Tag Archives: medically required housing

CBC News Hi-lights Accessibility Barriers to Housing for People With MCS/ES

Posted on December 24, 2018 | 4 comments

…

Severe sensitivity to household chemicals leaves GTA man
homeless for the holidays

Environmental sensitivities have forced Oliver Zhang to move 70 times in 3 years


I hope that someone can offer or help create a safe place for Oliver Zhang to live.

I also hope that something is done soon to ensure safe, affordable, accessible,  non-toxic, mold-free, housing is available for all  the other people who have  MCS/ES (a condition, not disorder) who need safe and accessible housing.

Since finding a safe place to rest one’s head and body is so challenging, even in the best of current circumstances, Oliver Zhang should not be forced to leave the shelter where he is currently residing if it is physically safe enough for him to be there.  He is in crisis.

Forcing people onto the streets creates preventable trauma and mental health problems in addition to the serious challenges that already exist when trying to survive with MCS/ES in a society full of systemic accessibility barriers.

I know of many people who have had to move numerous (even countless) times  in their quest to find housing that doesn’t hurt and disable them. I hear from too many who are in crisis,  seeking accessible housing. I know people who no longer have the energy to keep looking for a needle in a haystack, because each toxic haystack leaves them more and more incapacitated. I know people with MCS/ES who are sleeping in cars and tents, and I have also known more than a few people who weren’t able to find safe housing and are no longer with us.

This is a preventable crisis.

Oliver Zhang and all the other people who are homeless due to the lack of accessible housing for people with MCS/ES, have been put into this position due to systemic neglect (if not deliberate discrimination) and bad policies, not through any fault of their own.

The City of Toronto has known about the critical need for accessible housing for people with MCS/ES since at least 2007, and most likely long before.

In 2008:

“The City of Toronto has launched a consultation process on the development of the City’s ten-year affordable housing plan, known as Housing Opportunities Toronto (“HOT”); and

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4 Comments

Posted in Accessibility, Environmental Health, Environmental Sensitivities, Health Care, Housing, Human Rights, Mental Health, Toxic Trespass

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Why I LOVE Having Environmental “Sensitivities”

Posted on October 2, 2016 | 1 comment

Guest post

In all of this I don’t have a permanent place to stay and paid rent to a landlord who won’t fix anything, my apartment insurance cut me off and won’t help with my possessions, my medicare health insurance is not covering the health aspect and my one doctor wants me to see a doctor out of province which is not covered, and my social assistance did not pay me my disability this month, and family does not understand any of this….At this point I have nothing to lose and everything to gain….I AM MOVING FORWARD!

~ Marie LeBlanc, Manitoba, Canada

brick-walking-8-abcde

1 Comment

Posted in Accessibility, Air Quality, Community, Disability, Ecocide, Environmental Health, Environmental Sensitivities, Health Care, Housing, Human Rights, Inspiration, Policy, Pollution

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Even the Cats Say: Let Wendy Stay!

Posted on July 4, 2016 | 2 comments

 

Now that I have your attention

Here’s an awesome short video you need to see:

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2 Comments

Posted in Accessibility, Action, Housing, Human Rights, Policy

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Update: Wendy is NOT a Widget and She Shouldn’t be Treated Like One

Posted on May 2, 2016 | 6 comments

UPDATE:
The bureaucrats expect Wendy to leave the only safe and accessible home Wendy has access to, the sherriffs could be there any day, and there is still no other safe and accessible place for Wendy to move to!

In a kind and sane society, disabled people would be treated with respect and dignity, and safe and accessible housing would not be taken from them when there is no place else to go to.

We need to treat people with invisible, inconvenient disabilities better!

Wendy has a safe-for-her-home, the ONLY place she can now be and remain functional, but the bureaucrats only see that it is a 3 bedroom home and not the 2 bedroom home her doctors have said she (at minimum) needs.

She cannot go to the mall, to the hospital, to a library, or to an apartment where people smoke, use fragrances, pesticides, or have dryer vents spewing toxic laundry products her way.

The only kind, humane, and sane solution is that she should be allowed to remain where she is, until the province has built MCS/ES accessible housing that is safe for her to move to…

2016 W.K. 1


UPDATE May 3rd:

According to this CBC interview, the housing authority has extended Wendy’s stay until the end of July, although a week or so ago they had told Wendy that she only had until April 30th, and they have not informed Wendy or her lawyer about this news (she learned via the CBC).

Hers is the 1st interview: http://www.cbc.ca/maritimenoon/2016/05/03/chemical-sensitivity-eviction-pot-pardons-your-thoughts/

∴ Wendy is NOT a widget. Widgets can go anywhere. Wendy can’t. “Widget” is used in texts and speech, especially in the context of accounting, to indicate a hypothetical “any…

Source: Wendy is NOT a Widget and She Shouldn’t be Treated Like One

6 Comments

Posted in Accessibility, Community, Disability, Environmental Health, Environmental Sensitivities, Government, Housing, Human Rights, MCS/ES, Medically Required Housing, Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, Policy

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Wendy is NOT a Widget and She Shouldn’t be Treated Like One

Posted on April 1, 2015 | 10 comments

∴

Wendy is NOT a widget. Widgets can go anywhere. Wendy can’t.

“Widget” is used in texts and speech, especially in the context of accounting, to indicate a hypothetical “any-product”. Companies in such texts will frequently be given names such as “ABC Widgets” or “Acme Widget Corp.” to indicate that the particular business of the hypothetical company is not relevant to the topic of discussion.
(Widget economics – wikipedia)

“Economists often use the term widget to refer to an abstract unit of production.”

∴

Wendy is NOT a widget as her local housing authority seems to believe. They have a capacity problem, but instead of addressing the need for improved (and accessible) capacity, they want to re-arrange people’s lives as if they were widgets, with little to no regard or understanding of the consequences.

∴

INVESTOPEDIA EXPLAINS ‘Capacity’

“The widget manufacturer may be able to produce 150,000 widgets in a month. However, due to downtime because of equipment maintenance and worker illness, only about 130,000 widgets can actually be produced per month. Over the long run, a business can increase its capacity and output by acquiring more factors of productions. For example, if market demand for widgets spikes, the widget manufacturer can buy more equipment and hire more workers, and thus increase its capacity to 175,000 widgets per month.”

∴

Wendy is not a widget. She is a living, breathing, human being, a human being with a complex, chronic environmentally linked condition and disability related needs, needs that widgets don’t have.

Wendy Kearly photo by ADAM MACINNIS – THE NEWS

Wendy Kearly photo by ADAM MACINNIS – THE NEWS

The housing authority from which Wendy rents her safe home has deemed her over-housed, and are in the process of evicting her, despite the fact that Wendy has no other option for medically required, safe housing available, and no safe access to any of the other places most people take for granted (see below).

In the following audio interview with Wendy, among other things, she talks about the process her grown children take to detox themselves enough to be able to safely visit with her, so that she is able to safely hug them when they come to town.

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10 Comments

Posted in Accessibility, Disability, Human Rights, MCS/ES, Medically Required Housing, Policy

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Breath-taking: An architectural answer to one homeowner’s severe allergies

Posted on June 28, 2014 | 8 comments

Safe, medically required, non-toxic, EMF/EMR safe housing CAN be built. I linked to another article and the architect’s website in the 1st comment below.
“Because Barbara Tudhope has severe allergies and acute sensitivities to dust, pollen, electromagnetic radiation (EMF) and a long list of construction materials, the couple designed their home to foster an environment that doesn’t cause her any adverse reaction.

… “Almost all construction and renovation uses building materials that off-gas volatile organic compounds [VOCs], and contractors generally pay little attention to electrical and magnetic fields in the homes they build,” says Mr. Tudhope, a business writer. “But both can have serious acute and chronic health consequences for someone like Barbara, and, in truth, for almost anyone.”

Featured Image -- 5368

8 Comments

Posted in Environmental Health, Environmental Sensitivities, Healthy Environment, Housing, Indoor Air Quality, Multiple Chemical Sensitivities

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“Smart” Meter Trouble In Paradise

Posted on June 9, 2014 | 4 comments

Ok, so the s-meters aren’t smart, and this really isn’t paradise, but this IS supposed to be safer housing for people with environmental sensitivities and there’s an issue here that isn’t getting resolved and could put a third person at risk of serious health harm.

I was hoping I wouldn’t have to write this post, but it has come to my attention that a unit here is being shown to prospective tenants, when that unit should remain empty until the contents of the attached utility cabinet are moved away from the building.

The empty unit is currently unsafe for anyone to live in, never mind someone with environmental “sensitivities”.

I have to warn people, no matter how desperate you may be for chemically safer housing, please DO NOT try to live in the currently vacant bachelor unit here if you value your life! Even if it doesn’t affect you immediately, it will.

utility cabinet attached to bachelor unit wall

utility cabinet attached to bachelor unit wall

Above is the side view of the unit, the little windows on the left are above the sleeping area. A raised glass door technology cabinet divides that area from the “living room” in the front, which is on the other side of the utility cabinet. In the photo below you can see the rest of the living room window and the unit’s front door (taken on an angle from the next yard).

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4 Comments

Posted in Accessibility, Disability, Environmental Health, Housing, Wireless

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1844 Bloor St. West

Posted on August 7, 2012 | 10 comments

1844 Bloor Street West

(1991-2010)

From fixing up the run down house in 1991, to raising my two wonderful children, planting and tending a garden, living and celebrating life with friends and family, to getting sick, to almost dying…

Memories of life at 1844 Bloor St W 1991-2010.

My father, daughter and son on the porch… 91 or 92.

After cleaning and painting inside, I think it took almost 20 bags to remove the weeds and garbage and unearth the garden. Only the hollyhock, a red rose, and some alyssum in the rock garden were there when I moved in.

It took a few years to get the perennial garden going. My father’s old porch railing was re-purposed as a fence for a few years. People used to smile when they went by. More people who lived on Bloor St W started planting flowers in front. People often asked me if it was my garden when I was out shoveling snow, and told me how much they enjoyed seeing the seasonal changes.

When I got too sick to care for it because of the vehicle exhaust and laundry fumes from the apartment buildings, I watched from the windows as people stole plants, rocks and other items I’d placed there.

~

Many birthdays were celebrated in 1844…

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10 Comments

Posted in Air Quality, Government, Health, Health Care, Housing, Human Rights, Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, Support

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