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Alameda Senior With Incredible Model Railroad Struggling To Pay Rent

ALAMEDA (CBS SF) -- An Alameda senior and his elaborate model railroad set could become the next victim of the Bay Area's out of control rent.

A hobbyist who was sure he'd never have to leave his home, Charlie Edwards now finds himself in search of a new place to live.

For eight years, Edwards has been a good tenant in his modest Alameda apartment, but it was his hobby that really seemed to please the previous landlord.

His entire living and dining rooms have been transformed into a model train excursion through the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

"When he saw this he said, 'Well, I know I got a tenant here that's not gonna be movin' for years!'" Edwards said with a smile.

From the stock yard to the lumber mill, the attention to detail in the model based on the area near Yosemite at around the turn of the century is incredible.  And it should be, Edwards been working on it for more than a decade.

But last June, this 79-year-old retiree's life slid off the rails when the new landlord came to talk about his rent.

"They raised it 24 percent," said Edwards. "It leaves me with $289 to live off of a month."

Edwards now gets food from the Food Bank and his clothes from Goodwill.  But he is reluctant to add much more to his fantasy railroad, knowing that he soon may have to leave it all behind.

"It's very stressful, for me and others," explained Edwards.

And as competition for housing increases, there are a lot of others.  Housing advocates say the long-term solution is to build more affordable units.

"I think it's also making sure we have strong tenant protections, rent control and just cause for eviction," said Charlotte Rosen, a communications associate with East Bay Housing Organizations. "And making sure that folks who live here now are not getting displaced."

Edwards has become a housing activist himself, campaigning for a rent control ballot initiative.  It's all he can do as life rolls on, leaving him standing alone at the station.

Subsidized housing in Alameda is in short supply. The city recently opened a section 8 voucher program for the first time in 11 years and got 36,000 applications.

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