UN-FAIR HOUSING

I'm afraid I'm going to be a bit irritable and politically incorrect this week, and you can blame it on my neighbor. Her name is Jennifer, but I call her the "Good Humor Lady". She always carries a keyring so chock full of keys it would make a building superintendent jealous and since she doesn't work she's in and out of her unit at all hours, playing a chorus of "Jingle Bells" as she walks down the lengthly corridor.

GHL greted me this morning as I was rushing off late to work and announced, "Have you heard? They're moving all of us to different units!" Not your normal "hello" mind, but then, you don't know Jennifer.

The "all of us" she was referring to meant the tenants living in my condominium complex under Section 8, the subsidized housing arrangement sponsored by my city of residence. In my 476-unit complex, approximately 25% of the units are owned/operated by the city and rented out at reduced rates to disadvantaged citizens.

GHL went on to tell me that the reason for the tenant movement was because the city was completely remodelling all of the Section 8 units in the complex, installing new cabinets, bathroom fittings, carpets, window treatments, the lot. She told me she had already seen one of the re-decorated units, described in detail the new countertops in the kitchen, and then she made the mistake of asking, "Isn't that great"? My reply was less then cordial and I answered "Yeah, its great for you ."

I'd like to think my ungracious attitude was because it was early and I was running late, or the fact Jennifer is annoying at the best of times, but I'm rather more ashamed to say, I'm angry. I'm angry that my neighbor, who can work but doesn't (I know this to be fact; she collects Social Security Disability and once told me she doesn't want to work if she doesn't have to) has a unit nicer than my own courtesy of the City, and is shortly going to get a better one. I'm angry that I have to pay for condo maintenance and she doesn't, courtesy of the City. I'm angry that her monthly rental is approximately 35% less than my mortgage payment, courtesy of the City, and I'm angry of the fact that, despite holding down two jobs, I couldn't possibly afford the home improvements she and the other Section 8 tenants are getting free, courtesy of the City. The icing on the cake is I get to pay the City, in the form of tax dollars, for all the anger I'm feeling.

Before I get bad mail about this, let me say that I know many of my Section 8 neighbors and I'm quite fond of a few of them; there's the man who lives down the hall, retired from Amtrak who suffers from diabetes. He always has a nice word to say and talks to my dog while she sits on my balcony waiting for me to come home; there's the elderly lady who used to live in the unit that GHL occupies. She was close to my late partner and me, and brought food over to me more than once after his death because she thought I wasn't taking care of myself properly. Then there's the wheelchair-bound lady who never seems to have a bad mood, and who made my Mother's day once by saying she thought Mom and I were sisters....

Hang on, maybe I've got this wrong. It's not Section 8 or the remodeling that I have a problem with at all. It's Jennifer the GHL, and people like her who work the System, take unfair advantage of it, and then remind the rest of us that it happens that makes me angry.

And the person I'm most angry with right now? Me, for letting it get to me in the first place. Rant over.