This makes my blood boil.
It’d be bad enough if it was just any random person, but being disabled myself, I know far too well how difficult, to practically impossible, it can be to find a place that isn’t only suitable to live in, but where the landlords will even consider you in the first place instead of instantly putting your application in the reject pile because you or someone in your household is disabled (both of which result in a high rate of homelessness among disabled people).
There are so many different and equally distressing levels of heinous to this bullshit, from misogyny to ableism, to classism, to just plain old wilful ignorance and cruelty.
People like this civil servant should spend their time being eternally grateful to not be in such a position as this mother is, since they wouldn’t survive a fucking hour in her shoes.
FUCK
I’m so sorry. Landlords are absolute lowest of the low, bastards among bastards.
Not all of them. Unfortunately my only property isn’t adaptable for disabled people beside what we already installed for my grandmother (handlebars, things like that). It was built in the 50s 😅.
At no point did I hold that individual responsible for the system (I literally hold landlords responsible at one point, but this story isn’t about landlords, is it??), but they ARE responsible for their own actions within said system, and for directly causing harm to this family (and I guarantee, many others) with the little power they yield (and before you even try - yes, landlords and those in power cause an altogether different level of harm, but until you’ve been faced with this kind of attitude and discrimination from the bootlicking gatekeepers who just love having a drop of power over the lives of others less fortunate than them, you don’t have a fucking clue the kind of deep and long lasting impact it has, not only mentally, but materially).
Their own circumstances, which MANY share yet magically aren’t cruel arseholes, are not a fucking excuse nor justification for that kind of bigoted bullshit. I have no sympathy for those who have no sympathy for others, and who take their frustration with our world out by punching down instead of up.
So you please keep in mind that excusing or brushing off this kind of attitude and behaviour tells people like me just how little value our lives and well being hold in your opinion.
E: honestly, your comment is the perfect demonstration of why class reductionism isn’t just counter productive, but actively harmful, and why intersectionality is absolutely imperative if you hope to ever better society for everyone (because even if you improve the material conditions of this civil servant, it won’t magically make them no longer ableist or misogynist, only, maybe, less classist).
Isn’t it funny how the public servant basically manifested the home for her because she probably has a great lawsuit now?
Sure, if she finds a lawyer who will work pro bono.
Even then, she and her son will be homeless for a long time before winning anything.
“There were a lot of links that were emailed to me about manifesting a house and using witchcraft … I think it was 17 links in total all about positive manifestations,” she said.
I suspect this public servant is just a hapless idiot. It’s obviously not the housing authority’s policy to recommend witchcraft. This person probably had good intentions.
That doesn’t make it “ok”, nor make the system any less broken, it just explains what’s happened.
As an aside, in Australia you can’t evict a tenant if they have no where to go. There isn’t a bailiff in Australia that would put this woman and her son on the street.
Visualizing an opportunity is fine, but you better add in “recognizing” and “engaging with” to that list.
Baba Yaga, hear my call!
