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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-18-25 Public Comment - N. Gonzalez - Support right to counselFrom:Nora C. Gonzalez To:Bozeman Public Comment Subject:[EXTERNAL]Support right to counsel Date:Tuesday, April 15, 2025 4:33:13 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Dear Bozeman City Commissioners, My name is Nora Gonzalez Sanchez and I’ve lived in Montana for 24 years. I love this city. When I moved to Montana, the first thing that amazed me was the city and the people. The people were very nice, and it’s a beautiful city and a beautiful town. We should be better with rents so the locals can stay longer here instead of moving around to other towns and other apartments to afford rent. I have been a single parent since I moved here. I’ve gone through many problems with my son’s health, and I didn’t have housing when I first moved to Bozeman. When I first moved here, I was kicked out of the house I was staying at in the middle of the winter. It was super hard with the language barrier, not being able to communicate with people while I was learning English. The first three years I took my son with me to my three jobs. Because my son had special needs, even daycares would not take him. Getting on my feet was so hard, but I didn’t have choices. I’ve lived in my apartment for four years. When my son graduated from high school, I had to find somewhere new to live. It took me six months to get my apartment after I applied, and I was homeless during that time. I also had cancer while I was homeless, staying with Family Promise. It has been hard to pay rent, and I have had to always be looking for cheaper places to rent, until there were no more cheap enough places. So I have to work more hours to afford rent. When I moved into the place I live, I had a Section 8 voucher, but I made too much to qualify when I reapplied. When I moved to Montana, the rent was pretty good, but now every year it’s different, as they raise the rents. When I moved into this apartment I paid $650 a month. Now I pay almost $1,000 a month. Those changes make people move around a lot. My current place has a lot of maintenance problems. The water pressure in the shower is very low, and there is usually about five minutes of hot water. The windows in the apartment are not aligned, and get stuck open, and pieces have broken off. The landlord is trying to charge me for the window blinds falling off during a windstorm, and the cheap replacement blinds breaking. This past winter was super cold, and my window was stuck open. I tried to put a pillow or cardboard up to keep it warm, and it didn’t work. I had walking pneumonia and a respiratory infection, while working more than 80 hours a week. It’s hard. It’s too many hours. The floors were cracked when we moved in, and they have tried to charge us for fixing those. I didn’t have a stove for almost a year before they replaced it, which they tried to charge me to replace. The washers and driers are often broken. Whenever we ask for help to come and check something, they don’t come to check, or they charge us for everything they do in the apartment. That’s why we never ask for anything anymore. We just try to live here comfortable as we can. I feel like I don’t have anybody to rely on if something happens. My family are never going to move here. I like to help people because I don’t want them to go through what I’ve had to go through. I try to help them with work, their groceries, or help them in their home. It’s horrible to have landlords that don’t care. They should be more understanding and more helpful. If you’re a single person with a child, or a child with disabilities, it’s very difficult. The struggles of working several jobs and being a mom to make it, it’s hard. To afford the things I need to live, I work extra hours. You don’t know if you’re going to buy food, or shoes, or tires for your car, or clothes for your kid, or pay rent. It’s crazy. Sometimes I have to pay half of the rent so I can buy food for the month. I never like to be late on my payments. I always want to have a good record as a tenant in case I have to move to another place. If we had more help for tenants, we wouldn’t have to deal with so many problems. I hope that a tenants Right to Counsel would do more for tenants in my building and in other buildings in town. People are killing themselves and working too much so they can survive and make payments. Everybody should be able to pay rent. People get scared and don’t want to ask for help. I feel like people don’t listen to you. Hopefully the city does their job, and has the heart to help us, all of the people who have been here for a long time and are struggling – not only for me but all the other people who are struggling too. Nora Gonzalez.