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Opinion: Vermont rents are outrageous
I have a pressing problem that I know for certain concerns many senior citizens seeking apartments: outrageous rents.
I have been looking over a year for an apartment I can afford.
Now in Addison, Rutland and Chittenden counties the cheapest one-bedroom apartments, without utilities, start at $1,000 per month and up.
What on God’s green earth is going on?
I am 74 years old. Back when I initially started working, the minimum wage was $1.05 an hour. So, over the years, it didn’t increase much. So, how much Social Security did myself or anyone else accrue at this hourly wage? Also, I did lots of waitress work in every restaurant in Burlington before you were required to claim your tips.
So how in hell do these landlords propose for myself or other senior citizens to pay such outrageous rents, plus pay lights, heat, hot water, buy clothes, do laundry, support a vehicle, go to the dentist, among other things?
Many, like myself, do not have family who will assist, so we’re stuck.
Now, I am eligible for subsidized rent, but 30 percent of $1,000 is still $333.33 out of $1006 total (including food stamps) I get to live on.
So I propose the governor and senators and representatives institute some form of rent control. Some kind of scale for senior citizens or people on limited incomes.
I do not smoke or drink alcoholic beverages, so that does not enter into my meager budget. My God, when I grew up, we took care of our aged/elderly and didn’t have old age home (nursing homes) and rob them blind.
Something must be done to curb these outrageous rents, especially to so-called senior apartments.
None of us is related to Rockefeller or Trump, or have their money. What little we have we busted our humps to earn working hard. At least I did.
P.S. Rents in New York (Ticonderoga, etc.) are 50 percent cheaper if you want to go to New York state. That’s including utilities, parking and snow and trash removal.
Bernice (Knox) Borkman, Middlebury
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