A Roof Over Our Heads

Trey Smith

As it stands right now, both Della and I have roofs over our heads. I remain in our house in South Bend awaiting the foreclosure process and Della is in a room share arrangement in White Salmon. The goal, of course, is to find rental housing in the Gorge for the two of us and, at least, one pet. Let me tell ya, it is turning out to be a difficult assignment.

Like a lot of areas -- particularly those in touristy regions -- affordable housing in White Salmon/Bingen/Underwood (Washington side) and Hood River/Mosier (Oregon side) is hard to come by. I check Craigslist and the gorge.net classifieds daily. Most of the available rentals go for $900 or above. This amount simply will be out of our price range. There have been a few listed for below $900, but the least expensive ones generally don't allow pets. The houses and apartments that allow pets would put a great strain on our meager budget.

Della met with some of her new co-workers for lunch today. They told her what we already have figured out. Though service jobs are relatively plentiful in the region, there just are not that many housing options for service-based workers. It's as if the wealthy of the area -- there are A LOT of well-to-do folks in the Gorge -- want to be served by people who don't actually live there!

I am nowhere near being ready to shove off from South Bend (though I'm making good progress), so we have time on our side. Maybe we will luck out somewhere along the line. I guess the best we can do right now is to keep our fingers crossed.