Years after my wildly abusive spouse abandoned me, I rented a room. There, I fell through the landlord’s rotten wood deck. I ended up in a wheel chair. I asked my landlord if he could clean his filthy hoard so I could move about in my wheel chair. I think he asked his drunk wife / partner to help clean their hoard and that set her off. She broke my bedroom door off its hinges at about 3 AM and ordered me to leave because my bedroom was messy.
To be fair, my bedroom did smell like urine. But that is because they insisted I pee in a bottle because crawling to the bathroom made too much noise at night. Essentially, I shouldn’t leave my bedroom at night because I was too noisy.
It seemed very odd. I had no legs prior to the fall, but walked on prosthetics. My left prosthetic was broke in the fall. My left meniscus was torn. My left arm was screwed up. I was literally laying in a hospital bed with the trapeze handle and safety rails. But there was a drunk woman broke my bedroom door off its hinges at three AM to demand I clean my bed room.
I ended up in VA transitional housing. I kept falling in the bathroom due to the arm injury. They sent me to the hospital. The hospital sent me to the VA. The VA asked me the standard questions about suicide and if I feel safe in my home. I explained I do now. That sent up a red flare and a shrink became involved.
I showed the shrink photos of my former home, explained what happened, and asked if the landlord’s conduct was called ”projecting’. She said it looked like a crime. That due to my brain injury and lack of legs, I was an ‘at risk adult’ and the home did not just violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. The home was ‘elder abuse’.
She asked if the police were involved. I asked if she meant a lawsuit. She said that too, but this could be prison time. I had no clue what so ever. Then we talked about my wife. Why didn’t I leave my wife? Why do I use my SNAP benefits for other people? Why did I pay to repair my landlord’s drive way? Why did I pay another landlord’s vet bills?
Evidently, I lost something called executive function with that brain injury. That is why Social Security insisted I had a ‘representative payee’ to manage my financial affairs. But what happens to folk like me when that person decides to exploit and abuse? In my case, you end up with no legs and shortened life span.
So tell me, was this abuse of an at risk wheelchair bound tenant? Shrink thinks yes but I honestly had no clue. If so, why on earth would the landlord demand a jury trial? Wouldn’t a jury freak out like the shrink did?
