Housing Challenges (Seattle: apartment complexes, lease, condo)

[mother_wolf]

My husband and I are trying to find a home within the next 2 weeks, lest we end up homeless with our 18 month old. The challenges we face are as follows:

*He has multiple felonies from 6 years ago, though he has served his time (he requested to serve more than the minimum sentence) and is no longer on parole.
*We have a dog over 20lbs (black-lab mix who weighs 50lbs)
*We want to prepay a year's rent at signing, but my settlement check won't arrive until the first week of next month
*I have almost non-existant credit
*Neither of us have taxable jobs at the moment. I am a caretaker for my grandfather and my husband is working whatever cash paying jobs he can get right now.

We were looking to buy a mobile home, but for the same previously stated reasons, we are denied tenancy at all the mobile home parks we have researched that are not retirement or senior communities. I have been searching for privately owned complexes, though there are very few in the area we need to be in.

Having stated a bit of our history and the problem we are facing, my question is this:

Is there anyone who knows of apartment complexes/mobile home parks in or within 1/2 hour of Seattle that will at least meet us and be open to discussing lease regardless of the hangups listed? If so, any assistance would be appreciated.

Also, after reading several threads, I would like to add that any comments justifying the excuses that people come up with to discriminate against those who have made mistakes in their past (oh wait! that's EVERYONE!) are not appreciated. My husband made some mistakes, he served his time and then some, and now he wants to get his life on track for success. He is the father of a beautiful and brilliant little boy, and he is successful at most everything he applies himself to. Society, we all want to be forgiven for our wrongdoings, and we all want a chance to prove ourselves to be decent people. How do we prove anything if we aren't even given a fair chance?

[Malloric]

Maybe move in with your grand father for the time being? Felony record plus no verifiable income plus wanting to prepay with money you don't have in hand... quite a bit to over come. Maybe move into a motel until your check comes in? Depending on what felonies your husband has and how long he's been out you shouldn't have too much trouble after you have money in the bank. Typically, if land lords are going to take assets instead of income, they want to see 3x the rent for the time of the lease. So 36 months for a standard 12 month lease. If the felonies are violent, drug, or sex related you'll have a much tougher time.

You might haver better look searching craigslist or the Stranger and renting from an individual in either case.

[eskercurve]

I have to echo Malloric. One of the things that people look for is verifiable income. Many places will overlook a felony conviction if a certain number of years have passed and no conviction plus holding a steady job. They value stability. Depending on your situation, you may or may not meet that requirement, how long he's been out of jail/parole, etc.

One option you may have is renting space in a house or something else done privately over Craigslist. There's many private people who seek to rent out their space and there's multi family houses and property in the city. Once I was tempted to rent a floor in a house that had been renovated so that the floor was more like a condo, it's own bathrooms, kitchen, living room, and a common basement and entryway.

[exit82]

sorry you are in such a pickle-is there some type of "halfway house program" that can set you up somewhere?

Also- are you sure you want to pay a whole years rent? what if something comes up and you need/want to move -or don't like the place- or find a place you like better- why tie up all that money?

[Vinylly]

Good Luck !!! I think you will need a Seattle friend to sponsor you.

[mother_wolf]

Thank you to everyone for your input. As it stands, I have the cash available to purchase a place, and we are looking at one this evening that holds promise. If it doesn't work, we are probably going to have to get a storage unit and stay in a motel until we can find a cheap place out in the boonies Wish us luck!