Life As Performance Art 77

Good morning, Gentle Reader! And welcome to summer! It is the solstice today, the longest day, and after that it's all downhill again until Christmas. Now, doesn't that make you feel better? I have a friend in Colombia with whom I Skype on a regular basis. He is quite intrigued that we have daylight here after six in the evening. On the other hand he has also taken note that in December the sun goes down just after four. This week, one of our best building managers is going on to another position, and we will have new management. Hers are going to be big shoes to fill. It often works this way. The best ones almost never stay. I have met the new management staff. One of them, well, I seem to have to remind him at times that I am old enough to be his father (hell, I don't even enjoy reminding myself of that!). We were having a celebration reception for the exiting management, and it was advertised by a notice in the elevator. The biggest words on said notice? FREE FOOD. Naturally, I felt insulted, as I am sure that some other tenants must have felt. So, I thought up a little strategy, not to get even, but to simply let them know that here at More Than A Roof Housing, we the tenants just happen to be more than our stomachs. A lot more. So, early this week, I left a snappy little message on the office voice mail. I thanked the assistant manager for the notice, and for this invitation to a free food event, which incidentally will also be attended by our outgoing manager. I also thanked him for having such a high opinion of the tenants who live here in Candela Place. I don't ordinarily attend tenant events in my building, by the way, and I will eventually tell you why. But I did get downstairs to see everyone, to express a warm appreciation to our outgoing manager, and to meet and chat with her successor (who looks pretty good, so far, but time will tell!). The assistant manager was cordial, otherwise he didn't bat an eye. Several people, tenants among them, fairly insisted that I have something to eat. I graciously declined, saying, quite truthfully, that I have lots of food in my apartment, and that I do not attend these events for the FREE FOOD, and I made a very visible point of not partaking. And now, Gentle Reader, this is why I do not attend these events. First of all, there is always going to be, between landlords and tenants, a power imbalance that weighs on the side of management. In a social housing situation that power imbalance is often going to be huge. We, the tenants, are going to be poor and low income, many of us are going to have psychological and emotional issues, trauma, mental health diagnosis and other forms of disability. In many ways, we are at the mercy of our housing providers and the staff they employ. It is very kind of them to want to feed us, and to do their due diligence to see that we are taken care of. But charity never addresses a power imbalance, and in the long run only reinforces it. My modus operandi, since moving into Candela Place seventeen years ago as one of their first tenants, was to get my life moving forward again. For me, this meant complete independence. In exchange for incredibly low rent, I resolved to be and remain a good, responsible and loyal tenant, and I believe that I have held up my end of the bargain. However, in order to fully empower myself, I have had to turn down my housing providers' offers of kindness and charity, not out of scorn, and not simply out of stubborn pride, but because for me that would just be yet another obstacle on the way. I have opted instead to live as an equal, and to address as equals, my housing providers. I believe this has actually helped us get along in the long term. I am still, actually, glad that they provide these goodies to tenants, since not all of us are going to be in the same place in our lives, and some are so financially hobbled from the crappy low social assistance and pension incomes they receive, that it is good that they have this bit of extra to help keep them alive. I only hope and trust that for many of my neighbours here, this is not going to end up meaning that they have bartered off their dignity for a morsel of pizza.