LAKEWOOD, Ohio – Some old people like to regale the young with stories about how much matinee movies cost 25 cents, circa 1960. These old people rarely mention that 25 cents in 1960 was the equivalent of $2.66 in today’s money today. And Coca-Cola was nothing. Give me a break; I always try to reference the Consumer Price Index (CPI) whenever I do historical flashbacks.

The CPI plays a big part in my life and work. I am the owner. I’m not going crazy with the annual rent increases, but enough to stay in the game. An efficient apartment in Lakewood costs around $700/month. It is a simple apartment dating from the 1920s: no dishwasher, no air conditioning, no elevator. Academics call these apartments “worker housing.” Tenants benefit from a kitchen, a bathroom and a living room which also serves as a bedroom. Approximately 350 square feet. You don’t throw big parties. If you present your efficiency tastefully, you can call it a studio. I’ve seen studios that look like sleek Pullman cars, with everything in the right place. I saw expensive folding bikes hanging on racks along the walls. An efficiency could be a piece of art or simply a huge pile of dirty clothes in the center of the room. It depends on the tenant.

Bill rented an efficiency in Lakewood. His apartment was clean, small and cheap, period. Nothing extraordinary. Bill told me his rent check was stolen. He had never been late with his rent before. I went to the Lakewood police station with him. A police officer asked him his name. Bill said, “Bill. »

“Guillaume? » said the policeman.

“Bill . . . Bill R. Hunter. Bill had moved to Cleveland from Kentucky several decades ago and was a retired factory worker. He smoked heavily and his right hand had no fingers We repainted the walls of Bill’s apartment almost every year because the government wanted the walls not to look like the color of Bill’s lungs. Bill’s rent was partially subsidized by the government.

Eventually, Bill was reimbursed for the stolen rent payment by a money order company. A crook had run over Bill on Detroit Avenue and cashed the money order. Cops arrested him weeks later. The Lakewood police are good.

But then Bill missed two rent payments in a row. I found out he was in a retirement home. I asked myself, “Would it be scary for me to try to collect rent in a nursing home?” » Bill’s estranged relatives did not return my calls and the government stopped paying his share of the rent. I went to the nursing home, which was right across the street from Bill’s apartment. Bill – with oxygen tubes up his nose – whispered to me, “You’ll get paid.” » Flat on his back, he held a wallet balanced on his chest. He counted the rent. “There you go, buddy.” He called a lot of people, buddy.

Then Bill’s wallet disappeared, and so did Bill. He was not in the nursing home or the hospital. And he wasn’t in the obituaries. And he owed rent. The housing agency finally gave me the “case closed” green light to enter Bill’s apartment. We threw Bill’s things in the dumpster, except for his television, which another tenant took.

Bill’s floors hadn’t been sanded again in 19 years. This is the time he had lived in efficiency. The cost of resanding floors has increased by 94%. Inflation increased by 53%. Bill’s rent increased 64% over those 19 years.

I called the Ohio Bureau of Vital Statistics. One employee said she had many dead Bill Hunters on file. I said “Bill R. Hunter.” Lake Woods. She said he died shortly after leaving the nursing home.

I doubt Bill ever checked the cost of living. He didn’t need it. He lived it. He used to write “diatribe” in the subject line of his checks.

Bert Stratton, a frequent contributor, lives in Cleveland Heights and has also written for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. He writes the blog “Klezmer Guy: real music and real estate.”