Behind the Closed Doors: The True Story of Rent

Finding a perfect home to stay in means different things to different people, and as an architect that I am, home goes beyond that roof on our head and the four corners of our room. Designing a home for a client, I do consider it to be a place where they find comfort and can rest not just their head, but also their heart after a long day, where their dreams are born, and where their stories come to the limelight. And before that place we currently refer to as home becomes our own, there is this great challenge of rent that we all pass through, and believe me on this, rent is one of the major truths that comes in a silent way, but it affects the way we live, think, and how we interact with those around us.

I have not had the privilege of moving from one area to another, but in the area where I stay, the majority of the houses are family-built houses and not built for the purpose of renting, but the few that are built for that require you to be financially buoyant, and the owner of the house, the caretakers, or landlords usually have a standard rule of a small god in a kingdom, where the tenant must pay some upfront of at least two years before the house can be released to them. Imagine paying that kind of upfront cost in my country, where people earn pennies monthly and can barely feed their families. For the majority of the tenants, this comes as a big sacrifice because they have to minimize how they feed themselves, the clothes they buy, and how they spend money just to afford a small place that they can eventually call a "humble abode" home.

Psychologically, this is not just about the money alone because most of these tenants are not just after the four walls; what they want is peace. I have had the privilege of visiting some people and staying in a large compound, but what I have discovered is that everyone still wants that privacy, and no one wants that landlord that will just barge in without prior notice or where neighbors keep fighting and exchanging violent words like a gossip arena. Most tenants usually find a house with a stable water supply, electricity, security, and proximity to their workplace more appealing, comfortable, and valuable than a house that is aesthetically pleasing but with none of those criteria I mentioned. Because what I usually tell people is that a house might be designed by the best architect in this world with a lot of features, but if it deprives you of your peace, that is not a home for you.

And looking at the cultural aspect, as I have seen in most of the communities and from what I have heard, due to trust and how people attach more importance to relationships, most landlords will only give out their houses to married couples who are responsible rather than single people because they believe that single people tend to show wicked attitudes and use the house anyhow with constant complaints. However, this is just a stereotype to me. It is a two-way street in a way that the owners of the house are after those who will take care of Thier house like it is their own while the tenants are after peace and not drama.

Personally, if I want to change my location and get a new house, it is far beyond looking at the price because what I am always after is, is there stable water running all year? Is there stable electricity? If the environment is a peaceful one, won't the neighbors be fighting? Is the owner of the house staying in that same house? These are the key questions I do ask because they can either secure the house for me or make me look elsewhere.

But the sad reality is that when it comes to rent, all hands are not equal in a way that some can afford that comfort while others have no other choice than to go stay in an overcrowded apartment. And with what I have seen in some neighborhoods around me, some people are still persistent, and they create room for joy even within that crowded apartment in a way that they clear the surroundings and make it look a bit aesthetically pleasing by planting flowers, painting the walls, and turning their room into a humble abode of peace.

And at the end of it all, renting goes beyond transaction. It is a very big step of sacrifice, hope, resilience, trust, and accountability because for them, it is a means of surviving, a bold step to freedom and independence. But for some of us, it means that we build it step by step and not something magically exists.

Thank you for reading.

_{Images are mine}