Family Landlords Raise the Rent to Force One Sister Out
“Fine,” she called after me. “I will just let Mom know how helpful you are being.”
I shut my bedroom door and turned the small lock. The sound of Vanessa’s television hummed through the drywall, a low, repetitive murmur of a reality show she had been watching since seven.
I sat on the edge of my bed with my laptop on my knees, the screen casting a pale blue glow across my white duvet. I opened a private browser tab and typed the name of a local real estate listing site into the search bar.
For two years, I had believed this two-bedroom apartment was my permanent home, a generous gift from my parents who only charged me nine hundred dollars a month. Now, with the rent doubling to eighteen hundred on December first, my savings account was my only shield.
I clicked on the map view, narrowing the search to a three-mile radius around the marketing agency. Most of the listings were far beyond my budget, but then a new blue dot appeared on Elm Street.
