"The essayist is a self-liberated man, sustained by the childish belief that everything he thinks about, everything that happens to him, is of general interest." ~~ E.B. White
Winncompanies Property Manager Kayla Bennett in Ludlow, Massachusetts and her surrounding management team do not deny Winn’s parking-lot policies endanger the lives of tenants and violates the rights of seniors with disabilities with legally issued handicap parking placard or plate. Bennett oversees 170 apartments for seniors.
Asked Friday by this tenant what gave Winn the legal right to take away legal handicap parking privileges, Bennett said, “I will not answer your question.”
When asked why Winn endangers the lives of tenants by forcing them to move their cars in snowy icy weather, Bennett gave the same answer. “I will not answer your question.”
Bennett then asked me to leave the office.
Bennett is not the only member of Winn management not to answer the question regarding the violation of seniors rights and the rights of people with disabilities. Others include, Leanne Chalifoux, Caitlin A. Laplante, Erik Pietz, none, including Bennett have answered emails asking them the same questions.
As detailed by the NIH’s National Institute for Aging. To get a disability plate or placard, one or more of the following apply to you.
You: • Cannot walk 200 feet without stopping to rest. • Cannot walk without the assistance of another person, prosthetic aid, or other assistive device. • Are restricted by lung disease. • Use portable oxygen. • Have a Class III cardiac condition. • Have a Class IV cardiac condition. according to the standards set by the • Have Class III or Class IV functional arthritis. according to the standards set by the American College of Rheumatology • Have Stage III or Stage IV anatomic arthritis. according to the standards set by the American College of Rheumatology • Have been declared legally blind. • Have lost one or more limbs.
Winncompanies, a Boston-based property management company (and my landlord) does NOT deny two of its policies endanger the lives and violate the civil rights of the senior tenants, many with disabilities, who live in a 75-apartment building on State Street in Ludlow, Massachusetts.
The former mill-building opened for rentals in 2017. Having filed a complaint against them through the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office, management has already threatening my ability to live here.
But first, the two Winn policies that endanger tenants’ lives. One of them, the first listed, also endangers the lives of Ludlow community members. First, there are some facts you have a right to know. Some you may already know. I didn’t.
“To obtain disability plates, a placard, or a disability veteran plate, you must be a Massachusetts resident. A Massachusetts registered and licensed physician, chiropractor, registered nurse, physician’s assistant, osteopath, optometrist (for legally blindness only) or podiatrist must certify that you meet one of the following conditions:
Cannot walk 200 feet without stopping to rest.
Cannot walk without the assistance of another person, prosthetic aid, or other assistive device.
Are restricted by lung disease to such a degree that your forced (respiratory) expiratory volume (FEV) in 1 second, when measured by spirometry, is less than 1 liter.
Use portable oxygen.
Have a Class III cardiac condition according to the standards set by the American Heart Association
Have a Class IV cardiac condition according to the standards set by the American Heart Association. A customer in this condition must surrender their license.
Have Class III or Class IV functional arthritis according to the standards set by the American College of Rheumatology
Have Stage III or Stage IV anatomic arthritis according to the standards set by the American College of Rheumatology
Have been declared legally blind (please attach copy of certification). A customer in this classification must surrender their license.
Have lost one or more limbs or permanently lost the use of one or more limbs.”
Winncompanies essentially tells all its senior tenants, including those with disability plates and placards: When we need to replace the mulch in our garden beds, repaint the lines in the parking lot, remove snow, or anything else we want to do in the parking lot, you are to park your cars out in the public street and leave your cars there until we say we are done. If you don’t do this, your cars will be towed at your expense.
In other words, tenants have to park their cars in an active driving lane on State Street, a two-way street with no parking spaces on either side, and endangering the lives of passing motorist and members of the community as well.
Deadly Winn Policy #2
Two periods of time each year, at the beginning and then again of the heating season in Massachusetts, defined as September 15 to June 15. Massachusetts regulations say the highest an indoor temperature can go in apartment buildings like the one in question is 78 degrees. Winn’s management appears devoted to holding off as long as possible before turning the building’s A/C on, and the turning the A/C off as soon as it possibly can. Keep in mind, the A/C is expensive, and Winn has to the A/C cost in the common areas, halls, offices, elevators, stairwells, and so on. With the A/C off, the indoor temperatures go up into the high 80s and 90s, way above the 78 degree cut off. When tenants ask for the A/C to be turned on because of the high temperatures, one member of Winn Management sent me an email saying it would be a couple of more weeks before the A/C would be turned on.to be turned off, Winn’s management will wait weeks.
As for the high temperatures, Winn management says it is not their problem because the heat is not heat produced by the building’s heating system. They do nothing to ease the conditions for tenants.
Now, they threaten my home.
I recently filed a civil rights complaint againstWinncompanies et al, with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office. Now,Winncompanies’ management is threatening to terminate (their word) my tenancy because, when they recently asked me for extensive information about my life (far more than the housing authority that oversees my Section 8 rental voucher, and far more than Social Security asks for) I asked them to show me what part(s) of what law or regulation allows them to ask for this information. They won’t tell me.
For the record, I pay my rent on time every month and have done so since I moved here in the fall of 2017.
Sometimes a part of our truth can be right in front of us and we can’t see it. Case in point: I sheepishly confess that I was utterly entirely flabbergasted this morning when a friend of mine said, “Well, you know you’re controversial, Peter.” It was, I’ve gathered since talking to others since this morning’s conversation, and enduring everyone’s laughter by the way, a rather prominent deer in the headlights moment for me. I instinctively responded by saying, “Why should equal rights be controversial?”
They are.
I asked them why they think I’m controversial. The theme of their answers was the same. You call out people, companies, agencies, government agencies on their actions or lack of actions. You don’t politically walk on eggs. You are deeply sensitive to all minorities and you don’t hesitate to identify those who persecute them, even when you know it is going to cost you. People know if you see people being mistreated you’re going to say it and name names. One person said, You drag things into the light.
Well, if that all makes me controversial then I’m glad I am. I was recently in a meeting where someone I respect a great deal said part of advocacy is about pushing the envelope.
One person said, Some folks hope you’ll just go away. Those who hope I’ll just go away are those who through action or inaction support things that deny people their rights.
I know of too many people whose support for minorities like people with disabilities, Gays, Lesbians, blacks, Latinos, Jews, Muslims, Native Americans is cast in lip service and self-aggrandizement. Bad news for these folks. I’m not going away. I can’t. I’m controversial.
If you deny someone their equal rights you deny them their freedom, and for that you should face criminal charges.
This happens all to often in the world of disability. I’ve seen it, endured it, fought it, and will fight it until the end of my days.
If you are going to treat someone with a disability as if their humanity is less whole than yours, you should be charged with a crime. If you are going to treat people with disabilities as if each and everyone of them is a cottage industry for you to profit from, same thing, criminal charges should be brought to bear and if you are convicted you can do the community service by going to jail. In other words, leave the community.
I hear many things from many people on many fronts, particularly in the world of people like me who live with brain injuries. Sometimes I can reveal my sources, sometimes not. Sometimes discreetness is the wisest choice, sometimes in your face is. I am willing to play both cards if I genuinely believe doing so will further equal rights and or hold accountable those who willfully deny others their equal rights.
Here is an example that typifies a lot of what goes on. I know someone who lived with a brain injury. She is extremely bright and nobody’s fool. Were she in a coma she could likely outwit 99 percent of the people I know. Anyway, she was attending a day program and made it known she wanted to get a part time job. So the program tells this woman that they will clear out a little office space they have and set it up with candy and soda that she can sell a few hours a week and she can keep some of the money. This woman said to me, “Do they think I’m stupid or what? Do they think I don’t know that the only reason they’re offering this is so they can bill for the hours I’m in selling their damned candy?” In other words, all this Albany-based provider cared about was not losing the money they would lose if this woman had a part time job in the, wait for it, community!
There was a time in life when I believed that in everyone’s heart of hearts there rested an active or untapped reservoir of compassion for others. Wrong. There are plenty of people that simply don’t care, not at all. And they are the ones that need to be exposed, criminally charged when possible, and given a leave of absence from the community, and if not the community, a permanent leave of absence from working in an arena designed to help people reach their maximum level of independence.
The best way to get rid of the dehumanization of people with disabilities is to expose it as clearly and graphically as possible.
I have told more than one in the field of human rights, I will tell the truth for you, I will not lie for you. There are a few who made the mistake of thinking this was lip service on my part. Not.
As the Kahrmann Consumer Advocacy Coalition grows its membership and hones its purpose, I can tell you that my input will include a consistent push to bring those who deny people their equal rights into the glare of the public eye.
If you deny people their equal rights, you deny them their freedom.
Our current focus is on the survivors of brain injury living in the community who are receiving services in New York from providers across the state. Many of the providers are class acts and do not deserve to have their reputations stained by those providers who are anything but class acts.
Among other things, this latter group of providers engage in what can accurately be called, community-based warehousing. They should be and will be exposed. Although the survivors are living in the community, their lives and what is welcome or not welcome in their lives is controlled by the providers.
One thing I know is this; providers who prevent the coalition from telling the survivors in their programs about the coalition will be exposed. The question is how best to do this.
Not only does the behavior of the poisonous deny people their civil rights, it denies people their freedom. There is no excuse; certainly not even greed, no doubt the driving force behind much of this.
And so my thought, my mission, is to bring the bigotry into the light. Fungus never does well when exposed to sunshine.
Peter S. Kahrmann - Est. 1953 