Hard hearts in Colorado, while poor citizens lose their apartments

[Kanary]

How do we keep growing these people? All they can do is defend themselves, and have absolutely no concern for those who are suffering? :nuke:

If there is any justice, someday she will be on the street herself:

http://9news.com/acm_news.aspx?OSGNAME=KUSA&IKOBJECTID=046e9be4-0abe-421a-0082-5bbf8059634a&TEMPLATEID=0c76dce6-ac1f-02d8-0047-c589c01ca7bf

DENVER - Fran Patterson is now living with her in-laws. The 55-year-old recipient of food stamps, Medicaid assistance, and cash was evicted from her apartment after she couldn't come up with the rent.
(snip)
The problem could be the result of a new computer system the state put in on Sept. 1st. The system, commonly called CBMS, is supposed to streamline distribution of food stamps, Medicaid assistance, and cash benefits to Human Services clients.

"I think it's a major program being initiated, and there are bumps in the road, absolutely, but I think we're doing everything we can to eliminate them as they arise," said Liz McDonough, spokesperson with the Colorado Department of Human Services.

County workers said there are many problems with the system, but to no avail.

(snip)
"We're not going back, we have to work through whatever bumps there are," said McDonough.

[Cleita]

1. We certainly seem to be moving backwards into

into the nineteenth century, instead of forward into the twenty-first century with our social programs. I think landlords have too much of the law on their side anyway. There really has to be some laws to protect tenants from this type of glitch.

[Kanary]

2. Certainly, when it's not at all their fault! THere needs to be a guarante

by the government, that prohibits landlords from even *thinking* of evicting!

This is evil and cruel.

What got to me is that "director" had not one word of concern for what it was doing to people. I guess human life has no meaning to her.

:mad:

Kanary

[G_j]

3. " bumps in the road, "

Is that what you say after you run over somebody?
What a cold way to treat human beings.
Can America still find it's heart?
Stories like this make that possibilty appear to be a long way off.
Still, I meet really good caring people all the time, so there is also hope. I think we have a choice of before us and it is not an easy one.

[Kanary]

5. Thanks, G_j, I was so knocked over by her heartlessness, and

appreciate a voice of sanity! This has really gotten to me.

I'd like to ask for some here to please help me with this by contacting this office. However, I' ve been unable to find any email addy. GRRRRR!

Here's all I've been able to find:

Marva Livingston Hammons, Executive Director, Colorado Department of Human Services.

1575 Sherman Street
Denver, CO 80203-1714

Main: 303.866.5700
Fax: [phone]

If any of you can help me to give them at least a bit of feedback, I'd be most appreciative. I can assure you this isn't something that many will respond to. :cry:

Kanary

[G_j]

6. I'll try

Do you remember the eviction scene in M Moore's "Rodger and Me"? That has stuck with me ever since I first saw it.
I wonder how many times this scenario is repeated every day in this country?

[Kanary]

7. It's repeated more times than you'd like to know.

Next year, when those cuts to HUD take place that I keep screaming about, there will be over 100,000 left with nowhere to go.

Wanna take bets about how much of that makes the news?

Kanary :mad:

[bread_and_roses]

4. $300.00 a month

Obviously, living high on the hog at the public trough. Why isn't the Social Services Department issuing some sort of voucher to landlords? Most landlords would rather not go through the hassle of getting new tenants and would wait if their money was assured. "Bump in the road" ...easy for some bureaucrat to say; losing housing is one of the most devastating and hard to recover from events that can happen to someone who is poor.

But then, we stopped caring about people in poverty in this society a long time ago, and Clinton's welfare "reform" was another boot in the face to the poor - giving permission to treat those in need as less than worthy of basic human necessities like food and shelter.

[Eloriel]

13. You're so right, kenzee

losing housing is one of the most devastating and hard to recover from events that can happen to someone who is poor.

It's a BIG step in that proverbial downward spiral -- very hard to recover from. Very hard to get much sympathy about (as the article demonstrates), and you become really invisible to most of society.

Horrible, heartbreaking, scarey.

[BiggJawn]

8. So did McDonough buy the crappy software that's screwing up?

Sounds like it. "It's a really GREAT system, just a few bugs in getting it implemented, but once it's fully integrated, it'll be great!"

And if she pulls this off, a nice, fat job with the software vendor awaits her....

Ask a college student who REALLY wanted to go to IU this fall how much they like IU's new "Peoplesoft" enrollment software. Or ask the ones who did get enrolled, but still havent received money for meals or textbooks yet...

[Kanary]

9. You're probably exactly right. PPppffftttt on her integrity!

Her little project meant much more to her than people's lives. That is the state of our country now.

Greed.

Selfishness.

Self-promotion at the expense of poor folk.

SHE MAKES ME SICK! :puke:

Kanary

[tjwash]

10. The article does not say what kind of a tenant she was.

Speaking as a landlord, I personally would not evict someone who was late on the rent if they had a good excuse, simply because it makes no business sense to have a place empty, and be stuck with a payment, and the fact that good tenants are extremely hard to find.

If she was a good tenant, of course I would let it slide, however, if she was a difficult tenant who was habitually late on her rent, I would have to consider the eviction process. The thing is, the fact that I cleared her to rent the dwelling in the first place would have been my fault if indeed she was a difficult tenant. The eviction process can be very painful for a landlord as well, because the court and sheriffs department need to get involved, and it is not unusual to get stuck with several months unpaid rent in the interim.

Apartments are a different matter though. The sleaziest people I have ever met were apartment managers...

[Kanary]

11. I figured there would be *someone* who would want to

blame the victim.

I'm not even going to dignify this with a reply.

Maybe someday you'll be caught in something like this, find yourself on the street, or sleeping on your relatives couch, and think back to this....

Kanary

[tjwash]

12. Excuse me?

Where the hell did I blame the victim?

[REP]

15. I Wondered If There Was More To This Story

It is usually a very long, drawn-out process to evict the disabled. If the system was just put in place Sept. 1, how far behind on her rent could this system have made her?

You know, being poor and/or diabled doesn't automatically elevate one to sainthood. Poor/disabled people are as likely to be good/bad tenants as anyone else.

[Cleita]

17. Not necessarily.

Maybe he had his eye on collecting more rent and knew he couldn't raise the rent on this tenant. Sometimes in rent conrolled apts., the tenant has to move before you can raise the rent. It could be this gave him the excuse he needed to get the apartment vacant.

As a renter all my life, I can say for sure that too many landlords are heartless, money grabbers when they can get away with it. I once was told that if I couldn't afford the raise in rent, in an apartment I had lived in for five years, because the location was becoming more desirable, that I should move to a poorer neighborhood.

The landlord had no interest in what an upheavel this move would cause me, between having to pay for first and last months rent and clean up for a new apt., moving fees and the deposits on utilities really make a move a very expensive thing for people who are living from paycheck to paycheck. For people on public assistance, it's an even bigger burden.

I have had nice landlords, with a heart, but there were far more greedy ones in number to the nice ones.

[REP]

18. I Know About Crappy Landlords -

That's how I know the process to evict a disabled tenant. It can't be done in 15 days. Period. There's more to this than is being told. It could be that there's a heartless landlord, but it could also be an irresponsible tenant as well.

[Kanary]

19. Yeah, of course... how DARE that irresponsible tenant NOT RECEIVE HER

STATE PAYMENTS!!!

HOW NEGLECTFUL OF HER!

:mad: :nuke: :mad: :nuke: :mad: :nuke:

[REP]

26. Helloooooo - It Takes MORE THAN 15 DAYS TO EVICT A DISABLED TENANT

DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND THAT?

[tjwash]

23. That happened to me too...

...and it truly is awful, especially when all most sleezebag apartment managers need to do is refuse to renew your lease, which would then necessitate a move on your part. All because the apartment manager at the time did not like my wife.

As the article goes, I am interested in why being late, they would want to evict, especially since eviction can be an extremely long and drawn out process. I would not think of doing it personally, unless that is an absolute last resort, such as violence, completely not paying rent, or if they were dealing drugs out of the place.

My tenant, being a single working mom, has been late numerous times on the rent, but that is because she is a single working mom, and it can be tough to make ends meet. I know, I have been there as a single working dad in the past, but she is also a great tenant, and am privileged to have her.

[ninkasi]

14. Absolutely heartless...

Amazing, isn't it, that the more the right wing gains in this country, the meaner people become. Now, considering the fact that this is the party who dresses in the flag, and wants to replace valid science with the Bible, it seems ironic that the more they control, the less of Jesus' lessons they obey and practice.

Jesus was very clear on being charitable, forgiving, and taking care of the poor, the needy, the elderly, and the children. What part of his message do they not understand? Hypocrites, every one of them, hellbent on making a hell on earth to those who are less fortunate.

[strategery blunder]

16. And a freeper told me that the "more I grow in Christ,

the more I'll see the failings of modern liberalism" today.

This is B.S. Stories like this are the failings of MODERN CONSERVATISM. But he thinks it's ok to ignore the poor, never mind what Jesus said--this freeper only cares about Paul's teachings re sin and homosexuality. As do most freepers:grr::mad:

[calimary]

22. MAN what a great assessment! It's absolutely true! As these people

gain in power and influence, they move farther and farther away from the "principles" they holler about embracing so fervently. IGMFU, I tell ya. I-Got-Mine, F-U. Guess they forgot everything except the "am I my brother's keeper?" part. They really ARE the Party of Cain. And don't even get me started on the "blessed are the peacemakers..." part.

Look, since I have no influence, no big name, no strings I can pull, and no platform from which to pontificate (except here on the internet), all I can do is nag. If enough people get on it and nag, something might actually get accomplished. I don't think anybody at the top really understands history, though. I was telling my husband just the other night that it's clear nobody learned any lessons from the Romanoffs. You ignore the plight of the peasants long enough and they're liable to revolt, drag you away, and leave your bodies chopped up and incinerated at the bottom of a dry well.

[wildflower]

20. This is a pet peeve of mine (to put it mildly)...

...as someone who is disabled and has lived below the poverty line and without insurance.

And I have personally seen things like this happen to countless other women, women who are ill, women in chronic pain. Where do we go--what do we do--when there is no one to depend on?

The Republicans' answer is to ensure that "everyone who can work will have a job."

What of those who cannot work?

The Republicans' answer is "neighbor helping neighbor" or "family taking care of their own."

What of those who have no family? Who are too ill to have gotten to know neighbors? Or whose friends simply don't understand?

And in my experience, the people who are hurt most by this "take care of our own" policy are women, who make up the most of this particular population.

To top it off, sick/disabled women are continually disbelieved or mistreated by doctors. Turned down for social security disability. (Or cut off from it without a word.) Living in poverty because they are too ill to work enough.

How are those of us in this category to survive under the doctrine of social darwinism?

When you see something like this happening, please do what you can; write, call, help the person out. I can tell you it is a terrible and frightening situation to be in.

-wildflower

[bread_and_roses]

21. Regarding tenant "responsibility"

I live in NY, but the $300.00 amount sound similar to the grant for a single person on "welfare" in NYS. In NYS, the person would recieve approxamately $137.00 for general needs and $218.00 for rent with heat included, plus food stamps and medicaid. Having frequently worked with people in poverty on housing issues, I can tell you that here, many of the cheapest apartments are owned by "Reality" companies who can be very draconian about unpaid rent. And technically, a person here can be evicted in three days for unpaid rent.

Of course, the reality is that if one is trying to live on a little over $300.00 a month, one often has difficulty paying the rent. Buying a bottle of aspirin (not covered by medicaid or food stamps)and a pair of shoes when your one pair finally gets too big a hole, and using public transportation to grocery shop, etc., can eat into the rent budget pretty quick. And, here at least, even if one is lucky enough to find an apartment that includes heat, often the electric is separate and must be paid by the tenant. Being a "bad tenant" is often not about irresponsibility, but simply an inevitable consequence of not having enough money to provide basic needs.

If this woman is recieving "welfare" then I would doubt that she is technically disabled, since those with serious medical disabilities are usually recieving Social Security Disability ("SSD") if they have a work history or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) if they have never worked or if their work history does not provide them with roughly SSD of $630.00 a month (the SSI grant - varies some, I think from state to state). For a person on "welfare" SSI sounds generous, since it is roughly twice the amount of a Public Assisstance grant. However, it still leaves a single person well below the official poverty level for one person. Of course, she may be applying for SS, or have challenges around work that do not reach the level required for SS, or maybe there is simply no work available.

I have to laugh when people new to human services talk about teaching people in poverty to "budget." Most people in poverty can budget better than thee and me. But since we as a society refuse to admit that we have an economic system that depends on a large pool of expendable labor and that there are some few people who are simply too challenged in too many ways to support themselves and it is both cheaper and civilized to simply help those folks we will continue to blame the poor and say "tough" - "bump in the road" when they spiral down into homelessness.

If anyone doubts how indifferent we have become to the very lives of those in poverty, think about the preparations for the poor in the event that IVAN hit New Orleans - 10,000 body bags.

[Kanary]

25. All accurate and right one..... one point for quibble....

About your supposition that the woman isn't disabled, because then she would be on SSD or SSI. Given that there is often at least 2 years waiting for those claims to come through, she could be completely disabled, with no other alternative, and doing everything she can to get someone to process her claim. If she were to work at all in that time, her claim would be nullified.

Actually, I would suspect that this is the case.

How *ANYONE* is supposed to exist in that situation is totally beyond me. People who are dealing with that should be hailed as heroes for being that determined to live!!

I appreciate your scornful words for the idea of "teaching them to budget" -- what paternalistic CRAP!! Y''know, I think the only answer to that is to require these so-called "social workers" to have to live themselves on that amount of money for a year before they are assigned a case load, so that they learn what they are actually saying to people, and just how it hurts. I know that won't happen, but I think that's the only way for these idiots to GET IT.

Thanks for all your input!! This means a lot to me!

Kanary

[calimary]

24. Kick!