Renters

 

It occurred to me last night that I am not really a homeowner. Oh yes, my name is on the deed but, let’s be honest. I’m only a homeowner by marriage. Never in a million years would someone like me have been able to afford a home on my own. I would have been renting apartments until the day I died.

There’s a never-ending stream of discourse in Columbia/HoCo that strongly opposes renters. “We don’t need more apartments!” “Renters aren’t invested in their communities!” One of the primary reasons that Kimco’s plan to redo the Hickory Ridge Village Center was rejected by residents was that it included apartments.

Friends, I need to be honest with you. At heart I am really a renter. I am a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I live among you, enjoy your local amenities and my child attended your schools. I vote in your elections. 

Who was I before this dubious life transformation? A early-childhood educator (you’d probably say “preschool teacher”) - - divorced. I carried from that marriage a mountain of debt and one child. I was never, ever, ever going to buy a house. I cared for young children, had a second job in a church choir, and still struggled to make ends meet. 

People who rent apartments are not by definition irresponsible or oblivious to their communities. Sometimes they are swamped by financial concerns and family responsibilities. Has that ever happened to you? Does that make you less worthy of living here?

As I drifted off to sleep last night I imagined what it would be like if we woke up one morning and absolutely no one who rented came to work. A Columbia/HoCo “Day Without a Renter,” as it were. 

What would that look like? Would you be able to buy gas, or food, or go out to dinner? Would your children be able to go to school, or childcare? I suspect it would be unlikely you’d be able to go to the gym, see a movie, or be treated at the hospital. Even in County Government or over at the Columbia Association they’d be hard pressed to keep their essential functions going. 

But, do go on about how renters are the wrong kind of people and how you think you ought to get a vote as to whether they live here. I don’t know what people see when they look at “those people” that makes them say there’s too many or they don’t belong. I know what I see. 

I see me. And my daughter. And I see all the potential we brought with us and all the things we have done since then - - not because we were “homeowners” but because we were who we were as human beings.

I married my way into home ownership. That was not at all why I got married, mind you. But one should not have to have benefited from such a serendipitous life change to be worthy of living here. I do feel very fortunate, in so many ways.

And I can walk down the street and no one can tell that I’m probably - - gasp! - -  really “a renter.”