[compufixer]

(Disregard my username... I have been out of the computer fixing biz for quite awhile now.)

I am at the end of my rope. I am a female breast cancer patient on disability who just wants a quiet, sane, PEACEFUL, 100% non-smoking place room to rent where I can read, think, be gently left alone and to heal from cancer. I can't believe this kind of living space is such a difficult thing to find in this town.

When I first moved to Vegas, I looked on Craigslist to get a room that I and my caretaker/life partner could afford (about $450 per month.) We didn't know at the time that the other roommate in the place was a convicted felon and the owner of the house turned out to be a gambling addict. We ended up with drunken death threats from the felon and had to call the cops on him to make him back off.

So to escape that, we turned back to Craigslist and found a room owned by a wonderful but clueless landlady who lived out of state and had some serious foreclosure-threat problems we weren't informed about. She had a friend living there who taking care of the house.

That friend let us move in - while at the same time renting another room to a convicted felon and his girlfriend. The landlady's friend - who WAS supposed to be reporting what was going on in the house, instead just hid in his room and let the crazy guy run rampant in the house instead. Parties, illegal drug use, you name it. He wasn't even paying rent most of the time.

There was this one time when this scary guy sat down next to me and dragged his finger across my throat while talking about what he could do to other people if he wanted to.

I was terrified of that guy. I finally realized that the landlady's "friend" was not going to deal with or report the reality of the situation to the house owner, so I finally took the initiative on my own to report the truth to the landlady. The landlady had no experience in how to do proper property management (not her fault). So it took her a long time to get her act together to get this guy evicted.

When the felon found out that I had reported him and started the eviction process, I and my other half felt extremely threatened, fled the place for the week it took for my landlady to get the felon out of there. I filed a restraining order against him as a way to protect both us and our landlady's house. (I later found out he ended up in jail for assaulting his girlfriend.)

That place ended up relatively peaceful for a short while after that. We proudly took very good care of that house. That landlady loved how I and my other half cared about and protected her house when she couldn't be there to take care if it herself, so she wrote a wonderful letter of recommendation about us as tenants which we still have. Then she was forced to lose the house in a short sale and we lost our place to live again.

On to our next adventure in room-renting. Turned out that this next landlady seemed to be pretty sane at first - for maybe the first 8 weeks and then turned out to be ANOTHER drug user. More and more, she just kept trying to bait us into conflict situations, trying to insult and bait us into screaming back at her in verbal fights. It's like she NEEDED to find someone to be in conflict with for some reason I still can't understand. Her way of explaining the house rules was to not explain there was a house rule in the first place about something, then explode when we broke the rule she believed we "should just know".

I and my guy believe in collaborative communication, peacefully finding positive solutions to household issues by communicating with respect about what's needed to be done. We kept telling her calmly: "Just tell us what you want and we'll do it if we can. There's no need to scream at us, Just tell us factually what you want done and we'll do it." That concept honestly seemed to boggle this particular landlady.

During our tenancy, we watched as this housemate/landlord got thinner and thinner and sicker and sicker as the bottles of liquor, cigarettes and evidence of drugs piled up on the property. We didn't have the money to move and escape the place. Then the emotional and verbal violence escalated to the point where she started breaking some serious landlord/tenant laws of which we have well-documented evidence, but unfortunately ended up meaning we had to flee the house. We didn't have the physical or emotional resources to follow up legally on the evidence, too exhausted (I'm skipping a very long story here) we just needed to find shelter.

A caring friend then took us in to their spare room as an act of compassion and let us rent their spare room instead of letting us go homeless. She sure seemed OK... then turns out she and her husband had nightly screaming sessions so loud you could hear it from the parking lot. Turns out the husband does not like having extra people in the house but wasn't initially honest with the wife about it, so guess who is getting caught in the middle now?

So now we're back in the same situation... having to move AGAIN to... where? The house of another hostile drug addict? Another home caught in a foreclosure fight where we could again lose our place to live? Another place with scary felons as fellow housemates? Screaming arguing married couple fighting into the night so bad we have to flee the house instead of being able to sleep? WHAT THE HELL?

Good lord... we need a PEACEFUL shared house to live in for a change. :-(

If I had my dream place to live in Vegas, it would be with a compassionate, non-combative, 100% non-smoking, emotionally-balanced, compassionate, respectful housemate who believes in calm communication and working things out peacefully. They would have no foreclosure problems, would be forthright and clear about their house rules from the get-go and would be happy to discuss creative ideas and plans with us about how we could help them take care of the place. We would get to happily work with them to make it happen, keep things fixed and keep things clean with no problems.

If I had my dream place to live in Vegas, the space would include my own peaceful little workspace where I could do my creative work to bring in more money so I eventually could pay more rent. Same for my other half, who has his own work he wants to start accomplishing already. With that kind of environment, we could someday be able to afford our own place for a change.

We are both accomplished techies. We are both creative, smart and resourceful people. We just need a peaceful, non-smoking, non-drama place to live and to be able to accomplish what we have been needing to accomplish all this time to better our lives, but never had the chance or the time to make this happen between all this drama.

If I had my dream place to live in Vegas, I and my other half would be renting a room in a house where I could just listen to NPR, and be able to finally have the hope, space and peace to try to heal from my cancer and do my creative work.

I am losing hope... how does one even FIND a sane, peaceful housemate/roommate like that in this town? Do they even exist? :-/

Thanks for listening... at least I can feel a little better now.

[aardogfsu]

If you are in North Vegas or east of the strip...that could answer a lot of questions.

[ScoopLV]

Right, because everyone in the west and south valley would make idyllic roommates.

I would never get into a roommate situation in this town. I'd be afraid of said roomie slashing my throat with one of my kitchen knives and selling my record collection to buy drugs and hookers.

[NLVgal]

Originally Posted by aardogfsu

If you are in North Vegas or east of the strip...that could answer a lot of questions.

Yeah, we're all lunatics here in NLV. Those nutters on the east side are even worse. (Looking at you Scoop)

OP, on a serious note, maybe you should contact these people for some help How to Apply (SNRHA) - Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority

Best to avoid the room mate route if you can. I hope you have great success in your healthcare battle. Godspeed.

[WannaliveinGreenville]

Renting rooms can be a nightmare. Can your other half afford to get you both your own apartment?

[compufixer]

"OP, on a serious note, maybe you should contact these people for some help How to Apply (SNRHA) - Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority "

On the website, it says:The estimated wait list time for Public Housing is 12 to 18 months. The estimated wait list time for Housing Choice Vouchers, formerly called Section 8 is approximately 12 to 36 months. We need to move as close to January 1 as much as we can.

"Best to avoid the room mate route if you can. I hope you have great success in your healthcare battle. Godspeed."

Recovering from cancer means you need a peaceful place before anything else. :-/

I don't know how to find a peaceful place for $450 with no deposit... it drives me crazy because I KNOW that if we could finally have the peaceful, large-bedroom space to quietly do the online tech projects we can accomplish, we could eventually afford to pay more - and then GET the roommate-free place of our own we need.

Thanks for listening. At least I can feel better somewhat.

[compufixer]

Originally Posted by WannaliveinGreenville

Renting rooms can be a nightmare. Can your other half afford to get you both your own apartment?

Not at this point... he has his own health challenges combined with the work of helping me get to my oncology appointments. With a peaceful, SANE place to start, we know how we can work on our own smart ideas and build enough income to get our own roommate-free place.

We just need that one peaceful, non-smoking, drama-free place that we can feel safe enough to be able to THINK, strategize and be able to build up our lives from there.

[NLVgal]

Originally Posted by compufixer

"OP, on a serious note, maybe you should contact these people for some help How to Apply (SNRHA) - Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority "

On the website, it says:The estimated wait list time for Public Housing is 12 to 18 months. The estimated wait list time for Housing Choice Vouchers, formerly called Section 8 is approximately 12 to 36 months. We need to move as close to January 1 as much as we can.

"Best to avoid the room mate route if you can. I hope you have great success in your healthcare battle. Godspeed."

Recovering from cancer means you need a peaceful place before anything else. :-/

I don't know how to find a peaceful place for $450 with no deposit... it drives me crazy because I KNOW that if we could finally have the peaceful, large-bedroom space to quietly do the online tech projects we can accomplish, we could eventually afford to pay more - and then GET the roommate-free place of our own we need.

Thanks for listening. At least I can feel better somewhat.

I'd contact them anyway. I know if I was a clerk working there, a cancer patient might get a bump to the top of the list.

Try here too. They have emergency rent / utilities assistance programs.
Help of Southern Nevada

[observer53]

Is there any kind of cancer support group that might give you some leads to finding what you are looking for? Someone who's been where you are might have room in their home for you and your partner.

[compufixer]

Originally Posted by observer53

Is there any kind of cancer support group that might give you some leads to finding what you are looking for? Someone who's been where you are might have room in their home for you and your partner.

I have been trying to go that route... no leads yet.

This being able to just talk about the situation is helping me a lot... thank you, guys.