On Finding a Home and Classism

Well, here goes, my very first post on my shiny new blog.
And the topic on my mind right now is, ultimately, the flaw (to be extremely gentle) of the society in which we live.
Housing is what has led me to this train of thought. At the moment my toddler (2) and I and our lovely friends are currently living in a beautiful home with a low rent (especially for the city in which we live). We have always known it was temporary. We will have been here for a year and two months when we move; the house was sold. Our current landlord quickly had a new place that seemed highly promising. After admiring the nearby dwelling many times while intentionally walking by it, we were all pretty excited about the potential of this future community space. We could do so much good in a home like this. Large, a yard, relatively quiet area yet accessible, and for the same price we currently pay. And so, we didn't bother to look for a new home as, though we had not yet been given the opportunity to look inside, we were all pretty sure this was the one.
This morning I called the landlord to arrange for us to see the place--at last the time had come. Yet it would never be. Apparently the men who had lived there had a cat, maybe a herd of them. He told me that to walk into the place was disgusting for the saturated stench of cat urine, a smell they thought before trying they could remove. He assured me that he would not want his child to live there, and surely I would not want mine to either. Disappointed, I agreed.
And now I am experiencing the jolt back into the world where rent is ridiculously jacked and inhumane. We had a good thing going with our rent, comparatively. Not only that, being in one place for this long has affected me. I have never lived in one place for more than a few months since leaving my home with my parents, even with a new baby I was constantly moving around. Now that I am comfortable to commit myself to one place, to feel confident that I am where I am supposed to be, to be determined to work through complications rather than running from them, now that I have achieved this, I must search for a new home because the one in which I live has been sold by an owner who has never lived a day in it, who rented it out to us the day after purchasing it.
This world is cold and paying for a place to sleep makes absolutely no sense.
I feel raped in the way that I feel raped nearly every time I am required to go to the Welfare office yet again for some other complication if I am to get my monthly check. Withholding ones means of survival, let alone comfort and dignity, is disgusting. That many of us have adapted to and become comfortable with such a reality is disturbing!
One aim in creating a community support network (more about that later) is to create free/rent=non-compulsory housing. My plan for this is to locate some of the many uninhabited houses and buildings and confront the "owner" with my idea--for this person to allow us to utilize the space (free of charge or perhaps payment of land taxes) for housing while improving it through fixing it up, growing food, and filling it with good energy--making it alive while supporting a crucial project and need of the people! This has been made as a longer-term goal, however today I have felt very compelled to make it happen by the end of the month. Now as the day has wound down and I feel the weight of the task more fully, I am unsure as to whether or not I should focus my energy on finding a home with a price-tag on it or seeking out a little old fashioned revolution. . .

And here I leave you. We're off to an anti-poverty rally tomorrow, where I may be speaking. We shall see.

Much love and thanks for reading!

Signing off,
~Radical Mama Me