It’s a very, very thin line. 

With the cost of living it’s gonna hit the fan for a lot of people very soon. Which is very upsetting.

Don’t get me wrong, the people deemed most undesirable are gonna be most affected. But if I’m not being mistaken, it’s gonna affect people higher up the food chain than people think. And it’s gonna be very scary. And there’s a very thin line from having fuck all to being comfortable. 

Even though I’ve now been positioned and housed, it’s still a very thin line. And that could come down to the way the tenancy agreement runs, and the power of the tenancy. If the landlord wanted to kick me out, two months later I’m back on the street. And two months goes like that [click your fingers].

I’m still on a thin wire.

I still do feel homeless. One thing I do regret, I do miss having my own property and it’s something that I will get again. I will be buying again soon. The education is priceless, I personally do feel that I know what I need money-wise to get a property again. I know what I’d need to do. Maybe I couldn’t get in my name again, but there’d still be ways around it. It’s just knowing the system again. 

So I would like to own my property. I’ve always wanted to own my house, you know like a family home and that. So that will be happening in the near future. I have belief in myself. Hopefully positive things will come. 

The house I live in now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve spent a lot of money on it. I’ve probably spent 600 pounds alone on paint, just painting the whole place ‘cause it was a shithole. So you find yourself spending money.

My rent’s now been increased by 50 pound a month to 475 a month. To me, that’s dead money. If it was a property that I own, putting that in, it’s more of an investment. Me and my friend, we’re paying close to a grand a month. That gentleman’s making shit loads of profit. And I’m not envious of that man making money ‘cause that is his business. But if he’s making a grand a month for us living there, he can come in at least make sure the back door’s got a decent lock on it so no one can walk in, which is something that’s already happened. 

This is is at a time when I think it’s getting harder to live anyway. Fortunately, part of my rent is getting paid by housing benefits. But I’ve taken up employment, so it will coming out of my personal money. I’ve got the paperwork here and I think I should challenge the cost of it personally by just making a phone call. But I don’t think my landlord’s gonna say anything. I think he’s gonna think it’s quite humorous me asking him to not charge me extra. But there are certain legal routes you can take. 

It’s gonna affect everything. Food inclusion. I’m not gonna be able to go and have a social life. I’m not gonna be able to travel as much. I’m not gonna be able to vacate as much. I’m not gonna be able to do anything that’s deemed as a luxury. But again, the government states that eating food or having hot water is deemed as a luxury, when these things are more of a necessity. They should be given as a right. Energy should be free. Certain things should be free. We are energy – we transfer it.

It’s upsetting when you look into things. My food allowance, my travel, my social allowance, my  security, my holidays, my clothing – it’s all gonna change. This is all down to the cost of living.

And my housing, there is certain days – I’ve forgotten the exact dates – but because of when I get paid, we have about three days where we have no electric on in the house. ‘Cause we can’t afford it. We have to wait.

So that’s three days where there’s no electric, it’s pitch black. 

For those days, we’ll I’m out until… some days I don’t even stay in the house. And then it’s candles and lights. Go upstairs, get in bed, take my clothes off and wait until light. Get up, out again, come back. I mean three days, it doesn’t seem bad that – from where I come from that’s a minor that – it’s nothing. But I feel like those days will increase. 

If I put twenty quid into my meter, it lasts three to four days max. And that’s shocking, for a person with little to no income. 

Last month on my housing benefit – because I was previously working and the way that the DWP works their system, which is terrible – I ended up only receiving £22 for the whole month. £22! And I wasn’t working. It’s because I stopped working from the 6th of August, but the way they work their calendar month I still fell into the bracket of them deducting money from my account as if I had earned £415 that month. But I’d earned nothing. I got £22 for a month. I don’t know what they expect me to do with it. It brought me a bus pass. Terrible.

What’s upsetting is I’ve noticed the small independent businesses around where I work – the lady in the bakery is a friend of mine – they’ve all had to raise prices on little things. Like the cost of butter’s gone up in the bakery, the cost of bread, and she’s had to put all her prices up on everything. And it’s something that we have to accept, yet it’s got a massive effect on not only herself but ourselves. And it’s not her fault, it’s the way that she’s being outpaced by external sources. It’s a downward chain, it falls down.

The people that are less fortunate tend to suffer the most, and they’re the last to hear about it.