Editor:
I’m not a renter, but I am something of a landlord. We bought our home in 1995 as first-time homebuyers and yes, we were then and still are “low income,” at least as described in your article. One of the main selling points was the mother-in-law unit, an 800 sq. ft. separate apartment that we thought we could rent out to help with our house payments.
Over the years, we have rented out our apartment, both to strangers and family. The first rent we charged was $350 a month, all utilities paid. Currently, my daughter and her husband rent from us and they pay $425 a month, all utilities paid and that to me is about the most I will ever charge. The place is small but nice, with laundry hookups, a large storage area/garage, and a nice redwood deck with lots of that not-so-famed Fortuna sun.
It makes me sad to know that I charge the same amount for such a small studio apartment as that which I used to pay for rent on a three bedroom house in Fields Landing back in 1994. Rents here in Humboldt county have gone through the roof and articles like “The Multi-Family Myth” and “Keeping Up with the Rezoneses” (June 30) simply reinforce my belief that greed is one of the chief driving forces behind those high prices. Of course, I realize that property owners also have mortgages to meet, but if you can’t contain those costs without limiting your market share to only those in the middle income bracket, then where’s the business sense?
Many of the people I’ve rented to (including my own mother) have been low income. You’d be surprised how many people have told me that I undercharge. Perhaps I do, I don’t know. I do know, however, that my goal is not to get rich, it’s simply to subsidize my own little slice of the American Dream and maybe provide a not-so-leaky roof over someone else’s head in the bargain.
Merrily Gardiner, Fortuna
This article appears in Last Call for Coho.
A very well-thought out analysis of rental prices in Humboldt County. As a student with a fixed income, I can barely afford to put a roof over my head. Many landlords treat us renters like absolute scum regardless of our rental/credit histories and discriminate against us if we own pets.
The amount of trouble I’ve gone through to obtain housing in Humboldt County trumps that of ANY major city that I have ever lived in. There’s just no need for the greed and generally poor treatment of people who simply can’t afford to own their own home.
After all, I’m just asking for a place to lay my head at night. Have some empathy.
Excellent letter. The wealthiest people in the county claiming to want to help the poorest people. Humboldt’s real estate moguls don’t want to help poor people, they want to profit by containing more people. Poor people at that.
The people who are orchestrating these rezones wouldn’t live in their own proposals, they won’t make larger homes more affordable, and if they’re truely claiming to be local, they should already be loyal customers of local retailers. We don’t need more malls, and we don’t need more dense population centers. We definitely don’t need the combination of the two under one roof. There’s enough of that everywhere BUT Humboldt.
You have to charge enough to cover the damage from the indoor grows.
ABC hit the nail on the head. Destructive indoor growers cost all of us.
Indoor growing is an incredibly weak argument used to justify over-the-top prices. If landlords wanted to prevent growing, there are way easier ways to do so than to punish EVERY renter for the behavior of the MINORITY of renters.
I’m with Jim. Check your head if you firmly believe society should cater to the lowest common denominator. Marijuana cultivation is no reason whatsoever for our increasing one of our most essential costs of living, locally or anywhere. It’s a pathetic excuse if anything…a pot shot for haters, pun intended.
I’m so glad I am not the only one that feels this way. we are a military family who is being stationed here and absolutely can not find a decent place to live just because we have a pet, OR we have to 1.700 a month….its rediculous. Its hard enough to move every 4 years or so but to come to county like humboldt that is so un-accomodating is really making us dread this move….hell we might as well move into a travel trailer.