In case of a sudden housing emergency…

…(namely that of your landlady kicking you out to make room for her adulterous boyfriend), don’t drown your sorrows in pints of bitter or pints of Ben & Jerry’s. Break out your thinking cap (and a mild sedative) and get apartment hunting….

Sometimes life deals us a sudden bad hand, like a sudden cold, an overload of classwork to catch up on, and your landlady suddenly deciding (or probably being helped to decide) that she’d like to let you know that you have to move out posthaste. My message to you is:

Don’t panic!!

After the shock wears off, have a nice cup of tea or maybe pop some valerian or kava kava and relax. Then think. There are options for the sudden, dire need to move, as well as the sudden and/or dire need to move.

• Craigslist.org: The new ol’ faithful for apartment-share-, apartment-, and everything-else- hunting. Very useful, and you can specify different variables when you search (rent, cat/dog friendly, fee/no fee, etc). I have found most of my apartment shares via Craigslist. The only drawback is that you won’t know much about the people you are renting from, and sometimes you luck out…and sometimes you get a landlady who has a boyfriend who likes to walk around in his boxers or a towel and who tries to pet your sweater.
• NYC Real Estate: Livejournal community that has listings and whatnot.
• NYC Roomates: Livejournal community where you can post about yourself and what you’re looking for or look at what people are offering. Not as active as one would like, but a good starting point.
• Rainbow Roomies: Good if you are gay and can’t trust the straighties not to kill you. Costs money to look at listings and such, but there’s a free preview on pdf if you want to see what sort of offerings there are. Probably expensive places listed, but if you have the money and the gay, would be a good option.
• Random Paper Signs: Posted on telephone poles, stoplight poles, local laundromat bulletin boards, and other random, free places to tape something up on. True, a little sktechy, but really tailored to the area you’re looking in. Most people probably put them up relatively close to where their housing offering is located, so if you’re willing to walk around and yank off a little slip of paper with a number, bully for you. You may luck out. Good if you read/speak another language like Spanish, Chinese, or Korean, but there are still lots in English too.
• The Newspaper: Really, any NYC-based (or tri-state-based) newspaper will do the trick. Harder to sift through, but may yield more results. Newsweek, NY Times, Village Voice, and most free papers and magazines that are piled up all over the city.

My overall advice is to inform people you know when you’re going to check out a place, or bring someone with you. Although I’m pretty sure the rate of Craigslisters being axe murderers is fairly low, it’s better to be safe. Go in daylight hours if you must go alone. Make sure you and the person you are renting from are speaking the same language (literally and figuratively), especially if you don’t have a lease. Ah, and don’t forget that grocery stores and the like have boxes that they will give you for free so you can save money on buying boxes (and maybe get yourself your pint of ice cream or beer, now that they’re not just for stress relief).

Good luck. Don’t explode. And if you need moving help, bribe people with pizza or massages or mix cds if you’re broke or fancy chocolates or a nice dinner or concert tickets if you’re one of those grad students rolling in money (second in rarity only to the unicorn)….