Questions you may have:


  1. Who needs housing
  2. Why do they need help
  3. What are the needs
  4. How can I help
  5. What are the housing preferences

1. Our friend Puck needs a place to live!


Puck is a sweetheart. Puck uses “he” or “they” pronouns. He is almost 40 but looks about 30, and carries a chubby youthful whimsy (along with the California accent). Since Puck arrived in Amsterdam in January they have (aside from housing instability) felt broadly safer and more comfortable existing in their (trans, autistic, chronically ill) body. This feels like a safer place for Puck to do the kind of work they do (generally, supporting marginalized communities, see http://bit.ly/reminderszine). New border procedures and travel warnings in the US suggest that it would not be a good idea for them to go back for a while. They’re sorry, they don’t speak Dutch (yet).

Puck is an advanced knitter, a well-experienced craftsperson, a bit of a storyteller, shy about being an improv performer and a writer, a thoughtful listener, and an emergent strategy practitioner. They are accidentally wearing headphones in all of their ID pictures because they are usually listening to music or a book or a podcast. They work and learn best with other people, but they tend to prefer a lot of quiet down-time when they’re at home. Their neurodivergent brain tends to process information through connection, context, and location (they might not immediately remember you but once they do, they will delightedly remind you of the cute thing you were wearing last time you met). 

Puck loves cats and would love to show you pictures of his now-deceased cat-baby, Butter Banana, if you want.

2. Puck doesn’t look great on paper

In Amsterdam mainstream housing applications are done online. Even for the people with a traditional income and fancy jobs and all the right boxes checked, it’s hard to find a place. Puck is an immigrant, self-employed (a requirement for their residency), and not yet working (they need housing stability to be able to do that), so there are some errors on the forms to even apply to most places. Puck has answers for those errors, if they have someone to talk to! But the automated process doesn’t care, and landlords have no incentive to take the time to work with folks with form errors. 

Puck is a great renter though. Puck is inherently a caregiver, and will take care of their place with love. Puck has always gotten their rental deposit back, and has taken care of properties both as a homeowner and as a member of a housing cooperative that owned its own building.

3. Specifically they are looking for...


  • A place to live
  • A place to register
  • Eventually, an atelier (this seems absurd to think about before housing is established, but it could be a good option for a sense of stability and the ability to start working on their creative reuse art practice again).
  • A place to leave a bag while they travel without a home-base.

4. How can you help?

  
  • Do you have a space where Puck could possibly stay? Let Puck know, check below to see if it might work but even if not they’re getting desperate.
  • Can Puck register at your place? This would allow them to stay at hostels where they can’t register, which would be cheaper.
  • Can you recommend a storage facility? Not having to move all their stuff around everywhere will be helpful for Puck who lives with chronic fatigue syndrome.
  • Could you please recommend Puck to your friendly landlords, friends with empty spaces, property management people, cooperatives, work-trade folks, anything that might work. If you can think of anyone who might be able to help, send them this page, send Puck their contact info, anything would be appreciated. Tell your friends! Pass it on! We’re all in this together.
  • Feeling stable financially yourself? Only if it’s no trouble for you, Puck would be grateful for your assistance with their ballooning housing costs (short-term housing gets more expensive in the tourist season). venmo @puckish or paypal [venmohandle] at gmail.
  • Puck Does Tasks: Do you need any creative work or writerly things or disability consulting or cat-sitting or silly little websites or anything similar? Puck will be more successful in these areas once their energy is not devoted to finding stable housing, but they love collaboration so are always open to potential projects.
  • Creativity celebrated! We’d love any ideas you have. xo

5. Housing preferences


Desperation aside, these housing hopes and dreams have been developed with much thought to sustainability and accessibility for Puck, since they have moved >30 times in the past 22 years.

  • Amsterdam or adjacent enough for late-night transit access
  • Non-shared room
  • Electricity
  • Non-shared kitchen or being able to have a fridge/kitchenette in the private space
  • If no elevator, second floor or lower
  • Staying cool is important, shade would be lovely.
  • If sharing space with people, it would be great for there to be pre-established conflict/communication expectations. If there aren’t, let’s chat about how we deal with inevitable conflict!
  • Ideally any walk from transit would have benches along the way.
  • Close to groceries would be great!