I was just intercepted by one of the tenants in my building who happens to be living with a mental illness. It was 6 am and I was on my way to the laundry room. She is usually very anxious and this morning, especially so, because her toilet is clogged and emergency help didn't come last night, and the building manager won't be in for another couple of hours.
I have a plunger, and I could help her, but I didn't offer, for the simple reason that I cannot bear the extra emotional strain. I work with people with her challenges throughout the week, and I have also worked with her as a temporary client in a care facility where I was working for a while. But there are too many potential things that could go wrong, she is not emotionally stable, and my emotional reserves can stretch only so far before I get exhausted, and I have to be at my best if I am going to work well with my clients, all of whom live with mental health challenges. I need my apartment as a place for rest, quiet and privacy. that is what makes it possible for me to deal with the horrible world outside.
So, in order to coexist in a social housing building full of people with mental health disorders, needs and problems, in the interests of staying healthy and calm, I often have to err on the side of being selfish, if I am going to cope well while living here in Candela Place. I don't feel good about this, and of course I do feel guilty about not being a good neighbour, but I have to maintain a safe and healthy boundary here with other tenants, especially the particularly needy ones. I did just send the manager an email, trusting that he will read it as soon as possible and that something can be done to help my neighbour. Part of the problem here is the way this building is managed, because there is no residential support outside of office hours, and we have tenants here who need round the clock support. and they are not getting it. Neither should other tenants be fairly or reasonably expected to pick up the slack. I suppose this could be blamed on a lack of funding.
I am not complaining. There are so many good things and merits about living here that they vastly outweigh the problems. Even in this time of global economic prosperity, when it comes to helping those who are in greatest need our governments are always going to plead poverty. This is inevitable in a culture of fear, addiction, greed, violence and selfishness, which is the sad and ugly truth of our times. I am every day grateful that I am not sleeping outside in a tent in Oppenheimer Park, or underneath that obscene twirling chandelier they just hung under the Granville Bridge,
We are living, here in expensive, wealthy, beautiful Vancouver, that great dumb blonde of cities that is obsessed with becoming world class, in the midst of a humanitarian crisis. But no one wants to call it that. But if homelessness was officially declared the humanitarian emergency that it is, then funding would be suddenly be released, and this would be addressed with boots on the ground and there would be suddenly all the adequate and decent housing that is needing being built and being made available.
Why isn't this happening? For one simple reason. Well-off people hate the poor. And the poor remain the last legitimate target for bigotry, discrimination, hate and abuse. We can no longer get away with racism, misogyny, or homophobia, and now people with disabilities and mental health challenges are finally starting to get treated with a little more respect. What are we going to do once we have run entirely out of scapegoats? How are we going to cope? There is one simple solution to that little dilemma. EAT THE RICH!!!!!
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