Tuesday, 20. November 2007, 04:21:49
illness, journal, shy-drager, lab rat's desk
...
Wednesday, 7. November 2007, 06:19:07
evictions, 2010?, poverty, eviction
...
Are my Neighbours really heartless facists?
I am tired of all the negativity projected onto my building by a residents association I had never heard of until reading and article interviewing them on the building I live in, brought on by the mass evictions at 2100 block of Pandora Street. That building, which after a flood brought on by a despicable lack on maintenance had the city mass evict the tenants. Those tenants are having a very rough time finding housing, mostly because there is none, none that would approach the level of housing they had in that fated building. They had their own place, their own kitchen and bathroom. Most of the housing out there at their level of income will have neither.
The arguments goes, well they won't have bed bugs and mice, and floods at least. No one can guarantee that. Bedbugs have no notion of what is and what is not the appropriate building to infest. It takes on traveller on a coat to start and infestation. The bug doesn't suddenly realize he's in the Hyatt and immdiately packs up and leaves to the Lower East Side. I've seen mice and rats on Granville Island, well fed. Lots of expensive, yet leaky condos sport molds, fungus and floods, every bit as noxious. If it was so much worse at the building at 2100 Pandora it was for one reason, the tenants were poor and the landlord knew he would have tenants whether he spent money on the building or not. The landlord has no competition, he doesn't have to try. If there were sufficient units for people in low income groups to rent they would choose the best for their money and this slumlord would soon find himself with a largely vacant building. With more buildings to choose from tenants could be choosier as to hygiene, upkeep and other tenants. Most of us would, given the choice choose to live somewhere safe from the criminal element.
Textile Blog(More) -
Word Pressed
Rate Me on Blog Hop!
Sphere It
Friday, 2. November 2007, 08:34:03
punishment, poverty, living, olympics
...
Still have the same bloody headache so the last few weeks have not been terribly productive. Nonetheless there has been movement. In another week I can pick up my passport after which I can get the local Identification (which required a passport or local birth certificate, hence the passport first. Yesterday I finally got my replacement bus pass, so that means I can get about, and it won';t cost me every time.
Unfortunately my knee isn't getting better as I would like and it caused me grief, in time it might get better. The police are closing my file, or rather it is now inactive as nothing new has happened or come up (nothing found, and the only likely suspect cannot be called in on what they have currently), sigh. I still find myself not quite as resolute of step and am still looking over my shoulder far too much.
I still have a lot of paperwork to do, much of it futile. The victim's assistance will only help with medical and counselling costs but not with replacing stolen goods, maybe with added transportations costs (stolen bus pass), but for that alone it is a lot of paperwork. That 20 dollar cheque that social services had agreed to add in for those emergency funds, never materialised, something they said to get me out of the building. I expected it, they take joy in the misery of others (shadenfreude).
I'll be back to my jolly self if I can get a break from this headache. Certainly I know who values me, friends and family, and devalues me, the government and agencies designed to help out those in need (throwing the helpless on the compost heap). I've passed through the worst of my nightmare, but if I have an ounce of spare energy here and there it will be spent screaming at the people in charge over their utter failure to help the needy, and that includes the media, who failed to do any kind of follow up when the people a block away from me suddenly found themselves homeless, quite a few now wander all day long with their few possessions, shelter to shelter. It sickens me to see the sanctimonious lot fawning over the 2010 Olympics and the surplus of tax monies in this province.
no dignity when money runs out
More....
Textile Blog(More) -
Word Pressed
Rate Me on Blog Hop!
Sphere It
(0%)
WIDGETIZE