Ottawa housing shamed into action

[Guest guest]

I wanted to send along this message to you all from

someone named Bette at the ODSP Fireside google group.

Volunteering at the Citizen's Environmental Watch has

made me more aware of how the Ministers of Environment

hide information and keep the truth from the public

even, and I won't get onto that tonight, but far too

many people get sick in housing, funded by the

Ministry of Health, I experienced in myself and they

all deny any problems - but doctor's and counsellers

help you get drugged up and doped out. Janice.

 

Bette Hawley <teartest21

Uninvited guests

 

Hi everyone - Well, this is kind of a creepy story -

hang on to your seats - no wait, maybe that's not such

a great idea.

 

Last week a woman, who lives in Ottawa Community

Housing, with her 10 kids had the media come to her

house to witness for themselves her cockroach problem.

The previous day 4 of her kids were suspended from

school, because cockroaches came streaming out of

their school bags. I guess they were 'going to

school' - after all, they took over every other aspect

of their lives!

 

The media arrived with cameras in hand and what they

filmed was horrifying. In broad daylight the

cockroaches by the hundreds were in perpetual motion,

with nary a free space amongst them - in and out of

open kitchen drawers, shamelessly taking over the

counter space, covering the walls. In fact, when the

woman took the kitchen chair and slammed it down on

the floor, hundreds of cockroaches fell out from under

her chair and scattered in a large circle on the

floor. The woman had complained to OCH about the

problem, but nothing was done.

 

Her little daughter said: 'Now our secret is out' and

the little girl held out her arm and it was full of

bite marks. Can you imagine going to bed, with

hundreds of cockroaches swarming all over you?

 

Ottawa Community Housing were shamed into action. A

spokesperson was interviewed on TV the following day,

saying that she was left speechless by what she saw on

TV the night before. She said that OCH will do

everything necessary to take care of this problem.

The family, if need be, will be moved to a hotel.

Spraying their unit, under the circumstances, would

not be adequate, so OCH said that all of their

belongings will have to be destroyed and asked for

donations from across the city. They also said that

they will check the other townhouses to check for

other infestations, which had already been confirmed

to the media. They also said that walls will come

down if need be.

 

We have various forms of non-profit housing in Ottawa

- housing co-operatives being one of them.

Fortunately, in our 93-unit townhouse co-op, we've

never had cockroaches. But this is scary stuff.

People living in subsidized housing don't have very

many choices. If one is already adequately housed,

with subsidy, there is very little chance that they

could up and move to another subsidized place, because

their needs aren't urgent.

 

I've often thought that I might choose to live in an

OCH senior's apt. when my kids move out, but it would

depress me to no end to end up in a dive with

cockroaches all over the place. As much as I dislike

housing co-operatives, they seem like a safer place to

be - at least ours is.

 

All I can think of is this woman's poor kids. Will

they ever be able to rid themselves of the nightmare

of having scores of cockroaches crawling all over them

while they were sleeping. Things come back to haunt

people during one's long lifetime. OHC spokesperson

said that 'no one should ever have to live like that'.

Well how did it happen in the first place? It took

the woman going to the media before the problem was

addressed. Prior to being embarrassed into action, it

was convenient for OHC to turn a blind eye to the

infestation problems - after all these are poor

people, right? HOW CREEPY! - Bette

 

 

 

 

 

 

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