gold fish bubble

I was hoping things might improve with my local public housing office now that I was in a new place.
Silly me.
Ten weeks later I'm still waiting for them to install curtain rails.
Male passers by can see into my unit, even during the day, judging by the waves they give me.
At night I'm a sitting duck for anybody wanting to do a drive by shooting.
I know how a gold fish in a bowl must feel.
But all is not lost.
Someone I know came up with the bright suggestion of sticking bubble wrap on the windows.
It works!
And it will have to do until I can afford to pay to install curtain rails myself, it seems.
This was despite being told by the public housing office that it would do it for me before I moved in.
Something else I have had lumbered on me is the unwanted role of unofficial 'gatekeeper' of the pathway that runs beside my place.
The gate has been unlocked since I moved in and non-residents from the next street have been using it as a short-cut to the shopping centre.
One of the other residents complained to me about this and told me to keep the gate locked.
After I had aquiesed to her demand, a male neighbour and regular trespasser expressed his annoyance about his thoroughfare being blocked, and in defiance jumped the gate.
The next morning I found that the driver's side mirror of my car had been gouged out and thrown in the gutter.
The residents of the three other units who might need to pass through this gate are all disabled, leaving me holding the hot potato.
In public housing it is very hard to live your own life and keep to yourself because there are always encroachments by others that make this impossible.

FREE AT LAST

I'm in a new public housing property now, in a much nicer part of the world.
And best of all, I am the only one with the keys.
Not like at the retirement village where I was living before where there was ready access to the key to my front door.
By the general manager, his administrative offsiders, office and nursing staff and even the maintenance man.
Window cleaners were allowed to come into my unit when I was not there, despite my objections and wishes to be at home when they were.
Yet my Housing NSW lease said there were to be no unauthorised entries.
It was horrible living in a place where people I did not know or trust were able to enter my unit without my knowledge or permission.
I feel like I've been let out of gaol after serving a sentence of eight years.
I have my life back again.
Even though it took the threat of losing it to regain it.

STARSHIP ENTERPRISE STILL OUT THERE

At times I feel like Captain Kirk of the old TV series Star Trek fame trying to navigate Starship Enterprise through hails of asteroids.
This is how it seems when an apparent hacker hurls viruses at my computer. The latest is Bloodhound.MalPE and its source a0110062.dll.
Does anyone know how to track down these pesky varmints?
Just discovered in my Macquarie Dictionary that the word 'varmint' derives from 'vermin'.
Americans seem to like the word a lot.
Also when I turn on my computer, a security warning says my firewall is not installed when in fact it is.
Is a hacker doing this?
A microsoft technician I asked about it had not heard of it happening before.
I'm still waiting on the results of my skin scraping analysis.
An antibiotic cream given to me by a dermatologist has not had much effect.
An iridologist told me my body is so full of toxic chemicals that the kidney and liver cannot eliminate them.
That is why I have the acne outbreak on my right cheek.
Even the lymph system cannot get rid of it.
The most frightening thing I was told was that toxic chemicals in the body can mimic oestrogen which in large amounts causes cancer.

STATE TERRORISM

I haven't posted for several months for several reasons.
I've been virtually homeless since the middle of February when I was forced to sleep in my car after a toxic chemical substance that gave off fumes was placed in my public housing unit to drive me out.
After I discovered that the fumes were coming from a chemical substance placed on the carpet around my bed and tried to wash it off, a potentially lethal amount of hydrogen cyanide was placed in my unit.
I encountered this on the morning of 8 April 2010 when I went in there to collect my printer.
I've been feeling sick ever since.
Medical treatment is hard to find because it seems no one has had to deal with this condition before.
Whatsmore, most people find it very hard to believe what I am saying and think I am crazy.
Exactly what the perpetrators of the grotesque murder attempt want.
I've been very afraid.
I am continuing to pay rent to HousingNSW for this unit which I cannot live in because it is chemically contaminated and because my life is at risk there because my belongings are still in it.
Every time I go in there to pack, I feel sick and my face breaks out with redness and acne.
I think the perpetrators expected me to just go and die beside the road like a piece of roadkill, leaving all my belongings behind for them to throw out like the rubbish they think I am.

CHEMICAL WARFARE REVISITED

WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION
Chemical warfare agents
Fact Sheet 11: Blood Gas Hydrogen Cyanide
Description:
Hydrogen cyanide is usually included among the CW agents causing general poisoning. It has been reported that hydrogen cyanide was used in the Iran-Iraq war, against the Kurds during the 1980's. Hydrogen cyanide has high toxicity and in sufficient concentrations it rapidly leads to death. During the Second World War, a form of hydrogen cyanide (Zyklon B) was used in the Nazi gas chambers. At room temperature, hydrogen cyanide is a colourless liquid which boils at 26 oC. Its high volatility probably makes hydrogen cyanide difficult to use in warfare since there are problems in achieving sufficiently high concentrations outdoors. On the other hand, the concentration of hydrogen cyanide may rapidly reach lethal levels if it is released in confined spaces.

DID KAFKA LIVE IN PUBLIC HOUSING?

I think I had better start reading The Trial by Franz Kafka.
It may prove very relevant for my future.
The Wikipedia summary of this book sounds all too familiar.
At least I am not alone.
Anyone who lived in Stalinist Russia would know all about it too.

CHEMICAL WARFARE?

For the last six weeks I've been experiencing chemical fumes in my unit.
A similar happened around this time last year.
The chemical substance left a burning sensation on my skin, forcing me to leave my unit and sleep in my car.
Coincidentally it happened during the week before a decision was handed down by the Consumer Trader & Tenancy Tribunal that I as a public housing tenant living in a retirement village was not covered by the Retirement Villages Act.
It was only the fee paying residents who had this privilege.
To be protected against discrimination and harassment by management and other residents.
It had taken seven stressful months for the CTTT to make this ruling, and both sides were during that time understandably getting a bit toey.
I'd been firing off some angry emails at the other side.
They retaliated by placing a chemical substance in my unit which burnt my facial skin and made it hard for me to breath.
Suspecting foul play, I went to the police.
Once the decision that went against me was out in the open, the chemical warfare suddenly stopped.
This year the fumes have been coming mainly at night, and the early hours of the morning.
Now they are happening during the day too.
Wonder what they are and where they are coming from?
Bridget Jones Message to Self: Don't get paranoid about this.
There may be a totally innocent causation, an alternative explanation.

ALL WAS EXPOSED

Well, the sky didn't fall in after all at the mysterious meeting held at the retirement village last Monday week.
It was a very interesting meeting nonetheless.
A male public housing tenant, our self-styled leader, took the floor claiming he had asked the general manager to call the meeting.
But what about the email I had sent him telling him I wanted to call one to which he did not respond?
He seemed to have been chosen by management to go into bat for PHTs whenever a problem arose as someone who sounded credible but who was not prepared to rock the boat too much.
The local newspaper had been invited to attend the meeting, but he insisted the journalist leave.
Nonetheless, our fearless leader was very upset about public housing tenants officially being made 'second class citizens' by changes to the Retirement Villages Act.
In particular the removal of the 'joint venture' clause which on paper gave public housing tenants living in retirement villages where Housing NSW is involved in a 'joint venture' with other parties the same legal protection as the self-funded residents living there too.
Now the only legal protection we have is the same as public housing tenants who live in houses or blocks of units.
Housing NSW acting head lawyer, Chris Valacos, said he had the legislation changed to 'clarify' the situation.
Now we were the same as all other public housing tenants.
We were saying we wanted to be treated as equals with the self-funded residents and he was saying we were now equals with all other PHTs.
He suggested we were up ourselves if we dared to argue with that.
Well, our living situation is entirely different for a start.
We also pay a fortnightly levy for 'services provided' by the management of the retirement village which other PHTs don't have to fork out of their pensions.
Our fearless leader asked why an act of parliament had been changed just because one PHT had tried to take legal action against the retirement village. He may well ask ...
For a while I thought changing the law to deny someone their legal rights was called perverting the course of justice, but I looked this up and found out this is not the case.
I did find a couple of emails from the abovementioned lawyer in my Housing NSW file urging the Office of Fair Trading to remove the 'joint venture' clause in response to my legal action in the Consumer Trader & Tenancy Tribunal under the Retirement Villages Act.
The CTTT determination went against me on somewhat spurious grounds.
The HNSW lawyer said that although this ruling was in his favour, he was not content with it because it had only been made in a lower court, not in the Supreme Court.
I had said in my email to OFL that I wanted to call a meeting of PHTs to discuss the ramifications of the changes to the Retirement Villages Act, and to hopefully establish a public housing tenants forum.
OFL shouted my latter suggestion down, saying it would create an 'us and them' situation with the self-funded residents.
But wasn't that what he had been complaining about earlier?
About how the change to the act had now made this official?
I could see it was a 'no win' situation.

GRAND SOCIAL EXPERIMENT IN PUBLIC HOUSING FAILS

Post removed voluntarily because information contained in it was not correct.

NSW Housing's revolving door

A forthright middle-aged woman managed to grab centre stage and precious media minutes on ABC-TV's Q&A last Monday night to question Federal Housing Minister, Tanya Plibesek, about public housing tenants being evicted by Housing NSW and made homeless as a result. The Minister said she could not address the subject because it was a specific case she knew nothing about. Has this very serious matter ever been investigated by the media, including the ABC?

More stimulus package refurbishment carry on

The botched Housing NSW refurbishment of kitchens in one of its Sydney retirement villages had a couple of positive outcomes. It resulted in two meetings of public housing tenants - the first held there for seven years, possibly even longer.
Keeping us isolated from each other appears to be part of a 'divide and rule' policy by the management of the retirement village and Housing NSW in the interests of the self-funded residents who live there as well. The underdogs have to be kept under the thumb.
At the second meeting it was revealed that the flat taps would be replaced by high arched ones, and the single sinks would be replaced by double ones. H-e-l-l-o! So why were the high arched taps and double sinks removed in the first place? The return of the double sinks would mean ripping out the new single sinks and reconfiguring the new cupboards underneath. Well, that's what the stimulus package was all about, wasn't it? Keeping tradesmen busy. Making sure they had enough work. 
The housos were unimpressed. They just wanted their old kitchens back. But management told them that they thought the refurbishment program had been a success and to rate it 8 out of 10.
Was this to make the Housing NSW team leader and the young man who chose the new kitchens, both of whom were present, feel a bit better?
Housos were being told the emperor was wearing clothes but he was actually naked.

Carry on refurbishing

Every houso has a maintenance story to tell, usually about shoddy workmanship. This one takes out the 'colander' (full of holes) award.
The DOH powers that be decided used some of the Rudd stimulus package to install new kitchens in a retirement village - naturally without any consultation with its clients, the people who had to use them. 
So the first recipients of this unexpected largess were shocked to find that their double sinks had been replaced by single ones, and that the high arched water spouts had been replaced with flat ones, making it impossible to fit large pots underneath them.
Then there were the cupboards, the top shelves of which extended right up to the ceiling, requiring elderly people to teeter on tiptoe on chairs in order to access anything from them.
The biggest bungle was the removal of a beam containing a very strong flourescent light that extended above the full length of the kitchen bench. This great aid for ailing elderly eyesight when trying to read recipe books was removed in the name of allowing more light into the area during the day.
Mmmm. Does the young man who came up with this 'colander concept' ever do the washing up, or does he always leave it to his mum?
Sorry. Can't afford prizes for all those correct answers.

Putting the boot into tenants

Well, Housing NSW has tried to evict me twice now for 'management reasons', as if I was in in their custody and they were not simply my landlords.
The bullying and intimidation of me by its legal department as well as its senior staff has been horrendous.
The team leaders I have encountered as part of the appeals process have made my blood run cold.
Why have these insensitive, uncaring people been given so much power over their tenants?
Particularly when many of their tenants would be victims of child abuse and possibly former clients of DOCS?
It doesn't figure, professing to want to help abused children then putting the boot into them when they are adults.
Why they want to put the boot into me is because I've complained about their incompetence and their abuse of power.
I've finally spoken up about it after living with it for seven years in a state of fear.
I have had enough.

Is anybody home?

The woman who answers the phone at the Sydney electoral office of the Federal Housing Minister, Tania Plibesek, is very adept at fielding complaints about Housing NSW and the state Labour government. I guess she's had a lot of practice which means you don't get much of a chance to get a word in. The office is located in inner city Surry Hills is just a couple of blocks away from the public housing development Northcott Estate.

Still pushing for green light to greener pastures

This week I received a reply to a letter I wrote to Federal Housing Minister, Tania Plibesek two and a half months ago about the need for a national interstate transfer system for public housing tenants. She didn't address the issue at all. Instead I was told about the $629 million the federal government has provided for new public housing in all states and territories, plus another $400 million to renovate homes many of which are already unsuitable for occupancy or are about to become so. That's important too. My argument is that it would be sensible to build more public housing in capital cities where land is cheaper and make it easy for public housing tenants living in Sydney to transfer there. Ms Plibesek is on ABC-TV Q&A tonight so I've submitted my question about this subject to her on-line and hope it gets chosen to be heard.

Taking Housing NSW to tribunal no easy matter

Why do so few public housing tenants take Housing NSW to the Consumer Trader & Tenancy Tribunal? Earlier this year the then Shadow Minister for Fair Trading, Catherine Cusack (Country Liberal) claimed that of all the applications made in regard to public housing matters, only 4 per cent were made by public housing tenants and a whopping 96 per cent by Housing NSW.
Well, firstly the very thought of going to court is frightening for most people, let alone the elderly and the disabled. Secondly, you need a lawyer or advocate to help you prepare your case and represent you, but such people are extremely difficult to find, even in the ranks of government-funded tenancy services. Thirdly, Housing NSW's own legal department is handling these types of tenancy matters all the time and is the resident expert in this field. Fourthly, if you are on a low income as most public housing tenants are you cannot afford to take your grievances to court.

Housing NSW now 'partnering' public guardian

According to Housing NSW's Draft Disability Action Plan 2009-2013, the public housing landlord is now working in partnership with the Office of the Protective Commissioner (OPC)/Office of Protective Guardian(OPG). Anyone who has had a relative taken away from them by either of these two sinister bodies knows what a shocking experience it is, to have the life of their loved one controlled totally by the state. Housing NSW is now saying that this partnership will 'ensure that when tenancies are at risk, OPC/OPG are able to intervene early to provide assistance'. This is most alarming news, particularly in view of the fact that Housing NSW appears to be able to obtain medical/psychiatric reports on its clients without their knowledge or permission. And to phone its clients' doctors and put pressure on them in regard to a tenant if he or she is not doing as they are told by the DOH. And it does not stop there. The OPG/OFT has recently been merged with the NSW Public Trustee which suggests that anyone who has assigned it Power of Attorney to protect themselves from the OPG/OFT had better think again.

No escape to greener pastures

Ever wanted to abandon the sinking state of NSW? To get off it before it goes under? Well, the once-premier state's public housing tenants will be going down with it because there are no interstate transfers for public housos.
If you want to go north, south or west of the border, you will have to go to the bottom of the queues of all those waiting for public housing there.
Where do you live in the meantime? Who knows or cares.
Can the Federal Minister for Housing, Tania Plibisek, please fix this?

Housing NSW launches Draft Disability Action Plan

Well I guess a 'draft' disability action plan is a tenative step in the right direction, but the uncaring tone in which it is written suggests the spelling ought to be 'draught', a reminder of those blasts of cold air experienced by tenants living in unmaintained dwellings.
It was launched last May, but as a NSW public housing tenant with a disability, I was not informed. I knew nothing about it until I stumbled across it on the web, well after the closing date for 'comments by the public' on Friday 26 June.
But then being a 'public' housing tenant is not the same as being a member of the 'public'. More like 'public' property.
The DDAP claims that public housing tenants with disabilities were consulted as part of its preparation, but it appears that no survey of tenants was conducted. It would have been nice to have been consulted and to be able to assist Housing NSW to improve its services to its clients.
According to the DDAP 2009-2013, one third of NSW public housing tenants have a disability. Yet none of the department's staff appear to have any tertiary training in psychology, special needs or social work. The plan reveals that client service officers can do a training course called the Certificate IV in Social Housing. Just what that equips them to do is not known.
Organisations like COTA NSW and NDS NSW have made comments about the DDAP and you can view them on the web.

NSW public housing complaints now more out in the open

Until October 2008, most complaints about the NSW Department of Housing (now Housing NSW) by its tenants were dealt with behind closed doors or 'in-house'. A new social housing division was then introduced into the Consumer Trader & Tenancy Tribunal so it will be interesting to see the statistics after the first 12 months of its operation.
On 3 March this year, the then NSW Shadow Minister for Fair Trading, Catherine Cusack (Country Liberal) provided the Upper House with the following statistics:
a) from 2005-2008 the DOH made 46,404 applications to the CTTT against its own tenants;
b) in 2005 the number of applications was 9,747 but this grew to 14,649 in 2008 - an astonishing increase of 55 per cent over the four year period;
c) an examination of the tribunal's applications concerning public housing reveals 96 per cent of applications are made by the DOH and only 4 per cent by tenants.