Memory: How far back does yours go?
By savak03
@savak03 (6684)
United States
October 13, 2015 3:31pm CST
For months I have been planning to get a place of my own and let my kids live their own lives so they will learn how to rely on themselves instead of assuming mom will always bail them out. So I called around to the apartment communities that were subsidized because I need my rent based on my income. I got one application that was at least thirty pages long. Today I had some time while everyone was out of the house to work on filling it out. The first page told me that all lines had to be filled out. If I had no information to put in them I should write none or no, n/a was not acceptable. So okay that wasn't so hard. Then they listed all the things they needed to see, like birth certificates for all who would be living in the apartment, social security cards for everyone, and picture id's like a drivers license. They also wanted bank statements from checking and savings accounts going back six months and car registration and insurance.
First of all I will be the only one living in the apartment. I don't have a checking or savings account. Neither do I have a car and therefore no need for insurance or a drivers license. But it gets better.
So I go on to the next page where I start out with my current address and phone number. They also ask for the amount of my rent and the name address and phone number of my landlord. Maybe I'm the crazy one but since my landlord comes to collect her rent and we do our own maintenance I never felt the need to ask her for her address and although I did have her number at one time she has changed it several times since then so the one I have is not current. And I have no way to contact her to get this information. But it gets better.
Next they want me to list all the places I've lived in the last five years, complete with addresses, dates, and landlord information, I've moved quite a lot in the last five years so if I could remember all those places it would take about two pages to list them all. But it gets better.
I am almost 65 years old. The next thing they want to know is all the states I've lived in since I was 18, with dates, and that is a long list since I have always loved to travel, and they want to know if I have ever, in my whole life, been evicted.
So, by this time I figure there is no way they are going to let me have an apartment anyway so I pitched the whole mess in the can,
Could any of you fill this out with all the information they wanted? 
11 people like this
10 responses
@AbbyGreenhill (45496)
• United States
13 Oct 15
I have moved almost 20 times in my life. About 20 years ago I started a spreadsheet with all the street names/number and the dates I lived there. I keep it current. I actually can repeat it all to someone from memory.
Years ago I had to apply for a high security clearance and the form was much longer than that and I had to go thru hoopes to get it finished, so I'm sorta of used to such information.
3 people like this
@savak03 (6684)
• United States
13 Oct 15
I wish I had had your foresight. When I was young I never thought that I would need all that old information. My grandmother never let me in on how the world operated so I had no idea I would have to document my whole life at some point. Unfortunately for me it has come now when my memory is working at its poorest.
2 people like this
@zandi458 (28102)
• Malaysia
1 Apr 17
I don't understand why are they making life so difficult for potential tenants by asking so many questions when just the necessary info are good enough. I never like to fill forms what more if I am required to dig into my past history that I can no longer remember.
1 person likes this
@savak03 (6684)
• United States
1 Apr 17
Memory is my problem too. Since we moved around a lot especially it is almost impossible to remember any of those addresses. Sometimes I even have trouble remembering the last address I had and forget remembering how long I was at each address or who my landlord was. 
@mayka123 (16584)
• India
21 Mar 16
I dont think I would go beyond page 5. I hate the idea of filling forms. And some years ago I was shifting residences every year. I think it was about ten places in those ten years. And I definitely do not remember the addresses so I would be lost filling up such forms.
1 person likes this
@TiarasOceanView (70035)
• United States
14 Oct 15
Ah papers...yes they are well familiar to me.
If you need help with rent, you are going to pay the price by filling in papers that do a better job of investigating your entire life than the FBI could do.
You have to write a complete novel to get any subsidized housing.
And still they would find something wrong with it when you are finished.
Yes, I am well familiar with the totalitarianism.
2 people like this
@TiarasOceanView (70035)
• United States
18 Oct 15
@Gwensmom Yes if we want to live and we are poor, there is a high price of which we cant afford..so sorry that happen to you as well Ruth.
1 person likes this
@Gwensmom (504)
• United States
18 Oct 15
@TiarasOceanView I know so many people that go on and on about people getting help. It's not that easy. From filling out the paperwork to mentally having to do it.
1 person likes this
ormation just to rent an apartment.@savak03 (6684)
• United States
14 Oct 15
I thought it was overkill myself but I was going to give it a try. However, I am not seeking a secret service job or a high security clearance so I figure most of what they want to know is just being nosy. I don't think I would want to live there if that is how they view everyone.
2 people like this
@Jlyn10 (11966)
• Malaysia
17 Oct 15
You need to do all that just for renting an apartment? 
Here, we just do a simple contract, both parties sign, pay a month of deposit together with a month's rental, the Landlord gives you the keys and you can move in right away.
Whatever dealings is between you and the Landlord and nobody else, except sometimes a lawyer is involved in preparing the contract and witnessing.
Here, we just do a simple contract, both parties sign, pay a month of deposit together with a month's rental, the Landlord gives you the keys and you can move in right away.
Whatever dealings is between you and the Landlord and nobody else, except sometimes a lawyer is involved in preparing the contract and witnessing.@savak03 (6684)
• United States
20 Oct 15
Well this is subsidized housing I am looking at so I expected it to be a little harder than just paying over your money. They do have to know that you qualify by income but the rest of that was just too much to figure out. I don't think all that information is even on my credit report.
1 person likes this
@rebelann (111081)
• El Paso, Texas
8 Mar 16
Yikes, that's a lotta info they want. I bought a mobile home in 1996 then a lot to put it on in 1997, I retired in 2010 and used my pension to pay the whole mess off including the car. I chucked all rental info into the can years ago and yeah, I was evicted because the landlord was a realtor that sold the house I was renting.
So what'll they want if I ever need to move into assisted living?
I know, buy a RV and just travel round til ya need a nursing home or some such nonsense.
OR convince the kids to buy a mobile home so they can take care of ya when yer too dang old to do anythin for yerself ..... yeah, all this sounds really, really, really bad unless yer kids are angels, anybody got any like that?
@savak03 (6684)
• United States
10 Mar 16
I've lived with my daughter then my son, and now my daughter again.
She has grown up a lot since the first time I lived with her. I moved out because her boyfriend was always making her ask me for money, or my meds and the situation just became unbearable. He was one of those charismatic people that could convince most people of anything. But when I left and took my resources with me it left them pretty high and dry and she came to her senses.
My son was supposed to be doing so well, and he was until I got down here then it got so his work dried up and I was having to pay most of the bills. I had just about had enough of his put it off till tomorrow attitude when the property we were renting was sold for taxes and the new owners evicted everyone.
So, by now my daughter was down here and in a stable relationship with a man who's family were steady and responsible. They were all living on one property in separate dwellings so my daughter made room for me in her place. So far it has worked out fairly good. She is taking better care of me than she did before and since I need her natural nursing ability I am grateful that she has grown up finally.
1 person likes this
@Carmelanirel2 (8084)
• United States
2 Nov 15
Wow, only if I haven't moved much (which I have not) I would put n/a in that and if they ask, tell them the truth, you can't remember.
@Gwensmom (504)
• United States
14 Oct 15
Oh, Lord.
I wonder about the people that come up with some of these applications.
If you are above a certain age, they should only make you go back so far and that is it.
It is ridiculous.
Why don't they just ask for a DNA swab while they are at it?
A few weeks back, I filled out an application for a job and I had to give work referrals and work history. I have not had a paying job for so many years and yet they want the month and year I started and stopped working. My starting and ending pay. I don't remember that.
A few weeks back, I filled out an application for a job and I had to give work referrals and work history. I have not had a paying job for so many years and yet they want the month and year I started and stopped working. My starting and ending pay. I don't remember that.@savak03 (6684)
• United States
20 Oct 15
I could never remember all that stuff either. That's why I don't have a resume today. And for the last thirty years I was at first taking care of my invalid husband and later working as an independent contractor. In fact one of the companies I had been working for was looking for an editor which is a job you do at home on your computer. I would have been perfect for the job because I had done the work that the people I would be editing are doing so I could understand it well. Unfortunately they asked for a resume two days before they were going to hire and I knew I would not be able to get one together that quick.
