Sacto: My Residence

How I found it    


When I arrived from El Paso, Texas on April 17, I was really tired.  The only thing I could do was to check in a Motel 6, the cheapest one I could find.  I stayed there until I was lucky enough to find the place I'm living in north Sacramento.


I thought I would stay at the motel for a few days, try to find a  place and prepare to go homeless in a shelter.  The City of Sacramento has a Downtown Association that sends young emissaries around the downtown area, looking for the homeless who might be candidates for permanent housing--meaning they have money enough to pay rent plus deposit for available city housing.  I found such an individual with the help of the Public Library staff, particularly the guard staff, stationed on the first floor.  What a find the person the Downtown Association calls a navigator turned out to be.  And within days I was able to move in where I still am.


Meantime, I found out that to get a bed at a shelter in town, e.g., at the Mission, I needed to have a TB card, which says I passed the TB skin test.  I got that within 6 days of being in Sacto at the Loaves and Fishes complex off B street. So, if worse comes to worse I can check-in at a shelter, I think.






It's Amenities


The owner showed me what has become "my room" in the house's first floor apartment.  It's virtually the same kind of room that I left in El Paso, only in El Paso it was an SRO (single room only) situation.  Here, I share the living room and bathroom with my 2 roommates--a married couple.  I've got a microwave and mini-refrigerator in the room, a bed, an open closet.  I was told there'd be an air  conditioner coming soon.  There's an awkward wire from the living room through the ceiling to an outlet that goes outside for their TV cable.  I assumed the TV in the apartment was also for us all to use but learned it was their own TV only after I had already moved in.  We share a vacuum cleaner.


The landlord provided sheets a swivel chair and got the overhead light-fan fixture working.  What no one told me was how to open the windows; and since I was told they'd be putting in an air conditioner, I assumed the windows wouldn't open.  Well, that led to an incident with my roommates who accused me of "stinking up the room" and consequently, sending odors into the living room, too. It was not until the manager who smelled that the room's odor as like a gym locker room that I knew what to do.  (I couldn't smell it.)  Anyway, he was able to get the windows open and the problem disappeared, so far as I am concerned.


I bought an AM-FM radio from Wal-Mart.






Incidents and Interactions with my roommates, and the apartment staff


SRO is definitely preferable to roommate living!  It just doesn't present so many opportunities for incidents, causing stress and friction.  But beggars can't be choosey!  And, I need a place to live that I can afford.


There was the smell incident, settled once the manager showed that the windows do open


And, yesterday there was the radio plugged in the hall socket, which I didn't see because that part of the hall is dark.  I tripped over the radio's cord!  Luckily, I didn't damage the very old boom box much but I had to pay for an attachment to it, $10.  The wife said the radio was ok.


Well, I won't go into the particulars of the confrontation she insisted on at 10 o'clock, suffice it to say that I told her to see the manager, if she wanted remedy from my being there as their roommate!  You know how these things go.


C'est la vie!


In any event, I'm glad the landlord pointed out where the Senior Center is as we drove to the apartment, since it was the main reason I agreed to take it.