One of the things that disgusted me the most is that these people who live on a tiny fraction of what I have were, prior to the city's takeover of the building, having to pay $4.33/sf/month to live in a shithole, while my very toney (albeit poorly insulated) apartment leases for about $0.95 a foot per month.

Oh hells, I need a hug now too.

There is so much in the world that is grossly unjust and unfair. I hope that I can help.

Amen, teeps. Nothing else to do.

Yeah, pie, that's what struck me as well. I pay $585/mo for (I think) 900 sq.ft. Granted, I don't live in Portland, but I can't imagine that a similar dwelling would be more than double there. Frankly, that landlord deserves a place in at least the fourth or fifth circle of hell.

But the part of the article that got me most of all is the image of a man with a package of frozen burritos and a working microwave, but still hungry because he is completely baffled as to how to use the oven.

I knew I shouldn't have clicked. Very sad state of affairs.

Social Security. I am learning with each passing week what a joke that and Medicare have become.

As soon as I learned that I was approved for disability, I established Direct Deposit to my checking account. I did this early enough to avoid mailing checks, and I verified this with the clerk at the time and then confirmed it with another call a couple days later.

I was supposed to get my first check last Wednesday 1/16. When it didn't hit my account, I called the next day, Thursday, but was told to wait three business days, which over a holiday weekend meant yesterday, Wednesday a week later.

Yesterday, I called and I was told that my Direct Deposit had been *mailed* but that it had been returned last Friday and that is when SocSec issued a Direct Deposit payment instead. Now I would have to wait three business days from last Friday, which was today.

This morning I called to learn that SocSec had entered an incorrect bank account number for my Direct Deposit, and that the Friday payment was lost. That's right, an electronic payment was lost, and SocSec initiated a trace today that must make its way through Treasury to my bank, and then back again.

My wait now is ten business days, so I should call back if I do not hear anything by Feb 7.

Good thing I have private insurance, because I know that if I had to rely fully on the government, I would be dead. Medicare has already messed me over because they sent me a regular paper card, instead of a proper ID card, and neither doctors and pharmacies recognize the paper cards any more. Again, good thing my private insurance has a transition period to Medicare, rather than a hard cut-off date.

Update: Since a change in bank account numbers takes 5 business days for Social Security to process, any checks reissued or scheduled to be issued initially before then will be sent to the incorrect account number on record.

This means that the January check could still be sent out twice more to the wrong account number and my February check which schedules to issue tomorrow will definitely be sent to the wrong account on the Feb 1.

So, even though Social Security knows that this money was not deposited in my account, they cannot send me what they owe me, a) because they have to recover the funds from someone else, and b) because changing a 13-digit number takes five days.

I don't understand how things like this can be allowed to happen, and the people who live in that hotel aren't IMMEDIATELY moved to places where they will be safe and clean and where there are people who can help them. Really help, like with operating microwaves or doing laundry or reminding them to take meds.

I don't understand how case workers can not have SEEN the miserable places where people under their care are living.

I don't get any of it, any of it, any of it. But I can say this: If we get universal health care in this country, I am absolutely positive that situations like this will occur less frequently.

::steams::

::remembers to call mom to ask her to deposit SSA check::

brina: Since many in that article are already receiving disability through Social Security, then they already have health care through Medicare. This is the kind of place that people are moved to, once they get off the street.

They don't necessarily have Medicare: It doesn't kick in for something like a year after you've been awarded disability.

brina, believe it or not, it could be even worse. At least it's warm in Florida.

My impression from the article is that those who were on it, had been on it for a number of years already, so Medicare would have kicked in long ago.