Homeless in Calgary 6: Subsidized Accommodation

My early experiences with housing for homeless individuals was similar to an old "Perils of Pauline" melodrama.

I had made arrangements earlier in the day to move into a shared subsidized low-rent home, but did not arrive at the place until evening. I had not yet been provided a key, so I knocked on the door. There was no answer, even after repeated tries. One person in the dwelling later lied to the manager, stating that he was in the house at the time. But he did not explain why he did not answer the door. (In retrospect, it was probably better that I did not live there, as the house was used for drug dealing.) It was raining, and the rain got progressively worse. There was no roof over the outside of the entry, and I became wetter. Since I had no way to tell when the occupants would return home, I walked to a nearby hotel, drenched to the skin. As it was too expensive, I took a taxi to another hotel recommended by the first.

I was subsequently assigned to another house. Tenants included a "businessman" who tried to set up office in the common living room, for his business schemes. He had recently been hospitalized for a nervous breakdown. A construction worker and his girlfriend created a controversy after the couple broke up, as she behaved irrationally. The worker later brought home another woman, and they married each other. There was also a computer training graduate who was hired full-time after a practicum at a local store, but he later mysteriously disappeared. There was also a short-term stay from a person who had been in a mental institution, and he gave cause for concern about the safety of personal property in the residence.

When I moved to a building suite, the radiator had inexplicitly been removed. It was very cold in winter and at one point the open pipe for the radiator spewed rust and steam into the apartment. In the building, a furnace room door marked "Keep Closed" was propped open. There was also a storage room nearby, filled with cans of paints and solvents on shelves, rather than in required fireproof cabinets.

The landlord showed me another suite in another building. In the kitchen was a microwave oven but the metal cover had been removed and not properly replaced. A violation of Canada's safety standards, and a possible source of harmful microwave leakage if used.

Then I moved into the home that I was previously locked out of. One tenant monopolized the resources of the home, illegally obtained Internet access, broke into rooms, stole property from the rooms and yard, and invited the former liar resident to stay, against the residency rules. Another set of tenants were a drug addict (who was a thief to support his habit), his girlfriend, and their baby. He was supplied with methadone and watched videos all night. She was provided a place for her and her baby to stay, by one of her relatives. A couple occupied another room. The male threatened me with physical violence in the building, as well as in a government office that I regularly visited. After I reported the couple to the police, the police warned me that I could not stay in the house, for my own safety. A person offered me a place to stay while moving, rather than a stay in a homeless shelter dormitory. I stayed one night, and moved the next day.

The next home was half of a duplex, "super-insulated" the wrong way, so that it was infested with mold. I am unsure what the health consequences were from being exposed to that mold, which was air-borne. Another tenant was a woman suffering from asthma. Her son dated the former girlfriend of the construction worker. The three also invited an abusive female impersonator to stay, and I was physically assaulted by that person. (The police ignored me when I filed a complaint.) Another tenant in the building was a former prison inmate, and he did not choose to behave as if he had been rehabilitated in any way.

I applied to organizations that supplied subsidized residences, but was told that there were long waiting lists.

Even with rules in the contracts, shared accommodation residents frequently ignore and break those rules. While the government offers help in resolving disputes, I found that the agency is reluctant to actually do anything in response to complaints. I tried a mediation organization, but discovered that what I really needed was an arbitrator, not a mediator, as it is not always easy to logically reason with the other tenants.

Written by Anonymous45