Flat Hunting

I have suddenly got the bit between my teeth for flat hunting.  I can’t remember now the precise moment when I suddenly decided I would go all out but maybe it was triggered off the other week when Denis (the Librarian) told me he had put his name down on the Council list and was told he might only have to wait for about three months as he was quite high on the list of priorities due to the fact that he had no cooking facilities and had to share the bathroom and toilet!  So Gracie went around and sent off here and there ….without success so far I might add, and being an optimistic pessimist I am hoping - but won’t feel too suicidal when I am turned down.  I have one “Regret we are unable to help…..” – that was from the Barbican where I had applied for one of their cheapest bedsits, which was £975 per annum, plus 15% rates, plus Service charges – which I can’t remember but which were pretty high.  Anyway, they refused my application on the grounds that I am not earning enough …. So I took the letter down to the Office Manager and when I sent off my next application to another Housing Trust Co. he gave me a really nice reference to go with it. It probably won’t get me anywhere, but it was a nice gesture on his part I suppose.  So far I have tried the Barbican, the GLC for City Workers (they have a special housing list for single people who work in the City of London – the only snag is I am not classed as single unless I can prove I am divorced – so have to rush over to the Strand to get a Do-It-Yourself for Divorce, which will cost me £25 apparently and which the Citizens Advice Bureau have promised to help me fill up.  I next wrote to the Greenwich Borough of London Housing Dept., (haven’t had a reply yet though) and I have also written to another Housing Trust Company – a private charity one that only helps people in real need who don’t qualify for the Council Waiting List.  I have had a form from them, which has been duly filled in and signed, and as I mentioned earlier the Office Manager has given me a good reference – said I had always been of good character and was of the highest moral standard etc., (No, I DID NOT bribe him).  I also have an enquiry out for a flat over a Cleaners Shop in S.E.3 – so I will either end up with nothing and be stuck where I am ….or I will end up with two or three being offered at the same time, and whenever I have that kind of situation and have to make a decision …. I ALWAYS jump the wrong way!

Grace Russ - 20th Sep 1979