The American’s with Disabilities Act (ADA) has come under fire along with DEI. I think I should explain what ADA is and is not. It is not the free ride some claim. At its core it simply demands reasonable requests for accessibility be granted. I share photos of the last place I rented hoping to reach other folk who might not realize they are being exploited.
I was renting a room for $500.00 / month. I’d already lost both legs but was walking on prosthetics until I fell through the my landlord’s rotten wood deck / porch. My left prosthetic went straight through the deck. My body went to the left. Knees were not designed to bend that way. I stopped the fall with my left arm, which in addition to my knee was injured in the fall.
The word exploitation had not entered my mind. Wood rots and accidents happen. Ah, but the landlord went immediately into defense mode. He claimed he told me about the broken board a year earlier when he fell through it. But instead of repairing it, he put the broken board back in place and covered it with garbage. I fell through the previously broken deck while wading threw that garbage to take out household trash as asked.
The deck was not the only area filled with garbage and clutter. The photo at left shows a the laundry room impassable to my new wheelchair accessibility challenges. A hoarder has every right, to live in filth. A landlord who rents rooms does not. In exchange for rent, a landlord must provide a safe safe home environment. Anything short is exploitation. In common terms, renting out a room when the common areas are unsafe is called being a slum lord. This is not opinion. It is established law and it is codified. I’ve been in a wheel chair with one fully working arm for over over two years for renting from a slum lord. Wheelchair bound or not, tenants have a right to access what they rented.
Wheelchair or not, tenants also have the right to exit the place they rent when they desire. Everything I owned was in my bed room and the garage. To get to the garage from my bedroom, this is what I had to negotiate in the living room. Just getting to the bathroom involved crawling. Here is where we examine the term ‘reasonable accommodation’.
The bathroom was not blocked by their filth and hoard. It was just too narrow for my wheel chair. I didn’t ask them to modify the home. I’d just drop to my knees and crawl. I honestly did not mind until they insisted I keep two bottles in my bed room. One for water and one for pee. Evidently the guy who couldn’t walk due to their negligence made too much noise as he crawled. Eventually they asked if I could use a bed side commode when I had to poop. I explained how unstable those things are when you have to climb onto them without legs. The solution was to hold it until morning.
I am fairly sure drugs, alcohol, and mental illness contributed. The wife claimed she was in a methadone program for pain. The husband claimed she was in the methadone program for heroin addiction. Her son claimed his nothing killed his infant brother by smothering him while stoned. I think the son later changed his mind and I never saw her using either heroin or methadone. But the alcohol addiction seemed obvious to this son of a drunk. Unless Bigfoot visited her Ohio backyard, I think there was some serious mental illness involved as well. What is it called when a person sees things that are not there?
I started to wonder if I was seeing things that were not there. There was booze scattered in different locations, but her favorite was Dragon Berry rum. That was always hidden away. Although she seemed perpetually drunk, I can not be sure the rate at which she consumed her Dragon Berry rum. I do not know for sure if she was drunk when she rolled a four wheeler with her child on the back. Nor do I know for sure the household innocently consumed the volume of rubbing alcohol it seemed to.
When I first moved in, I thought these were friends. The landlord and I would often go shopping together. Although I said nothing, his purchases of Dragon Berry rum and rubbing alcohol seemed excessive for a family of three. After all, he did not seem to drink. But what about the rubbing alcohol?
After the VA rescued me, I started to wonder if I was witnessing murder in slow motion. Now keep in mind, I am a brain injury survivor. I am prone to confusion and easily influenced. I saw it on TV. I think Law and Order. Rubbing alcohol pickles ones organs and kind of turns ones brain into a sponge. Was the landlord slowly killing his wife with rubbing alcohol in her Dragon Berry? Like the mother rolling a 4 wheeler with her daughter on back while drunk, I dont know.
Either way, the spirit of the Americans with disability act is the ‘reasonable request’. There was nothing in that home that was ‘reasonable’. Not the hoard, not the filth, not the alcohol, not the drugging, not the screaming. It is reasonable to ask for a clear path and to pee in the potty at night. It is reasonable to ask that drunken screaming be held to a minimal. Not just for disabled tenants, but for all people.
How do you comply with the American’s with disabilities act is as easy as compliance with other social norms. Just be reasonable.
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