I’m sitting here and I’ve been trying to think of a way to write in a polite and (hopefully) entertaining manner. I’ve been trying to think of how I can express myself and avoid dipping into anger – at least, overtly – so I can get what I want to get across in a way that is a little more engaging than just spilling out a whole lot of rage and frustration. Alas, it appears that that is not the way today and so I should just go ahead with what I’m going to say and not worry so much about how it comes across.

For two months my partner and I have been trying to rent out a room in our house. We live in a pretty good location; not the best, but it is pretty good. The street is mostly quiet but it’s close to main roads and it’s easy enough to get public transport to get around. It’s a relaxed and safe area and the house, whilst also not the best, has a lot of space to it.

It wasn’t always, but now that things have calmed down a bit in the house, it’s a nice place to be. Easy to get to and from more popular areas and easy to to just be here and relax. That said, rent needs to be taken care of and no one has taken the room which isn’t exactly putting us in the best of financial positions.

Most of the reasons I’ve been getting back are that people don’t want to inspect as the place is inconvenient to get to, or that it’s not close enough to things. At the same time, I’ve regularly read and heard people discussing how hard it is to get a place at the moment; places that are often in areas of high demand.

If people don’t want to move in here as they find an additional ten minutes added to a commute to popular areas to be too much, I can’t do anything. I can’t control that and I can’t change their minds, try as I might, but it really pisses me off that people won’t consider this place due to that additional time, because that’s all it adds. This suburb isn’t popular. It’s not cool and it doesn’t have a bustling night life. It’s a quiet suburb.

It’s also close to a lot of shops and is far enough from things to feel like you’re away from the city whilst close enough to be able to easily reach it with little additional time.

I get that a lot of people out there don’t want to spend that extra time. I get that it is preferable to be closer to where things are perceived as happening. However, I don’t think you have the right to complain about having difficulty in getting a place if you’re rejecting rooms based on their adding a bit more time to your commute.

It makes me think about privilege and classism in Sydney as you get a lot of people who want to be among the multiculturalism of Sydney’s inner west, as well as among all the artistry of the popular areas, and yet draw an arbitrary line of what is and is not considered part of said area and refuse to venture out further than that. Generally it’s somewhere around Petersham and people won’t venture farther out west than that for reasons I do not know, but can only guess involve some sort of lack of belief in what lies beyond there as being multicultural, or artsy, or cool. Perhaps it is some sort of belief in anything beyond that being less safe. If so, it’s just more bullshit.

It’s as though people feel some sort of impassable obstacle at the idea of not being as close to everything as possible and that the inconvenience of spending a bit more time traveling is an affront to getting anything done. Maybe they feel that if they are in an area that isn’t as close to everything as possible, then they’ll think lesser of themselves, as though they dare mingle with people poorer than them. I don’t know if that is the case and there is probably a good argument to be made that I’m making some big leaps here, but that’s how it feels. If people don’t want to move to this area, then fine. They’re missing out on a good place that’s close enough and far enough for less rent than if they were in an area much closer to a train station, or where they want to spend their time. It is their loss at the end of the day.

However, at the same time it’s our loss too as we’re approaching a point where we can’t afford the rent here anymore. My work is drying up and I’m hunting for another job, but there are no bites. My partner’s contract wraps up soon and she needs to get more work coming up sooner rather than later. It’s not a great position to be in as, if we can’t afford the rent here by ourselves, then we don’t have much of a roof over our heads. It’s not exactly what I’d describe as being a fun position to be in.

Of course we could look for another place, but we don’t have the money to move. We could look for a room in another place, but we also don’t have the money for storage in case things don’t sell quickly enough. It’s frustrating and aggravating as, unless someone decides to accept the indignity of about ten extra minutes of commute, or our job situation changes, we’re not in a good position.

What really helps in a situation such as this is money. Both liking this rant and passing on well wishes does not help. If you’ve liked or followed this blog for any length of time, then please consider either buying my work or supporting on Patreon. Don’t just like this and forget.

Sorry for the rant. It’s a shitty situation to be in and unless things change within the next couple of weeks or we get more money coming in, it’s not looking good.