Over the last several years, I've lived in the same 1br apartment. When I moved in, the place was great. Perfectly sized (if not a little big for just me), solid neighborhood, close to work. But a number of circumstances have changed since then: namely that this apartment is not at all what it once was.
I now have a partner who lives with me, and if our only issue was extra space, we could have easily learned to make do. Negotiate like a healthy couple does.
But that isn't the crux of the problem at all. Over the last year, we've had:
- Suspicious constant comings-and-goings across the hall at all ungodly hours of the night.
- An unauthorized guest from the unit across the hall leaving all of their belongings in our doorway at all hours.
- That same unauthorized guest breaking into the supposedly locked and secure outer doors at all hours, witnessed by me.
- Unauthorized guests (multiple, but including the same above and below) demanding we leave those secure doors open.
- Everyone in this building leaving those doors open. All the time.
- That same unauthorized guest caught multiple times by me sleeping under the stairs when I'm trying to come home or leave.
- Endlessly stolen mail.
- People, including said unauthorized guest, going through our bagged trash and recycling.
- Lack of maintenance (we went a year last year without any maintenance at all, and before that several months without any apartment manager).
- 4 days without water with no warning, no water replacement, no bathroom or shower replacement, and no notice when it was turned back on, despite the fact that going this long without it as against tenancy rights.
- Increasing pest issues (we're both arachnophobes and this year has been an absolute NIGHTMARE).
- Increasing allergies, etc. etc. etc.
All of these issues have been reported to management. Many in 60+ email strings of multiple incidents with photo evidence that they never do anything about. Our after-hours security blows me off every time I call something in. We feel deeply unsafe, whether it's the deteriorating building, the "community" that has completely fallen apart, the management that does nothing, the security that gaslights us, and the increasing pest issues.
We're looking to move at the end of this year's lease. We've been trying to plan this for the past year, been trying to save since I landed my new job last summer. But thanks to [motions to the state of the country and the people running it], we've had no room to do this. We've been moving from paycheck to paycheck with nothing saved.
We will endure this another year if we have to; I recognize that this is not the most urgent of emergencies. But our current home environment is anything but healthy, and if we can get the help to leave it, we'd both be eternally grateful.
The current amount is set for what the listed max deposit is for the place we're currently looking at ($1750) + the average (what I could tell from Google anyway) cost for movers in our state ($1250). If we manage to screen for the lower deposit when we're allowed to apply for the unit (which I cannot do until mid-Sept.), I'll change the goal! If we manage to raise above what we need, anything beyond that will go into moving costs, dealing with the cleaning of this current unit when we leave, etc.
Thank you for your consideration.
