“My partner and I have had to scramble for housing twice: once when we first moved here (two years ago) and once about a year ago,” Dorney, 39, said. “That kind of inspired me to write this zine because it was so stressful to not know where we were going to live next, and I started thinking and reflecting back on my rental experiences in other places because I’ve rented for 17 years. I was like, ‘Well, why is it so different here? Why is this stressing me out? This has never stressed me out before.’ … That’s what got me thinking about this and possibly the idea of sharing my story.

“We have safe and secure housing now and I’m extremely grateful for that, but as every renter in the Adirondack region knows, it could change at any moment for you,” she added.

Dorney printed the zine covers via linoleum block printing, a technique in which an artists carves a mirrored image into a linoleum block, rolls ink onto the block and stamps the block on paper to transfer the image. She printed them at Bluseed Studios in Saranac Lake. The zine was made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York state Council on the Arts, which is supported by Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office and the state Legislature. Dorney’s grant was administered by the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts in Blue Mountain Lake.

“I was very impressed by it. It felt to me like a bit of an open house kind of thing,” said Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts SCR coordinator and Saranac Lake resident Fred Balzac. “I thought it was highly creative, a really excellent way to present her project to the public.”

Renters in attendance at the zine launch were encouraged to share their own stories about renting in the Tri-Lakes, which will be compiled into a zine by Erin Dorney early next year. (Provided photo — Tyler Barton)

After sharing her housing story by reading from her “House Zine,” Dorney invited renters in attendance to participate in the creation of a second community zine, asking them to contribute an anonymous page to the zine and answer questions about their experience as renters placed around the Cantwell Room.

“You could write anything you want to say about housing,” she said. “So, some people drew pictures, some people shared their stories — mostly anonymously — and we’re going to be compiling those into a zine that’s just freely available around town in early 2024.”

Kate Glenn, 40, has rented in the Adirondacks for 17 years. She said that the event was “cathartic and therapeutic.” Until she swapped stories with other renters, she had no idea how universal her experiences were.

“I felt like I wasn’t an adult because I was renting, or people saw me as lacking in financial security because I was a renter,” Glenn said. “You could see some of other people’s comments, and I suddenly realized there was a lot of similarity, which I never realized before. I wasn’t alone in these experiences or thoughts and maybe it wasn’t okay to be made to feel like I didn’t deserve a nice place to live.”

An anecdote that particularly affected Glenn was when Dorney said that she felt as though she didn’t have a right to nice furniture since she had to move a lot.

Writer Erin Dorney presents “House Zine,” an artist’s book that tells the story of her 17 years as a renter, in the Cantwell Room of the Saranac Lake Free Library Monday night. (Provided photo — Kate Glenn)

“I’ve had some situations where I’ve felt like, what’s the point in investing in nice things if I’m just going to move again?” Glenn said. “I just found myself relating to what she had experienced. I didn’t feel so alone about it.”

Dorney said that creating the zine helped her feel less alone, too.

“I believe in that thing that you hear sometimes, which is ‘If you are scared to write about something, then you should write about it,'” she said. “For me, that has really been true because the things that I’ve written about in my work that are most vulnerable, like housing and my digestive issues, have often been the ones that most resonate with readers.”

Phil Newton, chair of the Adirondack Voters for Change Affordable Housing Committee, attended the zine launch with some fellow Voters for Change members. He said that Dorney’s writing “poetically and profoundly” described the difficulty that renters face in the Tri-Lakes, helping them understand the scope and impact of the local housing crisis.

“People of my generation — I’m a boomer — tend to have a very generous housing situation,” he said. “It just came across as we don’t really feel as much as we should or understand or empathize with the needs of young people. And, of course, knowing that (the housing crisis) impacts us. We see it all over the place with businesses not operating at full staff, schools and the hospital not being able to staff with the people who want to live here. So, it’s unfortunate that gulf can’t be closed a little better.”

Writer Erin Dorney presents “House Zine,” an artist’s book that tells the story of her 17 years as a renter, in the Cantwell Room of the Saranac Lake Free Library Monday night. (Provided photo — Kate Glenn)

The event was also an opportunity for renters to be honest about their renting experiences without fear of retribution, according to Dorney. She plans to pass the anecdotes she gathered along to the village’s housing committee and the Harrietstown Town Council.

“It was cool to have that many renters there, and I think that them hearing me share my story empowered them to share their stories,” she said. “The stories that are going to come out in this community zine, the community and everyone who’s working on housing in the region need to hear (them). Because it’s really hard to get renters to speak openly and honestly about their experiences because often their housing is at risk.”

Though not currently a renter, Balzac said that he grew up in a renting family and knew firsthand the unique difficulties that came with the territory. He hopes that Dorney’s work will inspire local governments to create better structures to assist renters when they find themselves in difficult situations.

“People are reluctant to complain about their landlord or conditions they live in because they could find themselves out the door, and people shouldn’t have to feel like that,” he said. “People who rent who have difficulties should be able to go to a local authority and, with some confidentiality, be able to file a complaint and not worry about retribution.”

Glenn, who said that she has had some “awful housing experiences” and has heard many more similar anecdotes, thinks that increasing renters’ knowledge of their rights is only half the battle. The other half is more complicated: holding landlords accountable in a system where they hold all the power.

Erin Dorney (Photo provided)

“Right now, I feel like I’m alone facing a landlord,” she said. “Because there’s a (housing) shortage, if I hold them accountable, I could lose my housing.”

The ultimate goal of the House Zine and the forthcoming community zine is to spread awareness across the community not only about the housing shortage but also the emotional and social challenges that renters face, Dorney said.

“The theme that keeps coming up for me is that, it’s going to sound so cheesy, but renters are people, too. We are just people, and we deserve clean places to live and we deserve a place to live that is just as nice as where the landlord is living,” she said. “There is a stigma about renting, and it just kind of blows my mind. It’s not even an age thing, because there’s a huge percentage of renters who are seniors and they’re dealing with housing scarcity as well.

“The thing I want to communicate most is, especially for homeowners, if you haven’t been a renter in the last even 10 years, it’s completely different now. It’s really hard, and it’s particularly hard here,” she added.