Joshua Beadle of Sarasota, Florida, lived in a 950 sq ft loft apartment for four years for about $900 a month until about one year ago when the owner sold the building and he was forced to move.
He found a smaller, more expensive 700 sq ft apartment for $1,500 a month. After living there for one year, he recently received a lease renewal letter stating his monthly rent would be increased to $1,947.
“Over the course of one year my rent has increased 116%. How does someone who works gigs and is making the same amount of money afford a price increase of $1,050 a month?” said Beadle. “Every month that I pay my rent I breathe a sigh of relief knowing I can live one more month, but I know that I am one emergency away from not being able to afford living expenses."
That trailor was renting before I moved here to this giant project I'm living in raised rent twice before Covid.
It was a comfy and smaller 3 bedroom that I rented with the intention I would be covering the bills and living there with my 3 kids.
I started off paying 875 a month. Which was a GREAT deal in my state for place NOT in the hood(Flint, Detroit, Pontiac).
By the time Covid hit the rent was at 975. That was less than a year. They had raised it 50 dollars twice. And I'm sure that was going to continue.
Before that place i was renting a 3 bedroom townhouse with a finished basement. We started at 1,050. By the end of that year they had raised rent a total of three times and we were paying 1250 at the end of the lease. The last 3 months of it, it was 1250. Mind you.....shit was falling apart and they wouldnt fix a thing either. I was mad enough about the situation that I wasnt gonna pay the rest of it.
I ended up paying it so it wouldnt fuck up my rental "record" but still.
When you rent from companies it sucks. It's much better to find a place either family owned or where your landlord is just a regular person. I've had the best renting relationships with individuals. I've rented from companies 3 times in my entire life, and each time was awful. The first time was when I moved to MS and found out AFTER I moved in and was living in the house for a few months that it had been submerged in Katrina and the fucking place didnt replace or even work on the ELECTRIC. After the whole box had been submerged in water. I had a huge fight on my hands that I did not need.
What's really disgusting are companies who lure in people on fixed incomes and who are poor into buying mobile homes in mobile home communities (trailor parks), and than steadily raise the lot rent until they cant afford it and end up having to lose their house. I didnt even know that was a thing until I saw it happening at my last place. We were affording rent just fine...albeit we were annoyed by the two raises and wondering how high it was gonna get. But an elderly lady on our street ended up having to leave and move in with her son. She owned the house and had that paid off......but they raised her lot rent so high she couldnt afford to live. I was disgusted hearing that. Her lot rent was up to 800 something. Almost as much as what we were paying and we were renting the house as well. She owned hers.
I'm sure more "pure" capitalism would allow these issues to correct themselves. I do not think getting rid of all the individual landlords so corps can buy up all the properties is a good solution.
