Supplementary reading finding a room in America

The place in the United States where you settle is your new home in America. During the first few days or weeks you may live with friends or relatives or at a hotel- But, sooner or later you will probably want to find a place of your own. Your friends or relatives will help you if they can. However, you may have to find a place without their help-

You may want to move into a furnished room or apartment. You may have to do this if you have no furniture of your own. In a furnished room or apartment the land' rd, the owner of the house 'supplies the beds, tables, chairs and-otiic.r furniture for the tenant'to use- You are a tenant^when you reris; a room or apartment. As a tenant you pay rent. The rent is usually higher for a furnished than it is for an unfurnished one.'You may want to buy your own furni­ture and move into an unfurnished apartment^ Living in an apart­ment with your own things may help your to feel more at home in your new country. '

There are all kinds of unfurnished apartments. If you have a large family: you will want a large apartment. In the U.S. we count the kitchen but not the bathroom as a room- Not every apartment has a dining-room. A four-room apartment, to; - ^ssrnple, has a liv­ing-room, a kitchen, two bedrooms and a bathroon; - With a dining-room, it would be a five-room apartment.

The amount of rent you pay depends on the size of the apart­ment. The rent you pay also depends on the floor on which the apartment is located- Elevator service adds to the cost.

In most buildings the landlord and the tenant sign an agreement to rent the apartment for a certain length of time. This agreement is called a lease. The rent you agree to pay is written into the lease- So are the services the landlord agrees to give you. Some of the services are gas, electricity and heat. Usually the landlord furnishes the heat. He may or may not pay for tlie gas or -electricity. If he does not pay for them, the tenant pays for the services.

If you live in a public-housing project, you will pav.less rent than in a.privately-owned building. Housing projects may have a number of houses or apartmentbuildings. They often have their own shopping centres and play grounds; ^Some housing projects have other centres where adults can meet and enjoy themselves.'

If you rent a house rather than an apartment, you will pay for your own heat- Usually you will have to pay for your own gas and electricity. You might have to pay for your 'water. You may also havetobuyastoveorarefrigerator-

':? It is often a big problem to find a room, an apartment, or a house. Walking through a neighborhood is one way of finding a place to live. The signs " To Let", " For Rent", " Rooms", and " Va­cancy" will show you what places can be rented. Looking through (the classified ads in the newspaper is helpful too. Rooms, apart-^ments and houses of all kinds also keep a list of vacancies. You can go to your church or to the office of a public housing projectand tell them about your housing problem. They will do their best to help you.