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I'm wondering if you have looked elsewhere for cheaper accommodation?

If I've worked it out correctly, you are paying around $1600 a month where you are currently.

I used to refer students to check out the Marpole area as it almost always had the lowest rental rates. We still have friends who rent in that area, some have been there for over 50 years, others for around 20 years.

The specific area is between Granville east to Oak, and 70th south to SW Marine Drive. The apartments are 3 or 4 storeys maximum, some built in the 1950s, others between about 1960 to the late 1970s, many still walk-ups but a lot with elevators, most are rental though there are a few more modern condos.

It was zoned 2 years ago to remain as such ............ old buildings could only be replaced by ones of the same height, and rental was to be replaced with rental. That will stay as such for at least the next few years.

The low rise apartments on 70th, Granville and Oak themselves can be and are being replaced by high rises to 6 or 8 storeys, with high rents or for sale, but within the area cited, very little will change

The friends who live there say that rents for new tenants are around $1300 to $1600 for a one-bedroom apartment. Everyone seems to keep an eye on the going rate, no matter where they live!! There are just one or two buildings that are a little dicey, largely because the managers have been convinced to accept people on Social Welfare and have not carefully checked the tenants they have accepted under that aegis ......... some misjudgements made.

You do seem to have to walk or drive around the streets checking whether there are rental signs out, and then to contact the manager ASAP. I don't know whether the managers advertise on a web site or in which paper.

It is also much closer to the airport ........... Granville Street leads straight to the Arthur Laing Bridge, and Oak Street has an easy access to the same bridge.

A cheaper rent would make life a little easier for you.


I take it that your wife is unable to do any work or earn any money, as that would again make life easier.

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That would depend on her own health at this moment in time.

Jsmth321. Please don't feel you have to share this publically as this would be your wife's personal/private business.

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Nopes J. Nopes. You stay right where you are and finish that shift.
Have a good stomp , cry or whatever about it once work has ended for the day.
Then you set your mind to go back in for the next shift. Yes . You . Do.

I'm so proud of you and how far you have come. Stick with it best you can and just continue to express and offload here.

Hope her indoors is doing better .

M

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Good point ...... although I didn't mean for Jsmith to go into any kind of detail about it. Just that I was assuming that that was the case.

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We originally looked in the Marpole area however at the time we did not find anything available and as we had a short time to find a place we had to take what was available and who would approve us.

As you know the vacancy rate is very low in Vancouver.

We are in a lease so have to wait a few more months.

Ends in August and we have the option to move or renew but no option to go month to month.

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You can do EFT on your own. Check it out on YouTube. I’ve used it before and it’s unbelievably effective.
They came up with it to treat veterans from Vietnam who had PTSD.

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Which is why I might suggest that you start trawling through this area in June/July ............. students have left, new ones haven't yet arrived.

Please don't say that you are on one of those 1 year by 1 year leases?

I thought those were now illegal because of the fact that landlords were taking the chance to declare each lease "new", and so asking for the huge increase in rent that they can give for a new tenant while tenants-in-residence have much lower annual increases.


Even friends who moved into apartments 2 or 3 years ago on the 1 year lease that then carries on month-by-month are finding they are now paying at least $100 less than new renters

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PTSD you say. I'll look into that.

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As far as I know they just closed the rent increase loophole but fixed term leases are still permitted.

I have not come across a rental in years that did not require a lease. 10 or 11 years since I had a rental that would do month to month.

Anyhow our unit is developer owned in agreement with the city to provide affordable for profit housing so rent is kept lower then it would otherwise be. Rent in this building is a lot higher for those renting from private individual owner.

We are also on BC Housing wait list but that is likely a 10 year wait and some co op wait lists but they are also long waits.

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I'll take a look in you tube and give it a try.


I was overly annoyed yesterday...lol.. Micromanaging a supervisor does annoys me, I know my job, I know how to do it, my crew has been given tasks and they know what to do, and my record for on time departures is excellent, I have no ramp delays on my record, so the micromanaging is super annoying and one of my biggest annoyances when it comes to employers.

I think also being a good chunk older then just about everyone else, I don't particularly fit in and eh work has in my life the only place I have had to socialize but now that I am old and everyone else young, there really no chance to do that since well the oldie now...lol


The high turn over and constant new people also creates a difficult work situation, more like babysitting then anything...:lol:

There was a time when this job had experienced people working and things worked like a well oiled machine, but now its just a high turn over job as there is no real way to move up.

Before when airlines did their own ramp, the opportunities were available to move into all sorts of other jobs so people tended to stay, it was a true entry level job to gain experience in the industry, now its a dead end job like many since outsourcing became the norm.

There was also the whole flight benefit thing that was a valuable work benefit people would stay in the job for.

I get into a rut in jobs once I have gotten as far as I can go and then become frustrated and annoyed and the cycle goes on.

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Comparatively speaking, it's got to be better than the Dracula night auditor jobs, other than hard on the knees...... I get mad when people who don't care enough cause extra work for me, but I get paid by the hour so I just do it.
Re housing; The people I met and the people I already knew in Vancouver back in the early 80's were mostly stuck in basement suites or expensive apartments for 3 or 4 years before finding the places they wanted. In one case it meant moving from a nice apartment into the Brain Eater's old clubhouse next to a chop shop on Osler St. That one needed more than a lick of paint! :lol:

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So you must work for the swissports and service airs of this world. Surely there are still opportunities for moving up? Of even moving to another of the handling agents?
Also I know at Pearson they have people in the terminal who need to know how the whole baggage handling works so that would give you a possible entry in to one of those types of positions?

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Moderately better. Still waking up in the middle of the night....:lol: But I do sleep 6pm to 3:30am or so, sometimes I fall asleep by 5pm...lol

As for owning in Vancouver, not going to happen.... Even a condo needs a near 6 figure income now, burbs are lower but still above our reach.

We can apparently afford $144,164.30 if we had 10% down according to the bank people we spoke to last year.

Prices in that range are doable in parts of BC, but in those areas wages are lower so our income would be lower thus we would not be able to afford as much or would need a larger down payment.

High rent leads to massive instability financially speaking, impossible to save for a rainy day, let alone anything else.

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I was talking about renting, most of my friends aren't going to ever own a house there. A couple who spent quite a few years in a little basement suite then found a good house near Kingsway and Vic had it sold out from under them and now rent a basement suite (a fairly decent one) 5 or 6 blocks uphill from Commercial for just slightly less than they were paying for the house.

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Gotcha.

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Yup. I rather got that impression mister. :p

I agree. Jobsworths are annoying. A good manager delegates & does their own job, not someone else's. Try not to crunch his ears for him for he is nothing but a lad & one day he too will be an oldie.

Meanwhile you carry on doing what you are doing. :nod:

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The long days I think are getting to me along with the chronic back and knee pain. I am looking for a more part-time job at the airport, hopefully I can find one. For my mental health, I need shorter days, 5-6 hour time frame instead of 10-12 hour time frame.

Working longer days actually ends up hurting us financially as well, because of how disability program works.

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Jsmith - everybody, but everybody, has their own problems and crosses to bear - do not think it's just you, and for goodness sake, please change your signature - a declared defeatist attitude doesn't help anything.

I've no idea what I can do, but I promise you one thing... if you ever feel at a loss, send me a PM and I will reply. BE is a pretty good community, you should appreciate that you are part of an odd little family. You are NOT alone.

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I had a break down today and quit my job. I cannot handle the long days and stress and everything has been crumbling slowly the past few months and despite trying its all caught up to me and came down big today.

I did the best I could and tried to handle everything on my own and deal with the stresses but a person can only handle so much before they simply cannot handle anymore.

We did call the AAC which is the access and assessment center for mental health, however there is little they can offer, which is what I already knew since there is really no services available for borderline treatment in the public health system, and until that changes people like me who cannot financially afford private treatment will simply continue to struggle and fall through the cracks.

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Oh dear :(

I am so sorry to hear this JS. I would have loved to read that things were going good. I hope this decision will lead to positive things rather than the beginning of a downward spiral. Sending you hugs. :)

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Maybe the break will do you good :fingerscrossed:

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Ah J. That's such a shame . Did something change that was the last straw and tipping point? Did the oiks ( not our Oik) do your head in one time too many?
I know you've been finding it all progressively tough the past couple of months.

Big hug from me.

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It was no one single event, but many small and some large events that when they kept adding up, eventually it all just came falling down. Its not unique, happened many times in the past and will continue to happen, I just don't have the skill level to self soothe and not let things bother me, and stress is a big part of it all, not just work stress, but stress of living in Vancouver with nothing but high costs, traffic congestion, noise, people around all the time with nowhere to escape. It's all very overwhelming.

Work was just one part of the puzzle, but was the only part I can directly control.

It's really hard for me to explain in such a way most can understand, if one has borderline or knows someone close with borderline those folks may understand better and probably have experienced the same.

It unfortunate the public healthcare system feels its not necessary to treat mental health on par, and pretty much ignore some mental illnesses such as personality disorders.

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Hang in there J, I'm keeping everything crossed that things and life settles down for you.

)HUGS(

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Thanks.

There is a relief of some stress by not having to go to the job all the time, of course there are also downsides to it such as less income.

Just right now my mental health isn't in a spot where successfully holding a job is in the cards. My moods are simply too up and down right now and it was showing at work, I was having a more and more difficult time staying down to earth and not let things trigger me.

The cycle is pretty predictable so I knew it was coming and I tried to let people in family know, but most don't care.

Stupid thing is only chance of ever getting help is in Vancouver, but we cannot afford Vancouver, so will likely have to move, but then we also cannot afford the treatment so I suppose it makes no sense staying here in the hope of someday being able to.

Without treatment, there just is no real hope at a successful life and the cycle will just continue.

Yesterday was exceptionally bad, today isn't starting out much better.

I am not going to attempt working again, its pretty clear I cannot stay stable long enough to successfully hold a job long term.

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JS, could you take a leave of absence - vacation time or unpaid leave? That way the job would still perhaps be available when you felt able to return.

Thinking of you :)

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Working on it.

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:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

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6 weeks to start. Then will go from there. We just need to figure out how to survive with drastic income cut but taking a leave is the only option at the moment.

There is a chance I might be able to get into a 6 week group therapy once a week. Wont know until the 18th when the intake opens for it. Not sure how they decide. Demand greatly exceeds available spots so no guarantee.

Seems to be the only option available via public healthcare.

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That sounds positive, compared to what could be happening anyway. Did you look further into moving to a smaller city that you mentioned a while back?

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Still thinking of moving. We are not really in a position to move at the moment since well moving costs a good chunk of money between the necessary deposits for a rental and the actual cost of moving with renting a truck, gas and all that jazz.

We also have to really research what is available mental health wise in each town as some towns offer next to nothing mental health service wise, mental health services in BC is very Vancouver centric, most of the provinces mental health is in Vancouver region which is why so many with mental health issues end up in Vancouver.

We are looking into smaller towns, one thing to keep in mind as well is with small towns a car is a necessity and once the car cost is added to the equation, its not always cheaper to live in a small town, really have to crunch numbers and take into consideration all costs and not just rental costs alone.

When we moved to Chilliwack for example we didn't take into consideration the higher cost of food, and the need for a car since regional and local transit is poor there, so while rent was lower, we had to have a car, so once the car was accounted for and higher cost of food, it actually cost us more to live there vs Vancouver....lol... We don't have a car currently, just a scooter which is cheaper to operate then transit pass.

Part of my disorder is I have no self image which is why I am always on the fence about things, hard to make decisions when you have no idea who you really are. I mold myself to be like those who are around me in an attempt to have some sort of self identity/image but once those people are gone, I am back to square one.

Also why I cannot figure out what kind of training to do, what I feel I am today, can change overnight...lol

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Hopefully tomorrow I can get onto the list of DBT group that is having an open intake tomorrow, can't call until 10am and first come first serve, will be up to call right at 10a, so hopefully I can get through.

Its not an ideal solution, but suppose its better then nothing, its group once a week for 6 months, and ideally one should be getting individual therapy as well to work through the issues as if one cannot resolve the underlying issues, the group alone isn't going to be sufficient since the underlying problems will still be there festering away.

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Any help/support is good so fingers crossed you get on the list.

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I did get through after 21 minutes of hitting redial. I am tentatively down for a group starting in July (the earlier ones are already full) but I still need to have the phone intake next week.

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:thumbsup: Good news!

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One step closer. Just have to get past the intake assessment next week.

And of course assuming we can spend the next 36 weeks or so in Vancouver, up in the air at the moment since we lost my income for the time being and unsure if we can stay here, still up in the air everything is.

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Phone intake went well. Next week an in person intake and hopefully approval.

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Well done J. :thumbsup: