply swept out, and re-carpeted (with rotten carpeting she scrounged after the hurricane), so they could be re-rented as fast as possible, to new “suckers.”

Our 1 bedroom unit has no working air conditioning or heat (I had to buy a window unit to keep the living room cool, or my wife and baby boy would get sick, from the 90+ degree heat), there are holes in windows where the glass has been broken out, non-existent window screens, gaps in the front door that allow insects and rodents in at their leisure (so big that you can actually stick your fingers through the “cracks“), sewage that backs up by the gallons into tubs and onto flooring at least once a month, and appliances that don’t work (stove burners that don’t work, and a refrigerator that frequently just “fails,” causing all of our food to spoil). The apartment “slab” is cracked, so when it rains, the cracks and improper drainage cause the floors to soak as the “water table” rises. Most of these conditions have existed for at least a year.

Now, Mississippi law allows a tenant to make repairs, but they can’t exceed the monthly rent.

I told her I was going to start repairing the apartment instead of paying the rent, dollar for dollar. She just about lost her mind. She started screaming about how poor she was.

(It’s a lie. I’ve actually seen her bank accounts. She has hundreds of thousands of dollars stashed away.)

FYI: I saw them accidentally, when she left statements open on a desk, while I was arguing with her about the state of my apartment. She leaves them open, so she can gloat over them, like a “Demented King Midas.” It’s pathetic. The woman actually reminds me of Leona Helmsley.

(I only hope that she suffers the same fate.)

Some of you know that my wife is very ill, and can’t contribute as much as she’d like in the “taking care of the monster” department. In actuality, it’s lucky that she can even walk.

Our new son (a happy accident, but an “oops!” none the less) is a big, strapping, tenacious little monster, who, like any 9 month old, wants down onto the floor, to explore his new planet. In our case, this is impossible, because of hygiene and safety reasons.

Joshua is truly a blessing to us. He is our only source of real “happiness.“ For a while there, we didn’t know if he would survive, due to my wife‘s illness. But man, did he fool us! He’s a little terror, and smart as his daddy…

(My wife says she’s not sure if that good, or bad… Time will tell, I guess!)  LOL!

Anyway, “housing” complaints to the landlord just fall on deaf ears, except for continued harassment for us to “just move out if it’s so bad,” so she can just rent it to someone else. She’s “too poor” to make the repairs. It’s a very difficult situation.

I’d need a good lawyer, and injunctions to protect us, to begin this. The list is so long for “Pro Bono representation“ that we can’t qualify. We would be out on the street before we even got to court.

(If you’re a lawyer around here, and you have a few hours to spare, to help my family, I’ll be your new “best friend” for life.)

Nothing would make me happier than seeing this woman get the reward that she’s earned. I can’t tell you how many times she’s pushed my wife to hysterics and made her cry, with her taunts and threats. It makes my heart sick to see her do this over and over again, to people who can’t protect themselves from her. She’s truly despicable.

Taking her to court would just make it worse, she has a responsibility to fix the unit, but according to Mississippi law, she can terminate our tenancy before she does it. That’s within her rights, too. So, even though we pay our rent on time (and act responsibly), we can get kicked out for trying to force her to maintain the property so that we are safe. Talk about double-edged swords! We’re just waiting for that to happen. It’s coming, we just don’t know when…

We’ll be made “homeless,” and she’ll just defraud someone else, in the bargain.

And, frankly, I haven’t got the money to move, even if I could find a place.

Medical expenses, and shortened work hours so I can care for my family have caused us to tighten up our budget considerably. There are no savings left. Hell, we sold our family car, to pay the medical bills, and assure my wife  continued care. Thank heavens for the bus!

So, that’s why we’re desperate to move…

[End of Rant…]

And that, my friends, is why we’re building a house out of old shipping containers…