This is Billy Bob and the Consortium
Let’s Have a Conversation Today
Good Morning, Ready to Think?
Good morning, Speedy is going to join us again this morning, we may need his calmness this morning. Pete, what have you cooked up for us today? Oh, Barb, just wait, get set up with coffee and treats first, you will need them. Morning, Billy Bob, Frankie, how are you guys this morning? Not so good, there was a lot of police moving about near to our spot last night, and it was hard to breathe, let alone try and sleep. So sorry, guys, is Johnny Boy, okay? Not sure, he got real nervous last night and would not stay still, so I am hoping he did not get snatched.
Pete, my old boy, what is the topic that will make us shake our heads and wish we had more coffee this morning? It is a good one, bad landlords adding to the homeless population. What, what do you mean, bad landlords adding to our numbers? Frankie, drink your coffee, that is our topic of discussion today, and it is a growing problem. OH, Johnny Boy, you are okay, they did not get you last night, I am glad. Me too, guys, it was tough, they were walking all around my spot like bloodhounds, but I was able to quietly slide away and get safe. And, Pete, what are we talking about this morning? Goofball landlords adding to our numbers out here. Oh, I need coffee for that conversation!
Okay, Pete, the stage is yours, take us off the deep end this morning. Landlords, apartments, condos, rental rates, and availability have been a problem since the Pandemic, right? And they are getting the empty apartments turned around as fast as they can for the highest dollar possible, correct, we have all seen it. Pete, the rent rates are stupid crazy, but what can be done about them? Nothing, but wait and hope for the best. But, back to landlords, not all are good or right or care about the quality of the unit that they are renting out, we have all seen it, right? But what happens when that unit is really bad, and it cannot be lived in anymore?
So, what you are thinking in your coffee lacking brain is this, if the landlords are not caring for the units, they may be adding to our numbers out here? But how are you getting two plus two to equal four and not five? What happens if you were living in an apartment that started to fall apart on you, and it was a health hazard to live there, but you were not financially ready to move? If suddenly out of nowhere, the landlord abandoned caring for the unit and let it go, and you could no longer live there? Then what, guys, let’s talk.
Pete, you are saying that this is yet another way that us, homeless folk, end up with more and more, and nobody is aware of it because it just happens and no one is paying attention. Yup, I think that the new term is called, From Lease to the Streets, nice term, right? But why do they just end up out here with us? Can’t the units and apartments be fixed and let them stay there, won’t that be better? Of course it would be, Barb, but the landlords are greedy, and do not want to do the work needed, kick one and band-aid it, and move in another.
Pete, my friend, you are saying, it is like this, add more to our number and the sea of faces grows, but the understanding don’t grow and help certainly does not come for us anymore, no matter how many faces show up. Unless they are illegals. Basically, in a nutshell, more and more are ending up on the streets, suffering and dying and the landlords are adding to the numbers, and nothing else is changing.
The tough nut with this brand of homelessness is that they are completely clueless and get themselves into trouble quickly, with no survival skills. Pete, how do we end this new type of homelessness? What can be done? We have already talked about being greedy for money, and until hearts are changed, can people be protected? And landlords are often too greedy and don’t care about their tenants.
Okay, everybody, let’s slow down, we are moving too fast, and this is a hot button for all of us; we all know too many who have struggled to keep their homes, no matter how good, bad, ugly, little or big. What I wanted to talk about is ideas, thoughts, the possibility to avoid that crisis point of when the person has to go because it is not safe and they cannot move into another place because the funds are not there.
Pete, I think for most of us way back in the day, before this mess, we all hit the wall, but got through it, times were different, landlords were nicer and easier to work with, but they have changed a lot these days. Pete, I remember at one time I was struggling and the landlord worked with me to pay what I owed without him starting eviction papers on me, and he even repaired the apartment for me. This is what I am talking about, what happened to those days?
Well, darn Pete, you know those days are not coming back, so why are we even speaking of? I mean the horse got out of the barn years ago, and he is out to pasture, and he will not come in any time soon. Frankie, you must know something we don’t, please, go on, enlighten us, please. Pete, you are tough, getting us to talk when we don’t want to, and bringing Speedy to ease the tension, no fair! Talk Frankie. Pete, my friend, he had been renting for 2 years or and when the apartment had major problems, the landlord went silent, and he had to scramble, barely made it across the chasm to a new place. But did he make it right? Yes, but it is easy to understand how quickly others have landed out here with us when the landlords go silent, refuse to step up and do not do what they are supposed to do.
This is what the housed folks don’t see, are not told, and cannot comprehend that homelessness come in all varieties and flavors and versions and they are yet told to lump them in two categories only. You know Pete, there is a moment in time that I would love to get the housed folks out here for just a few minutes and show them reality and see how they may change, reality does a lot for perspective. Johnny Boy, I applaud that thought, but do you think it would change them, especially those who have slid into homelessness because of bad landlords? Pete, I do not know, but something must shift, something must shake, I mean this ain’t making God happy and I want to do something rather than just sit here and get old and die.
Well, folks, yet another side of us, the Coffee Consortium, we love to talk about the stuff you good people are too afraid to talk about. Sometimes it takes one who is in the mess to throw a little bit of the mess outside the circle to get people talking about the hidden parts and bits of the mess, and that is what we did today. Hope we did not offend but instead got you thinking and wondering about the role of landlords and homelessness and it role in the growing numbers.
Isaiah 1: 16 and 17
Wash your hands and make yourself clean. Take your evil deed out of my sight, stop doing wrong. Learn to do right, seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.