From the Streets of Salem ; Not Everyone Enjoys the Comforts of Home

Salem, Mass. —

In my previous column we had chatted together about a place to call home, but what if home consists of a slumlord that is either absent or just does not care what conditions you and your family live in?


Well, let me begin by telling you a few things about of my experiences. My family has been the “gypsies” of Salem and has lived in so many different apartments and has dealt with everything from cockroaches’ infestation to mice taking over our living quarters. I have had cockroaches multiplying so fast that my home became theirs.


Remember that scene from Erin Brockovich when she opened a box to give her child something to eat, only to find cockroaches inside the package? One way I was eating a snack and as I went to eat the last few bites, a roach was perched in my hand nibbling on my snack. We once had a mouse utilize the crib of my youngest grandson as a toilet and even mice just using the home as their playground.
Back then I was so worried about losing the roof over our heads that I was willing to comply with the landlord’s promises — or non-promises — to rectify the situation.

Eventually my compliance turned to “why bother” when it came to paying the rent. I started to hold onto it until things were repaired or cleaned up, but it was to no avail. Of course in the end the landlord received his court-ordered judgment or my family not being aware of our rights would vacate the premises quietly.

Quietly, that is how the peasants were when it came to the lordship as far back as the Roman Empire and throughout the medieval times when feudalism was rampant in that society. Peasants accepted whatever conditions they had to endure while they worked the land since they needed the lord for protection and for existence. Loyalty under any condition was mandatory for the common folks in order to survive for themselves and their families since the aristocrats such as the kings, lords and even the church maintained control over the lower class.

There are still some slumlords who believe as owners of property or properties they can maximize profit by spending less money on the maintenance of the property that they own.

The phrase “slumlord” actually dates back to 1892 when George Bernard Shaw wrote a play called “Widowers’ Houses” in which he criticizes landlords who are in fact slum landlords. Though the term is derogatory, it was a fact of life for tenants who had no rights or legal protections until the early 1900s when laws were enacted in America to protect tenants with rent control and eviction rights.

Unfortunately there are too many people who are not aware of having rights, or are desperate for a place to live. Some cannot pass background checks because of past issues; other people can’t pay rent because lost their job, and others just cannot afford to pay higher rent in order to live in good conditions.

Absent landlords, or what I consider slum landlords, do not just charge minimal rent anymore. With today’s tough economy and joblessness among the once middle class, some landlords are charging high rents still because of the severe housing shortage. Hence the most recent location I resided at had ants, mice and barely any maintenance.

Now, I have experienced landlords that certainly care for their property and that try to keep the property from disrepair or infestations, but I find recently in the low-income neighborhoods there are truly more and more landlords that do not care appearing on the horizon. There are even the rooming house landlords that label their tenants because they are either renting a room because of being in transition for whatever personal reason or these rooming house owners believe their occupants are ignorant to the law.

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