Living With The Lords: (temporarily)

The housing crises declared by many nation-states is a home-grown problem, not something caused by the "outside" world. Newcomers are merely convenient scapegoats for governments wanting to blame someone else for their lack of foresight and planning to gradually replenish and increase the supply of affordable housing for all. Both renters and house purchasers suffer the consequences. Finding an apartment for rent is no longer simple and straight-forward. It's becoming increasingly bureaucratic, financially-demanding, and politically controversial. That makes renting annoyingly complicated. A growing number of apartment seekers and tenants are being left out or thrown out of affordable housing due to the lucrative short-term rental business restricting and reducing the availability of rental housing for local people. An era of insecurity, distrust, and greed is requiring renters to tell their life stories and surrender their privacy to gain permission to pay rent. Finding an apartment no longer means simply looking at classified adds, walking around to find the "for rent" signs, knocking on doors to have a look, and saying, "I'll take it.". This book is a collection of true stories about the author's tens of rental experiences in different neighbourhoods, cities, and countries over a period of nearly 50 years. The true stories in this book are about the transition from simplicity to annoying. Some islands of simplicity still exist and are discovered along the way. Are they still there? Only renters know.