The Degrading Experience of Trying to Rent in Silicon Valley
http://www.siliconvalleydebug.org/articles/2016/02/16/interested-renting-a-story-gentrification-peninsulaMy discomfort escalated and morphed into something aberrant the occasion that I was recorded without my consent. At the end of a conversation during a meeting with a landlord, she simply tapped her phone, which had been on the table and said “I hope we were loud enough, it is so I won’t forget anything when I talk to my husband.” I concluded that our entire conversation had been recorded. I was never told that our conversation would be recorded, nor was I asked for consent. I swallowed all of the immediate alarms going off in my head, and the dark feeling creeping out of my chest, I simply smiled and said I would wait for her decision about the mini-studio. Two days later the landlord contacted me to let me know she was willing to rent to me, but was asking for $1,650 instead of $1,500 – the original listing price. I cannot afford to pay $1,650 per month for a mini studio, it is not sustainable for myself and my daughter. My conscious awakens with all of the wrath brought to an ocean by a hurricane, but is abruptly stunted by the desire to be able to tell my daughter that we have a home.
These two incidents reflect my entire experience of trying to search for a home in the Peninsula for my daughter and I. As an individual working with the public in communities that are violently being displaced, I battle with the monster that is gentrification. Its claws have uprooted open spaces, filled them with concrete and one way mirrors. Its teeth have chewed away at all of the affordable housing, leaving it smeared with the shiny saliva of luxury condominiums. It is an uphill battle, when what nourishes this monster is capitalistic greed. We are also consumed, when the mainstream arguments against gentrification revolve around the very same ideas that keeps this monster alive. “If all of the low-income people move away who will work in the service jobs?” “Who will keep the Peninsula functioning if there are no blue collar workers?” This discourse is located within the framework that creates a situation where people are literally pushed out of their home and community. Gentrification is more than the appropriation of environment – it is about stripping an entire community of a way of life, tradition, history and sustainability.
Gentrification is a symptom of social inequality, which makes social justice the only argument against displacement. The people living in low-income communities of color that are being gentrified deserve to live in the space that we call home, not because we are a needed component of a hierarchy system, but because we are human. There is a problem when attempting to secure basic survival, comes with loss of self-respect and scrapes down my throat as I swallow in order to provide for my daughter. I do not strive for luxury served on a silver spoon, I would simply like the basic needs that society assured I would be able to secure if I walked down the directed path. I realize the American dream will never manifest for me when I open my eyes, it must be consciously that instead I imagine my own. A type of dream that is not dehumanizing when I attempt to make it a reality, but one that is inclusive of individuals like myself and my daughter.
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And where were you previously? The sister agency to mine might be able to help repatriate you.
There is a commuter train from Stockton to $iliValley, but it doesn't help much. And BART only goes halfway, to Dublin/Pleasanton (it does not yet go to $iliValley ); you'd have to drive or bus it to/from there.
just a Caltrain-like train that will connect to BART at Pittsburg/Bay Point.
Sorry to hear that you're stuck in Lodi again.
San Jose is under construction and should open late next year, finally connecting us to civilization! 
I remember trying to find a place with my then teenaged daughter in Redwood City. We looked at a two bedroom house because we finally had the dog that I always wanted to have. No one wanted to rent to us! They wanted the young, well off couples without pets. It took months until we realized that the Peninsula was out of our reach. There were a few apartments that accepted dogs but they are so expensive.
We ended up across the Bay in Pleasant Hill for about 2/3 the price of the Peninsula. We have two bedrooms, a yard and a nice balcony AND we have TWO dogs now AND my landlord has never raised the rent! Unfortunately he is now trying to sell the house.
So now my college aged daughter will be moving out with some friends and I am going to be renting part of my dad's old house in San Jose. If it weren't for the fact that my father needs full time care in a facility, I would be moving in with my dad at aged 50! I wish he was well and could live there though. Now I will need a room mate - again, at aged 50. Sigh...
It looks like there will be no shortage of applicants but I hope that we can actually help someone like writer in this article.
No, not for me. About 80-90% of what we do is housing. Are you open to having a roommate with a disability?
Oh yes, part of the other 10-20% is getting people like your dad out of nursing homes and back in the community.
I have had a bunch of back surgeries so someone with a disability would be more than welcome. We don't have a ramp and there are a few stairs though.
Feel free to PM me.
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