Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.
In the last three episodes, I told about hosting an immigrant family. They were denied boarding at the Amsterdam airport, but purchased expensive new tickets before their visas expired. I hosted them in an Edmonton Airbnb, and helped them get social insurance numbers, ID’s, and health cards.
Next step: find a budget one-bedroom apartment for a family of three.
The first two apartments we viewed were brand new basement suites in the university area, reasonably priced at less than $1000/month. Small but suitable, the family said, so we filled in application forms and waited for news.
Our applications were rejected. I said to the father, “I think what the landlord wants are quiet graduate students who practically live at the university. They don’t want a busy family of three crowded into their suite.” Hmmm.
We expanded our search, looking next at a basement near Concordia University. It had a nicely finished kitchen, a less-finished living room, and a bedroom under the stairs with a clothesline for a closet.
The landlord told us she didn’t take students because she didn’t want parties on her premises. But a quiet family of three might work! And she would share her internet and Netflix at no cost. The next day, when we texted to see the place again, she said, “I’m sorry. But I’ve decided the suite is not suitable for a family of three. Good luck.”
Darn. We should have taken it when we saw it.
The next day we drove 40 kilometers across the city and queued up in the drizzling rain behind other renters to see another option..
When our turn came, we saw a lovely, renovated basement suite–open, airy, light. Perfect. But the reasonable $1100/month rent became unaffordable when they told us to expect an additional $350/month for utilities.
Onward to the next viewing. An older apartment building near downtown–good location, close to transit and shopping. The apartment manager took us down a long dirty-looking, pungent-smelling hallway. What did the renters do in these hallways?
The apartment was not well maintained, but ok. The overall effect was, No thank you.
Welcome to apartment hunting in Edmonton.
Next day we tried Boardwalk, a big rental corporation with highrises across Canada.
We sorted their listings by lowest price, which led us to a 1960’s apartment tower downtown . When we arrived for the viewing, a homeless person was prospecting in the garbage bin behind the apartment. The community mailbox in the front lobby had crowbar marks. Someone probably forgot their mailbox key. The window to the manager’s office was a fresh sheet of plywood.
The apartment for rent was old, but in good repair. Boardwalk offered immigrants a deal: half-price damage deposit, and advance payment of just one month’s rent instead of the usual two.
The manager told us that one of yesterday’s viewers promised to bring a deposit tomorrow. And she had more viewings later today. The apartment would go quickly.
We had seen and heard enough. We sat in her office under her plywood window and paid the deposit. Mission accomplished. Apartment found.
Let’s pray.
Our father, Jesus said, “Don’t worry about what you will eat or drink or wear. Seek God’s kingdom and he will look out for you” (Mat 6:31, 33). But you don’t supply our needs by magic. So we hunt for shelter and buy clothes and go to the food bank when we’re hungry.
We depend on you, and we depend on our society. On builders to build housing and landlords to rent it; on farmers to grow food and corporations to sell it.
O Lord, help us to give to you what belongs to you–our love and worship and honor. And help us find money for rent and food and taxes in this good world you have made for us.
Amen.
I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.
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