I like to think about things. I also like to question things – sometimes just for the sake of it.
I nerd myself into some things. Other things I am extremely uninterested in.
I have also become a climate change aunt, despite mine so far, in the context, young age.
On this blog you can read most of what fits in my world of thought. From social criticism to beauty 40+ to embarrassing stories to…
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I have already written about housing support in Västerås municipality, and now that I myself have tried how it works under the auspices of the municipality, I feel ready to tell about my first impression. As expected, I am not very positive about it.
I think my housing support via the municipality has been active for one or possibly a month and a half by now. The first or second meeting I had to write down what my goals and needs were, and on the whole how I want it.
The most important thing for me in the relationship with a housing supporter is just – the relation. I want it to be one and the same person who handles the entire effort, to gain stability, security, and to build trust and confidence. I do not think it is too much to ask – not even for me who has a smaller need than certainly many others. Of course, those who are in worse shape than I have an even greater need for that particular stability, security, trust and confidence.
My needs concern about support to get up in the morning, and above all that there is someone who (after getting to know me) can see if / when I start to feel one way or the other (in a bipolar diagnosis) and then can help me seek help if I can not do it on my own. This is done through a couple of phone calls and a home visit a week.
On paper I filled in, I wrote excessively clearly, repeatedly, that I want one and the same person in all efforts (phone calls and home visits) and that I would rather be without a visit if my housing supporter is ill or on holiday. And believe me – I was overly clear.
As it applies annoyed when the morning calls are made by different people every day. I get just as annoyed when the weekly conversations in the afternoon are made by different people – each time (even if one or a couple of them turned out to be nice). I get even more annoyed when at least one of the callers talks to me as if I were a child – Want to say; in a very condescending way.
Today it was time for my home visit, and I had been wondering for a couple of days what it would be like because my housing supporter was ill last week. In the morning I received a text message from a person I had not met, where it said he would show up half an hour later.
Do I need to explain just how fucking annoyed I got?
I refuse to take against people I have not met – especially not when I explicitly, in an excessively clear way, been clear that I want one and the same person – otherwise none at all. It has to do with common sense. It has to do with respect for people. It also has to do with service – we with needs do not exist for others to have a job to go to. They have a job because the municipality offers a service to people in need of support in their everyday lives.
I answered the person who wrote the text message that they must become better at informing in time about changes, and that I want to cancel today's visit because of this because it does not fit that time. After a moment of silence, I send another with the request for confirmation, because I do not want the door to ring all of a sudden, when I said no.
It became one nice finish, which I am grateful for. Yet – the thing itself. And only that there is no steady schedule – I get an SMS or a phone call where I get to know what time of day I get a visit. That time can vary by several hours, from week to week. That alone is morbidly annoying.
But that which What annoys me most of all is that I really do not think it will be much better after the summer when everyone has had a holiday. Due to the municipality's outright agreement, all private contractors have disappeared, which gives Västerås' own service space to do exactly what they want without anyone being able to give them the go-ahead for it. I get pissed that they take the liberties of driving over people just because they can.
And yes, I know it's a lot for them now that they'd suddenly got a surplus of people in need. I understand that it is chaos. But you know what? That's actually not my problem. For once, I do not intend to be complacent and just accept that it is in a certain way “in order to” the situation is as it is.
I do not think that I will ever feel less critical of how the city of Västerås handles people in need of support in their everyday lives, whether it is housing benefit, good men / stewards, home care or any other service. It's a guardian mentality that's extremely fucking flattering – but not for me or anyone else in my target audience, but for the municipality.
I am, though not a bit surprised, and will remind myself to write more about that with the feel-sorry-for-the-mentality and the sauce rule.
About a week I will skip the morning calls for a period. When autumn comes, we'll see how I do. At present, I am strongly inclined to skip housing support altogether, because I'm not a bit impressed.
And then play it does not matter much that the individual who comes for a home visit is nice and kind – that person is not the problem, but it lies in how things are handled from a political and administrative point of view.