The $56 Rent receipt for a three bedroom apartment!
Today I had a sheet of paper stuck in the hinge of my apartment door. It was a receipt for another apartment in another building with the same number. It was a receipt for a three bedroom apartment for $56.00! When I thought of it I think about this old lady that we were neighbors with when we lived on 62nd street. We often referred to her as the white ghost. I would see her at 4:00 am feeding the cats behind the dumpster dressed in a tattered white frock. She was 84 years old. She had lived in the building for over 40 years and she was still paying rent. We learned later that she was a retired broadway actress who now had no family left and no souls to remember her. The image of her barked back into my memory because one day she came home and all her belongings were scattered about the courtyard. The building was being torn down and she failed to read the notices. Everyone pitched in to help her collect the remnants of her life. We learned from her that she was paying $800 per month for her one bedroom apartment. That left her less than $100 per month for other living expenses from her SS check. The images of the white ghost sobbing with quiet dignity at the afront of having her life scattered to the winds left a lasting scar that only burned when I saw that rent receipt. How is it possible that people I meet everyday who are working day labor for a chance at a normal life are living in the streets and then there is someone who prospers by paying next to nothing? To put it in another way – when I was working day labor I was paid $40 cash for a days work. Who is paying the balance of this person’s rent? Is $56 a fair contribution? Our rent is relatively low and we pay about thirteen times as much for the same apartment. I do not much about Section 8 maybe someone can educate me about it. Who benefits from what appears to be extremist socialism?
*2/704/13*
