Housing

There are three priorities on my list. The first is housing, next is mobility, and the last is food. The last is manageable as one can always show up at Filipino friends’ houses at din-din and partake of the ginamos, dilis, and pusit.

Mobility has no alternative in an island devoid of public transport; expenditure-wise, that’s top on the list. Happily, there are folks in the dealership where I signed a three-year lease on a car less than a year ago and my two months’ behind in rental is rolled over graciously until I am in a more stable condition. Soon.

It is the housing that is a bit problematic and after Soudelor, when it became clear that the office on Language Learning we established did not see the expected subscription we thought would come from China, Korea, and Japan, the two units we rented (for housing and office) became a sore point in our bottom arrears (pun intended).

I located near the community college thinking that we could faculty adjunct but a new WASC rule requires that my BA degree earned in ’65 be assessed, and the process requires that I formally asked my College in the Philippines to send a copy of my diploma to the assessors who are in Chicago.

Then I received the threat of an eviction if I did not settle my arrears by the end of February. I started following up previous contacts for alternative dwelling. I wrote earlier to the landlord higher-ups for a credit line (not forgiveness) of six months that was misunderstood so I am preparing to willingly be “evicted” off the unit.

I had the dwelling first on a year contract, occupied by a stepson and an “adopted” daughter. My petition for my son to migrate was approved but made after he already turned 21, so he has to line up like the rest of the other migrants, a possible seven-year wait. The scuba-diving daughter decided to invest in a business facility and moved out with my son when I mentioned that I was returning the unit.

I returned the unit to the landlord with arrears of three months’ rental, after deducting the deposit. I indicated to the landlord office staff how I would handle the remaining balance, making sure they understood “how,” in spite of the prevailing financial and seemingly insurmountable contradiction.

I set up the other unit as an office where I remain bunked, now in arrears of four months. Concerned colleagues informed me that I probably should seek housing assistance; I qualify as a “homeless” person.

A Carolinian friend, while in Hawaii, experienced a similar contradiction and relates how he survived sleeping in his car. Understanding my situation, he reserved a spot for my car under his pine trees by the beach in case I wish to park the night away while the housing unit I applied for nearby that has me on a waiting list, gets to my number. It does not look like I will be a homeless person panhandling in a public place anytime soon, but I surely do not condemn and can sympathize with those who have to.

There is no quarrel with my current landlord. They are doing their job, and I am in an embarrassing state of arrears, rather unexpected for a former schoolteacher at PSS, a professional clergy, a writer, among other credentials to my credit. On the other hand, the landlord has a business to run with procedures to follow, not to mention the mukha, chemyeon, and mienzi (social face) requiring the housing executive to look like he was doing his job, an ethos prevailing in the stratified social structures of offices where performance of duties in the eyes of peers need to look efficient; looking good is not easily dismissible.

Meanwhile, we need a roof over our head. Most units available are expensive short-term rentals, or the affordable ones over-subscribed. I am now cleaning out the folding back seat of my car in case I have to roll and nightly spread a bag on the side. The good thing though is that the tropics welcome beachcombers, and as long as I can maintain my car lease, I shall be OK.

I can dream of being a Pirate in the Caribbean without sails, or, a homeless bum in CK, but we do have marketable skills, and SVES as well as WSR need teachers. I was a substitute once, and already, I expect to be in the Title I program next contract year to afford new rubber shoes on my feet and milk on my table.

Housing for myself is obviously a contradiction. Seeing real estate used by the indigene population, public land might be at a premium but it is still only available to those with the right kind of DNA. I do not have the necessary chromosomes but I am no longer on the career path, so, beyond rent and lease is not my goal.

I really do not think my landlord is serious about “eviction,” or, at least, I happen to think that the legal office used a standard form to threaten delinquent accounts, and I am certainly delinquent on that score. So I volunteer to move by the end of the month.

Why am I bothering with this account? My next-door neighbor’s dwelling is swelling with many displaced tenants. I just joined the League.