Did your landlord reduce your rent?
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I got an email survey question yesterday.
“Did your landlord reduce your rent?”
Somehow, I can’t get this question out of my head. It just keeps grabbing my attention at every opportunity. What a question!
The answer is “NO!”
No landlord has lowered anyone’s rent in this area. Rents are going up, up, and up. In fact, rents are disappearing.
My landlord is evicting my neighbors. They live in one half of the duplex next door. The other side is air bnb…or maybe vrbo…or any one of several other vacation rental apps so popular on everyone’s computer and phone.
Until last year, both sides of the duplex were vacation rentals. Then, the town supervisor cracked down on them so the landlady made one side a monthly rental.
Immediately, a lovely young couple moved in. They are the perfect tenants. No noise, no clutter, no smells, no noisy children. Their footprint is the smallest they can manage.
Well, small footprint or no footprint, their days are numbered.
I see them packing up their possessions and driving them away – a few cartons every day. The boxes are going to a storage unit until they can find a new place to live. So far, they’ve had no luck.
They want to stay in Woodstock because this is their home town. Growing up, Gaby skated and bicycled on every street in this town.
Well, there are no places to rent in this town. Woodstock is a vacation rental town all the way.
This lovely young couple seeks shelter in other communities: Palenville, Catskill, Athens.
Meanwhile, the landlord eagerly advertises both units as vacation rentals. The young couple must go. His list of eager vacationer applicants is long. He’s sorry the young couple has no home.
But, life must continue.
Thank you for reading this article.
Please refer it to your preferred social media network.
Thurman Greco
Woodstock, New York
I Don’t Hang Out in Churches Anymore
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This is the story of hunger in America as only the hungry can tell it.
It began as an outreach activity at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in Woodstock, New York. My job was to pass the pantry key from one congregation to the next each month. Total monthly time commitment: two hours. By the time I moved on to another food pantry eight years later, it had become a calling.
From the very first day, I felt compelled to write down things people said to me in the pantry. Trouble is, I’m not a writer and never have been.
So, the prayers manifested themselves. It was all I could do to just keep up with the words.
Obviously, I needed supervision, guidance, mentoring. As I lived this story and began to write it under the direction of Lillie Dale Cox Thurman and Uralee Thurman Lawrence, the story and the people strengthened me. I found that I wanted things for these people. Mostly, what I wanted for these hungry people was the same thing they wanted. What I wanted, (and what they wanted) really, wasn’t much:
I wanted the hungry to sleep with full stomachs at night.
I wanted them to wake up in a dry space in the morning.
I wanted them to have healthcare.
And I wanted them to have jobs which paid the rent, bought food, and covered their transportation needs.
I wanted them to be a part of the community where they lived.
Finally, I wanted their children to be well educated.
My hope is that you will see this book as a glimpse of what I see…a collection of prayers offered as prize crystals or gems to be shared with the universe.
This book is being edited now. I hope to have it finished by the end of the year!
Please send kind thoughts and support on this project!
Cover art by Michele Garner. Thank you Michele. This cover is perfect!
Thank you for reading this blog post.
Please share this article with you preferred social media network.
Thanks,
Thurman Greco
Woodstock, NY
“A Healer’s Handbook” by Thurman Greco is now available on Amazon or at http://www.thurmangreco.com
Another Year Has Begun Again
Another year has begun again. (And, far too quickly, too.)
As I begin another year fighting hunger, God, my time with the pantry is in your hands.
Give me patience again, O God. And let me remember that it’s my job to offer the best, most delicious, nutritious food I can find for the hungry.
It is not my job to end hunger. Let me remember, God, that you have your own timetable.
As a year begins give me wisdom and grace to serve the hungry with respect and honor…which they deserve. Give me energy and strength to trust that those who have enough will continue to give so we will have the money to continue to feed the hungry as long as we need to.
Donations to the food bank have worked beautifully up to now, God. Give me the strength to trust the system to work in the new year too. Let me trust in the miracles of this system.
And, God, thank you for giving me comfort when I grow discouraged. Forgive me for not being stronger.
Thank you for giving the money, volunteers, and resources the pantry needs to continue to feed the ever increasing number of people whose paychecks are not going up but their gasoline, rent, and food costs are rising.
Thank you for the miracles you give us daily.
I say these things in your name and with gratitude from the bottom of my heart, O God.
Amen
Thank you for reading this blog post!
Please refer this prayer to your favorite social media network.
This prayer is one of a series of entries I’m writing to go in a memoir about hunger. It will be entitled “I Don’t Hang Out In Churches Anymore – the story of hunger as told through prayer”.
Thurman Greco
