An early garden project, outside my apartment.
Photo taken before the giant stand of trees was removed from
the ditch, leaving this area to bake in the hot, unrelenting sun
thereafter.
This blog post is a perfect example of how difficult it is to operate as a hermit in modern times. It is a bizarre reality that one has to be practically WEALTHY before it is possible to locate and obtain a place of peace in which to live and serve God with one's prayers and practices. The TRADITION is that the hermit lives in simplicity, poverty, and perfect obedience to God. This looks quite different when you live in town and there is a bread machine on your kitchen counter. This is one of the main reasons I have not gone whole hog and gotten public vows as a Diocesan Hermit, though it is possible I may do it before I die. I am not focusing on that at the moment...
I had decided, when I first set foot on this road, that I would live the life as best I could for some time and then perhaps set about getting some sort of formal vows in the hands of the Bishop. I wanted to make sure that I was ABLE and that my temperament would stay the course. Over the years, it became clear that my disabilities and life circumstances were always taking so much time to address that even developing a proper schedule is constantly being interfered with. It isn't that I am too fond of entertainments, though I do very much enjoy the artistic ventures through which I express the religious sentiments and with which I'd hoped to supplement my income. The illnesses require too much time on the phone than is good for the soul. Limited income, combined with these illnesses, requires a lot of effort to chase up the treatments and the means of obtaining those and basic life needs, such as food. It has become clear just why the religious institutions usually avoid anyone whose physical health is not robust, because illness is a chink in the armor that allows the outside world to seep into the monastic and pulls the sick person out into the world to interact with government functionaries that become essential to our care.
While I am trying to avoid becoming sucked into the worldliness of the modern folks, at the same time, my personal rule has been expanded and is constantly finding new form, as I incorporate some of the beautiful devotions I've found over the years I have been Catholic. 20 years into this thing, I am still tweaking the schedule, and I must also admit to myself that I love praying and have often gotten lost in extra prayers, which is just as bad as when I am not doing the basic prayers, when it comes right down to it, because I am trying to keep to a regulated life.
Now that my housing and my peaceful life is being assaulted by hateful people who entertain themselves by trying to hurt the neighborhood disabled lady in the wheel chair, I am glad that I am NOT formally recognized as part of the machinery of the local parish because I would not want the evil of the people currently tormenting me to interfere with the smooth operation of the diocese.
As soon as my health deteriorated enough to put me in that wheelchair, satanic forces went into overdrive and began aggressing me. I have read about such things happening to others, over the years, but I am very surprised to see it happening to me, as I've always managed to stay out of the dramas that these sort of people get into on a regular basis. We all have better things to which we should aspire than tormenting our neighbors. I, for one, have always tried to love my neighbors and to be giving and kind, but I now find that these traits are considered weakness and a cue for evil people to savage me. First, they grab all the "stuff" they can, with both hands, and then they start roughing me up, wanting more.
I am quite sure that God is not happy that one of his devoted children is being treated thus.
Those of us who are elderly and/or disabled usually have to live near doctors and dentists and hospitals and whatnot. The housing that puts us near these things is typically rather crowded. Non-religious people are rubbing elbows with us and, because we are so different, there is friction. There used to be a retired religious that lived on the property, but she moved out some time back. She was the only person I have met, so far, who lived in this complex, is Catholic, and goes to church every week. Many people in this town will tell you they are Catholic but they never attend mass. It's one of the basic rules. You have to attend mass unless you are unable, such as those of us who are too ill or if you have no transportation. To be fair, many folks got out of the habit during Covid and never returned.
One excellent result of having been tormented by my landlord and its management company is that these traumatic circumstances are bringing to light the difficulties of just HAVING a place to live to begin with because, as soon as there is someone who has the right to say ANYTHING about your hermitage, you can bet your bottom dollar that they WILL say SOMETHING about it.
The heart of a hermit desires the solitude to be in communion with God more than anything else. Any outside circumstance that interferes with it causes pain and suffering to the hermits heart!
Without fail, whenever someone is bothering another person about the place where they live, there always seems to be a matter of injustice involved. For instance, with a poor hermit that lives in a "low income" city apartment, the landlord is always trying to force something on the hermit that impedes the hermit's progress in adapting his living quarters to the use of the Lord.
I have a wonderful prayer that I have started praying that dedicates all my personal possessions, everything I own, to our Blessed Mother. From the first time I prayed that prayer until today, it has helped me come to grips with the fact that Our Blessed Mother owns everything here. This is all her stuff, it all belongs to her, and when I care for it, I am caring for her things. It has given a fresh perspective on my situation. It strengthens me in my efforts to deal with the anti-disability prejudice that the management company is displaying toward every effort I make to keep to a peaceful life.
But, after 20 years of living in this place and just now beginning to feel that I am close to being as organized as I can be, it appears that my hermit life is being disturbed by a fractious world. So, instead of writing my typical things about the mostly obscure saints that appeal to me, I am finding myself writing about the latest way in which disabled people are being discriminated against by a modern world's current iteration of devotion to selfishness.
I think Dickens might relate to the issues that are the same now as they were when he was writing his observances, only he did it in a much more entertaining fashion!
Anyway, I am dipping out of the world of the saints for a moment, to record what is happening from my perspective, at present, and then I hope to dip back out and return to the predominate theme of a view of the saints, instead of the modern devils.
It is a principle of economics that Americans should not be paying more than 30% for their housing costs, which includes rents and utilities. In that case, my rent should be $567. INSTEAD, the City of Albuquerque is charging me $685 for my "low income apartment", which is more than $118 MORE than affordable. I JUST installed a $5,000.00 walk-in shower, and they will not give me any recognition for that improvement to their property and have refused to delay the new rent in recognition of it. NOT ONLY THAT, but I just learned today that for the next two months there will be a preliminary demolition of my building from 7 in the morning until 6 at night, and I will not have access to my parking area because the facade of my building has to be removed in order to diagnose the construction steps necessary to replace the stairs to the upper levels. I will be spending my days enduring the noise, chaos, dirt, and building vibrations, which my PTSD is already anticipating and giving me anxiety.
When I moved to New Mexico from California 25 years ago, I soon discovered that, while California laws tend to protect the person with the least amount of power in any relationship, New Mexico laws protect those with money and power. Employers and landlords can pretty much do anything they want. With regard to the laws that DO exist to protect the vulnerable, those do not have any teeth. So when I began to write this blog, and I read a few articles, I wasn't surprised to learn that New Mexico law prohibits any type of rent control. Property owners can charge whatever they want, as long as they give proper notice of what's coming at you.
I have wanted to leave this property for many years, because of various factors, but now I am completely disgusted and feeling TRAPPED.
The City of Albuquerque, owner of many properties where the poor people live, has chosen to capitalize on the scarcity of available rental units subsequent to the Covid-era influx of people who have relocated from larger metropolitan areas. The city is jacking up the rents for poor people, based on an artificially inflated "market rate" instead of relying on the relatively more humane rental computations of HUD, which they mimicked for years. The poor who already live here need the protection of the city which is supposed to represent our interests.
When I speak to management about this unfair treatment of the poor, they also say (falsely) that the City's offering of these low-income units is voluntary and they don't have to do it, especially because they are not getting recompensed for the "discount" they give us. It is a not true that they do not get repaid because they get special tax breaks and other incentives that make it worth their while so that, while there is no money ear-marked with my name on it for my unit, they DO get their money back AND THEN SOME.
Based on previous methods of computation, I was expecting a monthly rent increase of about $20. INSTEAD, landlord City of Albuquerque wants $123 more per month than last year - which is 200% of my $63 a month Social Security increase for the year. It is an unconscionable move on their part - due to their radically changing the method of computing rent. They should be ashamed of themselves, especially since they gave me no notice that they were doing this.
The manager kept yammering about how the "market rate" is so much higher than it used to be (thanks to the influx of new residents, mentioned above.) It is ironic that I have JUST installed a walk-in shower that increased the value of THEIR property by about $5,000, and they are jacking up my rent because the property is more valuable.
THE FULL STORY
Early in my disability with numerous physical issues that left me barely able to walk and going blind, I moved into an apartment complex owned by the CITY OF ALBUQUERQUE. As it happens, the only unit in the entire complex that was built specifically for handicapped people and which accommodated wheelchair and walker access had just become available, and that is where I have lived for the last 20 years.
At first, the property was taken care of very well, with a manager named Nancy who was so fastidious about the cleanliness of the premises that she herself would pick up any random detritus that she saw in her daily rounds of the parking lot and landscaping, despite the fact that she had a reliable maintenance man (Chris, and then Anthony.) Between the two of them, this place ran like a top and was a jewel in the desert. The attitude generated by management was one of welcoming community. We made many friends with one another and were grateful to live here.
The City used the same computations of what they charged us for rent as was used by HUD. It was based on our income. Broadly described, we paid 30% of our income, minus a modest discount for disability and/or elderly status. Single people could live in a studio or a one bedroom, and the rent was still based on what you could afford, according to your income.
THE CITY CHANGES MANAGEMENT COMPANIES
Dog-poop filled trash can is left to rot
in the sun for many days
Then MONARCH PROPERTY MANAGEMENT took over, and everything began to change. Nancy told me that she had been saddled with more and more computer work that made it difficult to do the actual management of the facility. Her typically sunny demeanor began to suffer under the weight of these new duties and finally, she decided to retire.
Every year afterwards, the premises became more and more disheveled until finally, the abandoned garbage can by the mailboxes was left to overflow with stinky, fly-infested dog poop, and the mailman was so disgusted that he refused to deliver mail to this complex until the dog-poop can was moved. None of us got any mail until the trash can was moved. (It was "touch and go" for a while as to whether or not we could regularly receive our mail because one of the newer tenants had decided that he didn't LIKE the new location for the trash and kept moving it. For some reason he had the impression that I had something to do with it, and he harassed me constantly, whenever he saw me outside my apartment until I finally had to call the police, and then management finally addressed it.)
Anthony had long ago left for a much better paying job that recognized his supervisory abilities, and we have seen a constant stream of random "maintenance men" - most or all of whom did not appear to have the knowledge base or experience to manage a big property like this. At least one of them had trouble passing the test for the pool maintenance. At present, we have a nice guy in his late teens who knows nothing about maintenance but is keen to learn, and a brand new maintenance man who I am told has some experience.
The big yucca-type trees that were planted on the back side, outside our patios rotted and died. They weren't cared for properly and were probably not native to this area anyway. The tall trunks fell over or were cut, and the stumps are left behind. Nothing has been done correctly here.
For the last 3 or 4 years, some of the stairs leading to the upper floors had rusted and rotted through. The supervisor at the main office in town explained to me at one point that they could not find anyone who was willing to do it, but I suspect it had more to do with the what the City was willing to pay, rather than anything else.
Workmen cut away the building to look at the rotting stairs,
then covered it with this chipboard and have left it there for YEARS.
The long-term residents struggled to cope with these changes and began to have real problems getting work orders done. I would sometimes write a work order on the resident portal and then receive notice from their computerized notification system that the work had been done when nothing had been done about whatever it was, and I would have to write another work order.
Most of the problems have to do with the maintenance of the property outside the tenant's living quarters. We have a constant problem with some kind of insect infestation, perhaps a type of spider, that leaves sticky webs all over the outside of the building.
Large web outside my apartment.
Colony of webs on the wall outside my apartment.
Webs infesting the lighting outside my apartment.
Every year, we have these infestations, and the nests remain for months before anyone does something about it. When I have a caregiver, she tries to ride herd on the little monsters right outside my foyer, but there is only so much she can be expected to do. It is the management's job to take care of this and they've been negligent.
Insect/spider webs in the lighting outside
my apartment.
Some of the long-term residents have moved out. Others have died. Two of my dear friends have gotten some type of dementia and have had to move into a more supportive living situation. The seniors that used to live here have been replaced by much young people. I don't know why the demographic changed so radically, but one of the previous managers told me on several occasions that there were "too many old people" living here.
CITY OF ALBUQUERQUE CHANGES THE WAY
THEY COMPUTE RENTALS
I kept asking the new managers recently about my rent renewal. I had given them my yearly award letter, and my new rent would have been due to start in a couple days, when I finally just went in there to find out what was going on. We typically have this paperwork done more than a month in advance, and I had a sneaking suspicion that something was up.
The new apartment manager appeared to be tense and ready for something unpleasant. I was right that "something was up."
The City of Albuquerque is trying to take advantage of the fact that so many people moved here after the Covid-19 pandemic, that they have decided to base our rents on a jacked-up market rate. I was told by the new manager that this property is worth a lot more now and that "we could charge even more than we do."
Apparently, they no longer use the relatively humane HUD calculations that focuses on what the residents can afford, but instead, their greedy focus is on what they think they can get for the apartments on the open market and then they give us a discount on THAT. I do not know when they changed the calculations because they did not notify me, but I know it was after Monarch took over the management of this complex.
If they had continued to use the HUD method of calculations, my rental increase would have been an extra $18 or $20 a month. When she told me that my rental increase was an additional $123.00 I flipped out.
The extra $100 would have to be taken from a very slim food budget. Currently, my dog and I live on about $300 a month for food. His costs about $60. If I give my landlord $168.00 of it, that leaves me with $140 for groceries per month. There may be slightly more, if I look at what I order from Amazon, which is where I get my nuts and some of my teas. I don't get food stamps because my Social Security is slightly higher than the typical New Mexican since, although my social security is mostly derived from payments I made from my secretarial income, I WAS working in Los Angeles for a good part of my life, and the salaries are, by necessity, higher there, meaning that my social security contributions were ALSO higher.
I had only received an extra $63 dollars a month for my "cost of living" increase from Social Security this year, and the City of Albuquerque, my landlord, is taking 200% of it. They want $685 for this apartment. Doesn't sound like a low-income apartment, does it? ESPECIALLY when you consider how run-down and ill-kept this place is.
The persistent condition of our pool
during the summer of 2023
Rumblings of discontent HAD reached my ears prior to this. Some of my friends had moved when they got hit with the higher rent. They bought houses in town for what the rent would have cost them. I had heard from other tenants that their rent had gone up astronomically, which is why I was suspicious of the extremely long delay in getting my rental agreement to me, but I assumed that the "market rate" of the apartments would not affect us because we were protected by the HUD method of calculations.
The ironic thing is that I arranged for a much-needed walk-in shower to be installed in my apartment, thus increasing its value by $5,000.00 - and now my landlord wants to bankrupt me because the apartment is worth more than it used to be.
When talking with another friend on the property, he told me that another retired resident was hit with a $300.00 a month increase. He had to go back to work in order to "stay even."
I don't know what I am going to do. I am not physically able to work. I can barely walk, and I am relying on my new motorized wheelchair to take my dog out for his daily strolls, and I am blind in one eye. I will be checking out another supposedly "low income" apartment on the other side of town next week, but that is ALSO owned by the City of Albuquerque, and I suspect that they will be using the same cruel computations that focus on the supposed "market rate" of these run-down, poorly maintained apartments.
I DO have a novel in progress, but the emotional toll that this kind of thing takes on me eats into my ability to CREATE. I have also sold my paintings in the past, and I have a stock of jewelry that I have made, but I have NO idea where to sell the jewelry, and it will take some time to get some paintings finished.
I have sent several emails to the supervisor of the manager here, and I will do my best to contact the media and all the agency that may have interest in this cruel scam against the poor in this town.
In the meantime, I will be begging for food, apparently, thanks to the City of Albuquerque.
The first round of begging is here. If you can spare any money to refill the food budget, you can donate via the button, above right.
Lord bless us all.
Silver Rose
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relevant resources:
According to a report in BUSINESS INSIDER, 44% more people moved INTO Albuquerque than moved out since the pandemic.
ARTICLE HERE
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