My mother called it white trash - and I hated the term, until now. You’re just a sh&t human, and you have every opportunity to change your ways, and do good.
Before getting defensive, please read this entire article - because I don’t endorse name calling, but something has to give.
Dear tenant, and furthermore the people abusing the generosity of good people, and our Centrelink system, you’re letting our society down.
I’m not proud to say it, but your family, including you, and your children, will be homeless for Christmas - because of you. Santa’s not visiting you this year, and that crushes me - your children deserve better.
You see, I didn’t judge your history - but when I allowed you into one of our homes, we have a rule, to help the people who need it, and more importantly, those who want help to improve their lives. I spoke with you daily, and your family, about your goals and dreams, and found your children jobs - to kiss Centrelink goodbye, but realised due to motherhood, you either had to work part-time, or capitalise on your talent, and enjoy your work and passion.
And that is exactly what we did. Over the weeks, I spoke to you daily, about your future, and the challenges we’ve overcome by other tenants not paying rent, and we are always fair, if they’re late, they just have to communicate it proactively, and we’ll understand, because everything is resolvable. Never burn your bridges, or bite the hand that feeds you.
You were getting excited for your future - the change in your attitude was amazing to see. And then those months later, your business was getting confirmations of its demand in a very niche market, and we were successfully surpassing $3000 per week projections, and a potential wait list, until my offsider alerted me - that you were $8000 behind in rent.
Wait…. What? I speak with you daily, and you tell me you’re on top of your rent.
My trust was broken. I got your children jobs with my clients, I built you a business to change your life, and you lied to me every day of every week - saying you were a good, honest person, and up to date on your rent.
We instilled our first stage of discipline - your business goes on hold now, until you come to us with a plan to repay it, and do exactly that. That was August. That now means clients are disrupted as well, and our efforts wasted.
You told us you definitely paid rent but refused to provide evidence, then saying you spent your extra money on your flashed up car thinking - and your kids tell us they trusted you with their Centrelink payments to pay rent, and you spent that as well - instead of paying for the roof over your head.
But here we are as landlords, and people who care - we see potential with you - so we allow you three months to pay it off via your proposed plan, and you confirmed on numerous occasions you’re on track to be paid by end of November, including last week - exciting times, your life is about to change!
The past is exactly that, the past.
Wait… We find out not only have you lied to us yet again, you’re now in excess of $9000 in arrears.
And yes, we take the blame, we like to trust people to do the right thing. The person responsible for our properties is no longer in that position due to this.
And here’s the thing - I don’t like Centrelink for this very reason - you aren’t struggling - your budget for premium meals, and that fancy car prove exactly that, and the sheer fact you could afford to pay us back over $1200 per fortnight via your payments shows exactly that your Centrelink is more than enough, it’s just your decisions putting you exactly where you are in life.
Now here’s my predicament - I’m a very kind person, but because of your actions, that’s $9000 of capital missing from our fund to help others, including your family, and our discipline must follow…
You’ll be reported to Centrelink for fraud, your children included, because it’s meant to provide for people who need help. You’ll be blacklisted, your children included, so there goes your rental history, and you’ll never get that business opportunity until you fix your soooooo-not-a-mistake. And we could potentially go further with the current jobs - but that depends on your actions.
Oh - and another thing - you'll be removed from our investment that you rely so heavily on - because that power-for-purpose, only helps good people, and won't tolerate toxic behaviour. We don't have to work, our talents provide for us through our investment, but we choose to help people see better in life, so they can pay it forward to help others.
Of course I feel awful for making you homeless, but this is on you. And shame on you.
My mother told me to not spend my time helping people, for this very reason. But I rebelled against that, because I believe in the good of people.
Even the tenants who have set our properties on fire have every opportunity to fix their mistakes with us - and some of them, have done exactly that.
You are not white trash to me, colour or culture does not come into this - children behave better than adults in this modern day, but what you are, is a sh&t human that is ruining this opportunity for your family, and an awful lot of other people in need, and due to this, we’re changing our ways of doing things, because we won’t be taken advantage of.
And to add to this note:
- The ‘rent assistance’ provided to Centrelink recipients in this situation never reaches the property owners, it gets collected back to the government, so in that situation, the government is just as bad to blame, leaving landlords out of pocket
- We’ve been to court before and been very successful, but the courts let down the people due to their enforcement procedures. The judge saying “I order you to pay this by X date” means nothing, and to enforce it - isn’t worth the time, and effort.