Doesn’t he sound super excited about renting out this room in his home? You couldn’t strip the glee out of his voice if you tried. I mean, who wouldn’t want to open up the house they worked hard to get to a complete and total stranger as a last resort to keep it?
There’s not many eloquent ways to put it: Being 40+ and needing a roommate sucks. Actually, needing one in your mid 20s doesn’t sound all that great either.
Yet if you’ve been out of work for several months (if not more) and want to keep your home you have to do what you have to do.
Still, it’s gotta suck – more than the subject matter of Karrine Steffans’ first book.
That unfortunately is the predicament many now find themselves in. After spending countless years earning their privacy through hard work, more and more adults find themselves turning their homes into dorm rooms.
Mark Obrinsky, chief economist at the National Multi Housing Council in Washington, D.C., told the Boston Globe: “When employment is falling, people start doubling up.’’
Or tripling, quadrupling, or following the Seven Dwarfs guide to real estate. And with home ownership and apartment occupancy rates taking such stiff hits nationwide since 2007, the rep for the trade group for the apartment industry says those figures indicate that more people are living with family, friends, and in some cases strangers.
It’s not just older Americans either. In cities like New York and Los Angeles making enough money to live alone is an achievement all its own. So even if you live in a box in a neighborhood more dangerous than the northern border of Pakistan in either city it doesn’t matter because it’s your box.
But, there are a number of young working professionals being slapped back to freshman year in college thanks to the economy.
On the bright side, you get to meet new people. Then again, you’re meeting people you never wanted to.
I give up: It still sucks.
Are you a homeowner who’s been forced to become a landlord? Are you fresh off of living on your own only to fall back to multiple roommates?
Please send your stories to therecessiondiaries@gmail.com.
Michael Arceneaux hails from Houston, lives in Harlem and praises Beyoncé’s name wherever he goes. Follow him on Twitter.