We just got a message last night from the apartment complex we have been trying to get into the past 3 months and they said everything has been approved and we can come sign contracts and pick up our key today.... yippee. Many of you don't know but it has been drama for the past few months. Back in June we decided with a new baby coming we needed to get a three bedroom, It was mostly me insisting, Cameron thought we would be fine with 3 kids in our 2 bedroom apartment but now that Katelyn’s been sleeping on the floor in our room for 4 months because she and Dallin can’t seem to sleep in the same room without waking each other up I think he's changes his mind.
We were hoping to stay in our current area but Cameron is spending most of his time now in a hospital down town, 30 minutes away so we decided to look into that area too. We found a nice area with cheep apartments that looked great so we thought sure, why not? When we went in to see if they had any 3 bedroom apartments available she said no they were a brand new apartment complex built September 2006 and their leases wouldn't be up until October or so... but if you qualify for section 8 housing we do have that available... well being in medical school with no income, it just so happened that we did. She said the application process was kind of involved and would take up to a month to move in. That was fine because our contract with our current apartment wouldn't expire until the end of July. The next time we came in with all of our paper work we were sent to work with Al. That's where the problems started. He told us it would take about 2 weeks before we would be able to move in, and that we didn't need this paper or that paper... we believed him and a few days later we got a call saying we needed this paper or that paper and we couldn't fax them they had to be hand delivered. It was one thing after another, our student loan information wasn't complete enough... They needed to verify that we didn't owe money to anyone… It seemed we were constantly waiting for "the Housing office" for approval. It was awful! The worse part was they weren’t in their office when they said they would be, they didn't answer their phone and they don't return phone calls when we left a message. In the beginning of July we were told to turn in our 30 day notice, perfect because we only had about 30 days left before our contract expired. More miscommunication and waiting ensued and 10 days before we were to move we got a call saying they didn't have any section 8 housing available but we could move into their regular housing or we could wait until something became available around September 10th and to call back in a month to get the application going, oh and by the way our application would expire after 90 days which was September 2, if it expires before we get in we will have to reapply.
We scrambled to work out arrangements so we could stay here until that time, extended our contract paid $100 more than what we were paying for rent and waited. Two weeks later I decided to call and just see how things were going. It turns out they do have section 8 housing available and all they need to do it the final verification of if we owe money to our current apartment complex and go ahead and turn in your 30 day notice. So we did… again. Why they didn’t call as soon as apartments became available is yet to be discovered.
as September 2nd approached and we still heard nothing, every time I called I was told we were waiting to hear back from the housing office and no I couldn’t contact them myself I started worrying that things wouldn’t actually work out and we found out someone was already lined up to move into our current apartment and come Sept 10th we would be homeless. In one of my desperate calls a week ago I was told we were to be scheduled for an appointment with the government housing department and they would contact me on Monday to let me know when my appointment was, of course I stayed home all day Monday waiting for this elusive call, when Cameron called during his afternoon break I asked him to call the apartment complex and find out what was going on. He called back saying I need to drive to the apartment complex and pick up a paper that would get us in to talk to the housing department. So I went, Al wasn’t there and the lady who was seemed to be so much more knowledgeable.
we went to talk to the Housing Authority on Wednesday, we were a bit concerned when she asked us about our income and we explained we were living on student loans and a scholarship, she stated bluntly, "we Can't count either of those as an income.... so basically you have no income" which is true but I was worried that it would keep us from qualifying for assistance.. Which really doesn't make sense if you think about it. why would you not give help to someone because they are worse off then the normal people you give help to... anyways after Cameron showed her the student loan information and she reviewed our bank statements she decided we were capable of paying our bills and we would be OK... thank goodness! so we had a few minor things to do and then we would be set to move in the next weekend. And we just had to wait for the final verification which thankfully came last night… sooner actually then I expected or feared. So now I get to go sign contracts and pick up the keys… we are so thankful this whole thing is working out, as fun as it would be to be homeless with 2 kids, 8ish months pregnant I think I’ll pass.
