The First of November

 

Today is November 1st, a day that really didn’t mean anything to me until I had my first tiny apartment in New Haven, Connecticut. It didn’t matter if you got bone-chillingly cold in October; it wasn’t until November 1st that landlords were obliged to turn the heat on. And in New Haven back in those days it did get cold in October. 

Too bad.

Something as simple as being warm enough in your own home is controlled by someone else when you have a home where heat and hot water are included as a part of the rent. Do you rent now, or do you recall renting under these circumstances? What a mixed bag it is. You may be fine or you may be miserable.

Articles about children who struggle in school talk (rightly) about food insecurity and housing insecurity. They talk about unsafe neighborhoods or chaotic home environments. There’s also a kind of long term debilitating exhaustion in living without adequate heat. It wears you down. You can’t get to sleep. Do homework? It’s hard to think. Your hands may be too stiff with cold to hold a pencil.

I don’t have any particular local connection to this today except to ask people to think about how our society seems to be fine with divisions that leave some with fewer choices. Yes, I’ve written about this before. It came to mind again this morning when I woke up a bit on the chilly side. Not cold enough to turn on the heat. But, I have a choice these days.

Memories of being miserably cold die hard.

I’m also still hoping that the County Council does everything in their power to move the Roslyn Rise project forward so that the renters there have decent, comfortable homes. This is something that everyone wants. No one is less deserving of it than another. I understand that projects like this are complicated and will require creative collaboration. It’s not simple. I get that.

But it matters to me that our community welcomes and values all kinds of people. That includes renters, too. Their concerns aren’t less important than mine.