Senior citizens evicted, too

I read with interest Matthew Desmond’s book dealing with evictions, but it would appear that he only investigated the results for families of race, forgetting about senior citizens and their special needs (“Locked out,” Feb. 28).

I am one of those seniors who lost my apartment when I became ill. Someone who I thought was a friend invited me to live with her for $400 a month. It soon became obvious that what I thought was an act of friendship was only a business decision.

I’ve been turned down time after time for apartments because the Housing and Urban Development Department won’t accept anyone who has been evicted for five years, with some buildings saying 10 years.

Social workers aren’t interested in me because I don’t have any underage children. At 71, that would be quite a trick. No one cares anything about me, as I have no living family. Agencies that are intended to help seniors give me catalogs with information that isn’t correct for the county where I live.

Now, on April 1, I will be out on the street.Someone has to take responsibility for those who because of age or health can’t fight for themselves.

Erla Mae Clearmont

Kansasville

Bad policies at DNR

Front-page news about the Department of Natural Resource’s efficiency efforts, including allowing firms to draft their own permits, raises new concerns about the longterm impact of Gov. Scott Walker and GOP administration policies on Wisconsin’s resources (“DNR may let firms draft permits,” Feb. 27).

Walker-appointed DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp is quoted as follows, responding to comments made by a DNR employee that “deer and butterflies and clean air and clean water, that those were our customers. And I said, ‘Well, the last time I checked, they don’t pay taxes and they don’t sign our pay checks.’ ”

On the very next page is an article titled, “U.N. warns of fewer bees, butterflies.” This article explains how disappearing pollinators are key to continued production of hundreds of billions of dollars worth of crops each year. It also suggests that most of the problems plaguing pollinators can be addressed without global action by changing the way land and farming are managed.

Focusing on shortsighted gains combined with an apparent disregard for science and the long-term consequences of current environmental policies limits the likelihood of DNR protection for our precious natural resources and promoting land management practices that will sustain a viable agricultural economy both now and in the future. Jean Kaldunski

Brookfield

Waukesha water and Milwaukee

In a Feb. 29 letter titled, “It’s about development,” referring to Great Lakes water for Waukesha, the contributor writes, “more businesses and industry will move from where jobs are needed most, e.g. Milwaukee, to where the buses don’t run” (Letters).

By not supplying water to Waukesha, more businesses will move to other states or countries. Milwaukee’s employment problems run deeper than water or a bus transfer.

John Peterson

New Berlin