Twelve days. For twelve days, disabled elders in the community where we work were stranded in public housing without a working elevator. A group of eight-story high-rise buildings, originally built in 1961 for low-income families, now house poor, disabled elders. Constructed before the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), these decrepit buildings have only one elevator each. Nowadays, this would be unheard of, but in the 1960's, I'm sure it wasn't given another thought. And evacuation plans were probably just a pipe-dream, with occasional lip-service to assuage the bleeding hearts and housing advocates.
Public housing authorities do not exactly have stellar reputations, and in this city of ill repute, where cronyism and corruption are seemingly imprinted on the city's official seal, stealing from the poor to benefit the undeserving rich has been de rigeur for decades.
A public meeting today in the local community room brought outrage, measured argument, cynicism, paternalism, the media, and politicking at its most tedious. The city councillors expressed their official outrage. The housing authority director pointed fingers and blamed the weather and the victims, claiming ignorance, poor communication, and any other excuse that seemed plausible. Those of us in the room who know the score are only hell-bent on making sure our seniors and disabled community members are provided for, heard, respected, and accomodated. It will be an uphill battle.
Whether we verbalize it or not, we all know that if this group of seniors had been white, with white families and connections in the community, this intolerable situation would never have mushroomed into the crisis it is today. Outrage certainly has its place, and enough outrage was expressed today to perhaps succeed in lighting some hot fires under a few choice buttocks.
Communication, cooperation, foresight, and meticulous planning are needed to overcome barriers which place the elderly, the poor, and the disabled at risk. Coupled with outdated architecture, bureaucratic stupidity, organizational chaos, and a lack of anyone willing to take enough responsibility for what went wrong, only a coalition of community leaders and key agencies can partner with the residents to effect change. Change may be organizationally painful, and there may be kicking and screaming along the way, but a snowball was pushed towards the top of a hill today, and one can only hope that it will continue to gather momentum and mass, crushing any bumbling bureaucrat who gets in its way.
4 comments:
Just to play devil's advocate here, if there had been an elderly white in the same complex, would the elevator still not have been broken?
Yes, the elevator would still be broken, but the reaction of the powers that be would be much swifter if the residents were white. Low-income elderly people of color---at least in this community---seem to get the worst quality services, the least positive response to complaints, the least level of security and safety, and are generally treated as second class citizens.
The leaders of this particular housing authority have been indicted for embezzlement and other felonies. Millions of dollars have been siphoned off to benefit the friends and family of the people in power. This city has a history of corruption which, more often than not, impacts people of color more severely than other members of the population.
Was the media there? Keith, what about using your Treo and sending photos and the story to the Bostonist (Is that the location - can't remember)or another muckraking blog, such as The Muckraker?
In the meantime, is the fire dept. aware? Are they making frequent drive by's to eyeball that all is safe?
Yes, three local TV news stations have covered the story, as have three newspapers. The local media have covered this issue before, and yesterday we held a meeting which the press also attended.
A committee has been formed to create a community protocol for emergency response (storms, epidemics, fires, elevator malfunction). I am a member of the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) in my town, and I will try to ascertain if there is a MRC group here in the city where I work.
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