I posted over at Silverstar’s Magical Adventures about the Pseudo-inspection, but it makes me wonder what is going on? Not only did I get this notice of inspection that apparently wasn’t meant for me, but today when I took Friday out for her constitutional the Jesus Lady was outside wearing a homemade sandwich board alleging unfairness in the handling of residents by the Seattle Housing Authority. I stopped and had a long chat with her.

I call her the Jesus Lady because she puts on a prayer luncheon every month, wears a WWJD lanyard, and has a hat that says Jesus Love You. She runs clothing drives for the homeless, and does other good works. Every resident gets a Christmas card from her. She is a good-hearted soul, and apparently people bring their troubles to her.

The story I got from her was that some residents had been served ten day eviction notices apparently for cursing during one of the meetings we’ve had lately. I’m sorry, did someone say they didn’t like the fucking way things had been run? Oh, get over it.

I don’t know where this is coming from, I didn’t get a lot of specifics. Jesus Lady rightly said it wasn’t her story to tell. So I will tell here some things I see going on.

We were supposed to have our windows replaced this month. They are old, badly installed, and leak like a sieve. Which reminds me, I need to have maintenance come and caulk in the corner between the window and the wall, as even though I applied plastic over my window last winter, I still had a draft and needed many layers and a  quilted throw to sit in my chair and read or watch TV last  winter.

Well, the deal for the windows fell through for some reason. It’s fallen through every time they say they are going to do it, three times in the last five years. Meanwhile, not only do we freeze, our energy bills are sky high because we are heating the great outdoors. Not everybody knows about the plastic for the windows, can get to the hardware store to get it, or has a friend who will help apply it. Or can afford it. Personally, I think SHA should apply it for those who want it. What are they doing with all the money that gets appropriated for the windows we never get?

Anyway, during the meetings for the never appearing window replacements, the residents were told that we would be moved to a hotel for three days during replacement. This building was built in 1978, I am sure it is for asbestos abatement purposes that we are being moved. However, we were told we couldn’t come near our apartments while they were being worked on.

This upset some people. We are poor, all of us. Some of us have gotten everything we own from the free pile downstairs. Some people, like me, have a great deal of computer equipment or other nice things we bought with our crazy money. We are worried about our belongings.

Add to that the fact that in any building full of disabled people, there are bound to be a couple of paranoid schizophrenics. Tempers flared. Did this cause the discombobulation of certain residents, as has been alleged? Or is something else at play.

Now we come to the psuedo-inspection. Imagine how discombobulated you would be if you received notice that you were going to be inspected. Then they didn’t show up on the appointed day. Then they did show up the next Monday. This could be discombobulating to normal people, much less folks who may have problems with anxiety, depression, and paranoia. So were the notices that I received delivered to the wrong floor accidently, or on purpose? Either way, it’s either malicious or incompetent.

Recently, I had a run-in with a pay-or-vacate notice. When I got it, the letter that accompanied it was not addressed to me, but to someone else. That pissed me off, I don’t need other people knowing my business. Unless I tell them. I was assured that the other party was in the hospital, and didn’t get my letter. But I’m still pissed. And I’m pissed that I was charged $33 this month because they couldn’t find my automatically sent payment, and called it late. Bastards.

There may be racism involved. Not the way you would expect, however. Our big boss manager is black, at least one of the targeted residents is white. And being of the Caucasion persuasion myself… Oh, wait, paranoia is not one of my diagnoses.

I wanted to take a picture of the Jesus Lady’s sign. She wouldn’t let me. I told her I would blog about it. She said The Lord would take care of it. Reminds me of the story of the man on his rooftop in a flood. A raft floated by, but he knew God would save him. One of his neighbors in a boat came by, but he knew God would save him. A helicopter tried to pick him up, but he knew God would save him. Inevitably, he eventually drowned and was met at the pearly gates by Saint Peter. His first question is why God didn’t save him. To which Saint Peter replied, “We sent a raft, a boat and a helicopter. What were you waiting for?”