Tuesday's article in the housing series under headline "A good tenant is hard to find" drew an angry response from two single mothers searching for accommodations.

`Charles', the landlord interviewed in the article, stated how many landlords were reluctant to rent to single women or women with children. But the two mothers think that such an attitude is unfair on responsible women who deserve to be treated fairly.

"I take exception to landlords who only want to rent their apartments exclusively to foreigners or married couples," said `Frustrated and Still Looking' who wrote a letter to the Editor in response.

"I find it hard to believe nowadays that there is any thought of reasonable affordable prices when landlords rent their units. As it is a nightmare for landlords to end up with the wrong tenant, it is also a nightmare for tenants to end up with the wrong landlord."

`Lisa' also took offence to some of the comments made by `Charles'. As a school teacher with a four-year-old daughter she, too, is frustrated by the reluctance of some landlords to rent to women.

"I have placed an ad in the your paper for a professional single female with four-year-old daughter and didn't get any response to it," said Lisa who has also responded to countless ads.

"I've called everywhere and they don't even call me back, and that's because women are stereotyped. Not all of us have umpteen children.

"I think the landlord should meet with the person before they turn them down. Yes, definitely ask for references, two or three if you have to. It's been a struggle and I can imagine there are other women out there like me."

`Lisa' moved out of her parents' home when her daughter was born, even though she was not pressured to. At the end of January of this year her landlady asked her to vacate her apartment because the landlady wanted the place.

"They took me to court to get me out but I researched it and proved the notice invalid," she explained.

"I moved out on my own and I'm going to see it to the end. I feel going back home is a failure on my part, I want to make it on my own. My momma and daddy were like `come back home' but I said `no way, I choose to be on my own, it's my daughter and I and I want to look after her myself'."

`Lisa' says the bad tenants out there are making it hard for others to get a fair chance.

"I have excellent references from both landlords and the only reason that I was put out of the other one, too, was because he needed it for his family."

`Lisa' received an encouraging phone call from a landlord two days ago, which looks like leading to the apartment she has been looking for.

"He told me he was putting me to the top of the list, to go and see it and it I wanted it I could have it," she revealed.

If just so happens the landlord knows her parents, so that helped.

"I practically had to sell myself, `if you want references, I can give you references, a financial statement'. I told him my rent is the first thing I take out of my cheque, that's how my daddy taught me, to `pay your roof'.

Lisa's plight has forced her parents to put their condo up for sale and look to buy a three unit house so that their two daughters won't ever have to struggle with housing again.

"That's the only way we can survive because the price of houses is so high," said Lisa who is trying to better herself by pursuing a Master's degree.

"It gets frustrating, it really does."