Friday, April 24, 2009

Apartment

I'm looking for a new apartment. It's turning out to be a bit of a pain to haul my wheelchair up and down the stairs. Not as much of a pain as NOT having the chair, but still a pain.

Often I'm asked why I didn't move a long time ago. After all, there are apartments specifically designed for accessability (and more popping up all the time). Many have requirements like this one, which is copied verbatim from the web site of one such complex here in the Twin Cities:

To qualify for one of the units, your household income must be 50 percent or less of the area median income (AMI) of Hennepin County.


I've seen more liberal income limitations, up to 70% of the AMI!

That's closer to the average, but still below it.

Keeping in mind that I have some degree of pride and have indeed held full time, REGULAR (not 'social program to enhance your self esteem' type) jobs pretty much continuously since 1992, WHY IN GOD'S NAME WOULD I WANT TO ***COMMIT*** TO A ***BELOW-AVERAGE *** INCOME?

Not every accessable apartment requires a pledge of poverty, though. Some only ask that one be disabled (guilty!) or a senior citizen (I'm not even close). But I'm not really ready to be put out to pasture yet, so ...

And there is that elusive beast, the accessable apartment that is obtainable without what are quite frankly disturbing conditions attached. To be honest I am often just too worn out/stressed to put too much into searching. Or maybe the folks that apparently believe I just don't get enough pressure on matters like this are correct and I just need to be told to try real hard and put 110% of my energy into begging for handouts ...

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