i know not if it will help, but, i did send a plea to
2 influential media outlets in new york city.

--- Jonathan Rand <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Many of you will not be able to help me in any way
> with this, but I think
> you need to know what’s happening nevertheless.  I
> suspect this happens to
> many of the physically disabled poor.  Their lives
> get torn apart, and
> nobody knows about it.  Some rich landlord gets a
> little richer, while a
> poor person, (even someone with severe
> disabilities), loses their home,
> their possessions, and even their connections with
> other people!
>
> After being taken in by a friend who was mentally
> ill, (after losing my own
> apartment), and after that person became sicker, and
> had to leave here, the
> landlord is evicting me.  There are no affordable
> apartments available in
> Manhattan, and if you’re talking about wheelchair
> accessible apartments,
> FORGET IT!  (I use a wheelchair.)  (I won’t survive
> in an outlying borough,
> in a dangerous neighborhood, isolated from people in
> Manhattan that help me!
>   I’ve already been physically attacked by “young
> males” from the projects,
> so I steer clear of those kinds of places.  I’m not
> sure what was thrown at
> me at one point.  I think it was a bottle.)
>
> The landlord is apparently thinking about the
> “bottom line!”  He let the
> back rent build up…  Legal Aid told me they
> “couldn’t do anything until it
> came right down to the wire!”  And the landlord
> needed to serve me with
> eviction papers before they would act.  A lot of
> time went by.  I was
> served, (a few times), with papers having to do with
> THE CAR’S PARKING
> SPACE, downstairs in the parking lot, but no one
> came to my door with
> anything having to do with the apartment.  An
> eternity went by, but nobody
> lifted a finger to head something like this off!  I
> knew I was headed for a
> very bad situation but there was little I could do!
> I’m severely disabled.
> A nonverbal spastic, athetoid quad, (like CEREBRAL
> PALSY), with low vision.
> I can’t use a phone or read text.  Email is my only
> line to “the outside
> world,” and until recently, I couldn’t even leave
> this neighborhood!  The
> electric scooter I got from Medicaid, DIDN’T FIT ON
> THE BUS!  And when I
> complained about this, (at United Cerebral Palsy,
> down on East 23rd Street,
> here in New York, I was told, “that was the only
> scooter that could be
> approved.  That’s the law!  And if I didn’t like it,
> I should go to
> Washington and LOBBY!”  (I guess they expected me to
> crawl there…..!)
>
> Anyway, the landlord refused my friend’s rent check,
> saying he violated the
> lease.  When he got sicker, he went to his
> girlfriend’s, so she could take
> care of him, leaving me here alone.  The landlord
> said: “he wasn’t living
> here, and he had an illegal sublet.”  My friend
> didn’t tell the landlord
> that I was here, BECAUSE HE SUFFERED FROM A
> DISABLING ANXIETY DISORDER.  He
> was AFRAID to!  The lease was never violated
> maliciously!
>
> Someone in the neighborhood helped me get a
> Section-8 rent voucher.  So soon
> after my friend left, I had the ability to pay the
> rent here!  (This is a
> RENT STABILIZED apartment, and the rent is only $100
> more than my voucher!)
> Current rents everywhere else, are much much higher,
> so staying here seemed
> like the best option.  If I’m forced to leave, my
> life will be literally
> torn apart!  I’ve learnt, over the years, to take
> care of myself IN THIS
> APARTMENT!  The placement of the sink, in relation
> to the bathtub, is
> important because of the routines I established so I
> could wash and brush my
> teeth in the morning!  if I get on the floor, and
> lean over the bathtub, I
> can do things like wash my face, or eat on my own!
> I rigged a hose, going
> from the bathroom sink faucet, to the bathtub, so I
> could fill a cup, or wet
> a cloth.  It used to take me five hours to wash &
> dress everyday!  Now I can
> do it in under two hours!  Take me away from this
> apartment, and I’m
> “helpless” again!  I took YEARS to figure out how to
> do this stuff here, and
> I dread having to start all over!  It took me for
> ever to find the right
> hose, that would fit in the bathroom sink faucet!
>
> And also, like most men, I guess, I’m fighting the
> aging process!  :)  My
> hair is turning grey!  I darken my mustache!  You
> might think that this
> routine would be something I could let go of easily!
>  But I have an extra
> problem!  I was born with a facial deformity.  A
> cleft palate & lip.  I went
> through hell because of this, when I was younger,
> until I figured out how to
> cover it up, with a big “walrus” moustache!  The
> moustache, a pair of “John
> Lennon wire rim glasses, & a Beatle haircut,
> distracted people away from the
> deformity, and my life changed INSTANTLY!  Now that
> I’m older, the moustache
> is turning grey!  It’s losing its shape, and no
> longer doing its job,
> (unless I use that “stuff!”)  (“GREYaway, Only for
> ‘REAL’ MEN!)  :)  I made
> a kind of “vanity table” that fits in the BATHTUB.
> Getting down on the
> floor, and leaning over the tub, enbles me to color
> my mustache!  Hands
> free!  There’s a light, & an adjustable “jig” that
> holds a MIRROR and a
> BRUSH.  I have everything worked out!  From mixing
> the
> hair-dye GOO, to applying it, (by moving my head
> over the mounted brush),
> to rincing it off!  I use an electric screwdriver to
> unscrew the caps on the
> little tubes!  Everything’s worked out.  And the
> routine is very intricate!
> Change ANYTHING, and everything falls apart!
>
> I’m horrified at the prospect of not being able to
> take care of myself!  And
> the thought of uncovering that deformity after all
> these years totally
> floors me!  I’m actually surprised that even THIS
> landlord, (notorious for
> being cruel & mean), is doing this to me!
>
> People in the system, (social workers etc.), don’t
> really know what to do in
> cases like this.  And they’re constrained by rules &
> regulations, (and lack
> of money), so anyone in my position could easily
> “fall through the cracks “
> and get crushed!
>
> Legal Aid accepted my case about a year ago, and
> when eviction papers were
> served, I won that round in court on a technicality.
>  (My name wasn’t on the
> papers.)
>
> After that, time passed.  And little or nothing was
> done to try and head off
> the coming storm!  Rent bills started arriving.  I
> asked my social worker
> about these…  Could it be that the management office
> wasn’t aware of what
> was happening?  There was no response.
>
> When the lease was up, I got a rent bill saying,
> “your lease has expired.
> Call the office immediately.”  My social worker
> asked my Legal Aid lawyer
> what we should do about this, and was told that I
> shouldn’t worry about it.
> And that we needed to wait for actual eviction
> papers to arrive.  I’d get
> served, we’d go to court, and everything would take
> a really long time!
>
> Although I had the Section-8 voucher, back rent was
> building up.  And
> section-8 won’t pay that!  I asked about this, and
> was told that if the
> landlord accepted my voucher and allowed me to stay,
> the CITY would pay the
> back rent!  But until papers were served, nobody
> would do anything to head
> things off!
>
> I was worried about being put out in the street!  I
> was told, there’s a law
> that protects me, (because I’m severely disabled),
> and
=== message truncated ===


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