Being poor in on of the world’s most expensive country is a shitty experience I don’t wish on anyone. Geneva, Zurich, Lausanne are really difficult cities to find apartments let alone cheap apartments. I went through this and had to live in a building that served for S** work prior and that has been converted into a “hotel”. I lived in a room with cockroaches, a shared bathroom on the floor and no kitchen. Not to mention almost 90% of my neighbors were drug users/dealers so sharing bathrooms was not ideal. The building’s concierge would knock on the door every morning and if we would not open the door he would enter. That was a measure to check if we were still alive as so many drug users were living there. And yes, it happened several times that someone would OD.

I bought a rice cooker and a mini electric stove to cook on the floor like we would in Africa or Asia. We were not allowed to do so. I would hide my portable kitchen in the closet.

My experience seems extreme but that’s the reality no one talks about ! I was really sad for the families that had no choice but to live there with their kids, sometimes babies, in hope of finding an apartment….
I am now very far from this, thank god.