we're going to waste the days getting outpriced of our apartments
my rent went up this month & I almost moved back home. Reflecting on Spanish Love Songs' new record & the US housing crisis
Let’s take it back to March 12th.
I left my downtown office job at 4:45pm (to give me just enough edge to beat rush hour traffic) and drive over to Cafe Coco, a coffee shop with outdoor seating that fondly reminds me of the ones I used to spend hours at in Gainesville. But I didn’t know, as I waited for one of the three elevators to hit the 30th floor and ding open, it would be one of the last times I ever walked in or out. I’m sure, by now, my desk is covered in six months of dust (but to whoever has gone into the office to clean, thank you) and everything still sits in the same place. My gold frame with photos from my 2018 trip to Riot Fest sits directly in front of a black thrifted frame full of all of my first photo passes. Including the one that was the reason I ever came to Nashville in the first place, a free Car Seat Headrest show put on by Live On The Green on August 16, 2018. The right side, which splits my desk from the one next to it, is meticulously covered in postcards and artwork from friends that I would look at whenever I missed them.
The last time that I did see a big group of my friends, both new ones and old ones, from here and far away, was on February 27 of this year. The Wonder Years with Spanish Love Songs, Free Throw and my always inspiring friends, Pool Kids. I remember my friend Kat texting me about the tour the second it got announced and us immediately planning for her to come up and see the show with me (just an eight hour drive, right?). I still think about that show a lot. Kat, Jesse and I all doing the clapping part to Borderline in sync, me dropping off my camera to them after The Wonder Years so I could get in the crowd & crowd surfing after seeing my friend Stephanie do so. Getting knocked down immediately after the line “I drew a line in the sand” during Pyramids Of Salt and thinking I may never get back up. I did, I was fine, just bruised. The next day was a Friday and I got to take Kat and Jesse to my favorite local spot, Southern V, and after work, edited photos while Kat caught up with our friend J over FaceTime.
I have not picked up my camera since. That was back when the pandemic was constantly talked about across the news stations on TV near my desk at work and I would read the headlines across various platforms. Back when it was something that was happening and not something that I thought could or would impact me, and so many of us, directly, every day.
After the pandemic was announced, my work said we were temporarily working from home which started a week of zoom meetings and rolling deadlines. By the second week, I talked to my mom about coming back down to Florida to visit since I was still working remote and her birthday was coming up. I packed a week’s worth of outfits in a duffle bag and put my laptop and some library books into my backpack. I got into town that Saturday and lost my job that Wednesday. My week-long stay turned into 5 months. Looking back now, I could’ve come back up to Nashville to grab clothing and whatever else but I was far too disinterested in any part of life to do so. Every day, every week, every month, felt like routine pain.
“We’re gonna waste the days getting outpriced of our apartments.
Hoping we don’t go homeless.
We sure as shit ain’t moving home.
Watching television we’re stealing from our parents.
So many opinions on how we live,
But there’s no option for even how to get out of bed.”
Spanish Love Songs newest record, Brave Faces Everyone, was released February 20th of this year and listening to it now, it feels like they knew what was coming before we did, or really, had the awareness of all the issues that are now being brought up due to the pandemic. Songs like “Losers” made me cry on that first drive down to my parent’s house when the pandemic started but now, its every single song.
Across the country, about one in seven tenants has no confidence in their ability to pay rent this month, according to data from the US Census Bureau. Some estimates suggest 19 to 23 million US renters may be at risk of eviction by September 30. - Johns Hopkins University
As the article states, housing is a long and complex issue due to a variety of reasons such as affordability, credit, and lenders. At the time of writing this (August 11), four executive orders were signed yesterday with an extension on eviction moratoriums not being one of them. 45’s Housing Order “instructs the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to “consider” whether temporarily banning residential evictions is “reasonably necessary” to prevent further spread of Covid-19.” Last night, it was also announced that the $600 unemployment aid from the CARES Act is being reduced to $400 a week with states being required to pay 25% percent of that but many states don’t even have enough funding to make that happen.
“All the jobs created since the (2008) recession got wiped out in six weeks.”
As explained in this episode of Patriot Act, we’re stuck in a game of economic dominos where one issue constantly falls on the other with no way of stopping it until everything falls over. I’ll save my words here, just watch the video and come back to this.
I don’t know what the future looks like. I’m sure I could find answers in previous cycles and maybe I’ll make a follow up on this piece. I do know that I’ve been throwing myself into a lot of projects lately to keep myself busy both creatively and from everlasting thoughts of loneliness but it’s also the first time in almost six months that I’ve felt any type of lasting positivity through the bleakness. If I stopped now, it would feel like giving up somehow.
I am a Big Music Fan and excessive playlister. If you want to throw any funds my way, they’ll be donated to the Nashville Free Store (open every Saturday from 12pm-6pm CT) & Nashville Community Fridge (always open & regularly stocked) located at Drkmttr (the city’s only all-ages venue) here in, you guessed it, Nashville.