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As someone with multiple health issues, the last thing Robert Simser needs are the 50 stairs from his fourth-storey unit to the sidewalk in front of his apartment building on Morisset Avenue in Carlington.
With his cane, Simser, 56, manages the stairwells whenever he needs to go to the hospital, food bank or the nearby Caldwell Family Centre for a free snack and coffee. But it saps his strength and leaves him catching his breath at every landing.
Simser’s medical problems are scary. The most serious include a tumour in his spine, damaged nerve endings in his left leg and right arm, a blocked artery in his neck, and a constant migraine he treats with morphine. He suffered a heart attack in 2012 after his spouse died of cancer, and weeks later, a stroke. Simser’s doctor feels he has a “poor and guarded progress for improvement.”
Now, he faces another dilemma. Simser says his doctor expects he’ll be in a wheelchair very soon, and will need it to go everywhere. It could be a matter of weeks or a few months. His damaged leg, he says, gets “worse each day.” An electric wheelchair is on order.
He’s OK with a wheelchair, but he fears he’ll be confined to his apartment if he can’t find another place.
The building is not accessible for the disabled. Several years ago, work began on installing a small elevator in the building, but the project was abandoned even though a shaft was constructed and elevator doors installed. Even so, an elevator would not help Simser beyond getting to the ground floor. The building doesn’t have automated entrance doors or a ramp outside for anyone who can’t negotiate the 10 stairs between the lobby and sidewalk.
His current landlord, Global Properties, says it is aware of Simser’s health problems and his need to find alternate accommodation.
Simser took the apartment earlier this year, he says, because he needed a roof over his head after he couldn’t live with family anymore. He pays about $800 a month, plus heat and hydro, and the $200 or so left over from his provincial disability cheque doesn’t get him much else. He relies on the food bank, family centre and some friends who come over with milk, bread, sandwich meat and margarine on weekends.
The reality is that Simser needs to be in a subsidized, accessible apartment so he doesn’t always have to scrape by on his meagre income.
After it was determined recently that Simser will need a wheelchair, his doctor recommended he find an accessible apartment, with grab bars and lower kitchen counters. The main entrance will need to be accessible, and if he can’t be placed in a ground-floor unit, an elevator will be required.
Simser’s doctor has provided this information for Ottawa’s Social Housing Registry, which maintains the central waiting list for people applying for affordable housing available through various non-profit agencies in the city, including Ottawa Community Housing. With approximately 10,000 on the waiting list and a period as long as 10 years to get housing, Simser needs to get urgent medical status to get in sooner.
Under the rules though, Simser can’t be placed on that priority list. He needs to have a terminal illness or a serious life-threatening medical condition, made worse by his current residence. Despite all his maladies, none are considered life-threatening. The tumour is his spine is not considered terminal because it has been shrinking with radiation treatments.
He could get on the homeless priority list by giving up his place to live on the street, in a car, a tent or an emergency shelter. He would eventually end up in a hotel or motel room available through social housing and then wait for an apartment to come up.
A Social Housing Registry agent says being on provincial disability qualifies Simser for below-market-rent housing. Accessible bachelor units rent for $550 and one-bedroom apartments are about $650. Again, the waiting period is up in the air and a critical concern for Simser.
He says he’d be grateful to get an accessible unit from a private landlord as long as the price is right. “If there’s somebody out there who could help me with a place … that is wheelchair accessible, I’d be happy.”
Simser says he’s wants to live independently. “I still have some good years of my life left and I want to be able to live it.”
Is something bothering you? Please contact: thepubliccitizen@ottawacitizen.com
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With his cane, Simser, 56, manages the stairwells whenever he needs to go to the hospital, food bank or the nearby Caldwell Family Centre for a free snack and coffee. But it saps his strength and leaves him catching his breath at every landing.
Simser’s medical problems are scary. The most serious include a tumour in his spine, damaged nerve endings in his left leg and right arm, a blocked artery in his neck, and a constant migraine he treats with morphine. He suffered a heart attack in 2012 after his spouse died of cancer, and weeks later, a stroke. Simser’s doctor feels he has a “poor and guarded progress for improvement.”
Now, he faces another dilemma. Simser says his doctor expects he’ll be in a wheelchair very soon, and will need it to go everywhere. It could be a matter of weeks or a few months. His damaged leg, he says, gets “worse each day.” An electric wheelchair is on order.
He’s OK with a wheelchair, but he fears he’ll be confined to his apartment if he can’t find another place.
The building is not accessible for the disabled. Several years ago, work began on installing a small elevator in the building, but the project was abandoned even though a shaft was constructed and elevator doors installed. Even so, an elevator would not help Simser beyond getting to the ground floor. The building doesn’t have automated entrance doors or a ramp outside for anyone who can’t negotiate the 10 stairs between the lobby and sidewalk.
His current landlord, Global Properties, says it is aware of Simser’s health problems and his need to find alternate accommodation.
Simser took the apartment earlier this year, he says, because he needed a roof over his head after he couldn’t live with family anymore. He pays about $800 a month, plus heat and hydro, and the $200 or so left over from his provincial disability cheque doesn’t get him much else. He relies on the food bank, family centre and some friends who come over with milk, bread, sandwich meat and margarine on weekends.
The reality is that Simser needs to be in a subsidized, accessible apartment so he doesn’t always have to scrape by on his meagre income.
After it was determined recently that Simser will need a wheelchair, his doctor recommended he find an accessible apartment, with grab bars and lower kitchen counters. The main entrance will need to be accessible, and if he can’t be placed in a ground-floor unit, an elevator will be required.
Simser’s doctor has provided this information for Ottawa’s Social Housing Registry, which maintains the central waiting list for people applying for affordable housing available through various non-profit agencies in the city, including Ottawa Community Housing. With approximately 10,000 on the waiting list and a period as long as 10 years to get housing, Simser needs to get urgent medical status to get in sooner.
Under the rules though, Simser can’t be placed on that priority list. He needs to have a terminal illness or a serious life-threatening medical condition, made worse by his current residence. Despite all his maladies, none are considered life-threatening. The tumour is his spine is not considered terminal because it has been shrinking with radiation treatments.
He could get on the homeless priority list by giving up his place to live on the street, in a car, a tent or an emergency shelter. He would eventually end up in a hotel or motel room available through social housing and then wait for an apartment to come up.
A Social Housing Registry agent says being on provincial disability qualifies Simser for below-market-rent housing. Accessible bachelor units rent for $550 and one-bedroom apartments are about $650. Again, the waiting period is up in the air and a critical concern for Simser.
He says he’d be grateful to get an accessible unit from a private landlord as long as the price is right. “If there’s somebody out there who could help me with a place … that is wheelchair accessible, I’d be happy.”
Simser says he’s wants to live independently. “I still have some good years of my life left and I want to be able to live it.”
Is something bothering you? Please contact: thepubliccitizen@ottawacitizen.com
查看原文...
