One week of not worrying about how one is going to live is still one week closer to death

 

In the Seattle Times the other day there is a story about the rental situation in the state, and how bad it is especially if you live in King County. Currently the minimum wage in the state of Washington is $14.49. While that seems like a “lot” compared to the federal minimum wage law, it isn’t near enough for a single person to afford a one-bedroom apartment in most parts of the state. If the standard for affordable rent is 30 percent of one’s income (and that is not “disposable” income), then in King County if one was working at the minimum wage they would have to work 92 hours a week (or more than double the minimum wage) to afford an apartment, and apparently some landlords actually require proof that your income falls under the 30 percent guideline.

I sure remember the “good old days” when you could rent a roach-infested closet with a shared bathroom for anywhere from $250 to $350 in Capitol Hill. When I first moved to Seattle in 1992 it was easy to find places like that when the minimum wage was $5-an-hour. I once lived in this apartment building behind the “old” Convention Center…

 

 

…or rather I once lived here, before an investment company bought the place and priced everyone out in a few months, demolished the building and the one next door, and the space is now is occupied by the residential parking garage of this swank new condo:

 

 

So much for "affordable" housing. In a 2013 issue of Seattle Magazine  Charles Fischer wrote

The Pike/Pine corridor is merely going through the same metamorphosis that has occurred in many Seattle neighborhoods, that transformation from a funky, DIY community of students, artists and bohemians to an overpriced playground for the upper-middle class. The loss of places like Spine and Crown, Wall of Sound and Bauhaus Books & Coffee is the price we pay for our Miller Hull condos and $16 emmer and lentil salads.   

There are still a few rental units in Seattle under a $1,000 I suppose; the question is whether you don’t mind the lack of parking or the lack of privacy or being near people who think you like “sharing” their party time at any hour, or you don’t mind having your wall vibrating from the bass from someone’s stereo system playing “music” you hate.

Of course you could look for more “open” country, say in Kent. Unfortunately, you won’t find studio apartments for under $1300. After at least three years of off-and-on construction, Madison Plaza is due to take leases in September; it is not exactly located in a “prime” spot off Meeker Street, and is kind of easy to miss unless you are walking past it on the Interurban Trail.  Starting rent for a studio apartment is $1500 which is in line with the other newly constructed residential apartment buildings built in the “core” area in the last five years.

The only minimum wage-friendly alternative currently is a space for rent is a home that someone is apparently looking for someone else to share the mortgage payment with, and $800 a month is the help the person needs. A photograph of the space for rent indicates that its only furnishment is a chair. The renter has this stipulation (or rather stipulations) for a would-be renter:

We are looking for introverted, polite, quiet and respectful people to live in this house since it is a shared space. NO PETS OR COUPLES ARE ALLOWED. There are 2 bathrooms, a washer/dryer, shared kitchen and shared living room. Must be able to clean after yourself and be mindful of others in the house.

Basically, they want someone to just sleep there. But what else is new. In a lot of ways the world hasn’t changed much in the past century—cars are still road bound instead of flying through the air, people still talk the same, and everything that was a problem in the “good old days,” like gun violence, pollution, crime, and corruption, are still problems today. Some things that have changed  is that now we have gadgets that don’t require people even being in the same state to actually “see” each other, and for most consumer items people don’t even have to leave their home anymore to purchase.

Of course, despite the disappearance of downtown movie theaters, “adult” oriented businesses, record, video and book stores beginning around 2000, it didn’t mean the world was coming to end. It just meant that things have become a bit more boring and pointless beyond the simple act of living. Yet a month before the COVID lockdown, the Seattle Times was giving us a rosy picture that claimed that despite homelessness, crime and lack of free parking,

Downtown boosters like the Downtown Seattle Association point to the area’s strong brick-and-mortar retail sales ($2 billion in 2019, up from $1.6 billion in 2018) and low vacancy rates — just 1.6% at the end of 2019. And they’re optimistic about the future, with the city’s growing army of affluent tech workers, 88,000 downtown residents and a massive tourist trade: Pike Place Market alone draws 15 million visitors a year.

Yet just nine months later the Times was telling us

At least 140 street-level businesses have permanently closed in downtown Seattle since the start of the pandemic in mid-March.

Maybe not so rosy beneath the surface. With all this worrying about where to live, how to live, what to do. I suddenly realize that summer is almost over and it’s all gone to waste. For me, time going by is a double-edged sword: at least I know I’ll have one more week’s worth of pay, but then again I’m at the age where I also know I’m a week closer to the end.