Rental red tape

You can fight City Hall but you might die of frustration and stress while trying.

Right next-door to where I live in our colourful, in many ways, downtown St. John’s, a two-bedroom, rent-geared-toincome apartment “owned” by the City of St. John’s has been lying vacant now since Nov./ Dec. of last year.

That’s seven to eight months of good-quality, affordable housing that city bureaucrats have cleaned up and sat on — going empty; until now and this letter to you, maybe?

As a single gay man, who wants to rent the unit, and perhaps offer the second bedroom to a young lesbian or transgender person in need, I’m blocked by city bureaucrats and their human made rules.

I’m a retired social worker with over 30-years experience in mental health and addiction treatment now living on a limited disability pension, with a life-long history of depression myself, who likes my neighbours, helps out in the neighbourhood, and enjoys our sense of neighbourhood and community.

But no, the city seems to prefer to leave the unit empty (and there are now two empty units in the same building) and seems to want to stymie and not facilitate any attempt I make to rent the unit and maybe share it and my life experience and wisdom with someone more in need than you and me.

But again, no, our city’s publicly funded housing units, paid for with tax dollars from you and me, are left empty while publicly paid bureaucrats spend time blocking my efforts and questions about the empty units and offer nothing more, especially open-ness and accountability, regarding their inaction or making life more difficult for those of us in need.

The struggle regarding such injustice and incompetence — enjoyable as it sometimes is for me — continues.