"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.
Any company, agency, government, school, healthcare provider, individual, who seeks to minimize the voice of those they claim to serve is an oppressor. To be fair, some get caught up in group-think and find themselves supporting decisions, methods, laws, protocols, directives that oppress a group or groups of individuals. Others know bloody well what they are doing. Some oppress out of a palpable dislike for those they claim to serve, while others do so because those they serve, people with disabilities (PWD) for example, are little more than revenue streams in their eyes. Moreover, PWD have been used as fodder for those who revel in the sewage of arrogant self-aggrandizement.
The question is, a willful oppressor or an oppressor out of ignorance, or, equally relevant, out of fear? Fear of reprisal if he, she, or they hold the oppressors accountable. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was absolutely right when he said, “In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
Back in 2008 I lost all income and all employment because I would not remain silent when a particular New York State health care provider, a Traumatic Brain Injury Waiver provider to be exact, was denying the rights of those participating in the program in part by community-based warehousing. In other words, put as many difference services on the shoulders of the program participant so you can bill (make money) as much as possible. It was made very clear to me that I needed to go along to get along or lose everything (meaning, in this instance, all my income and healthcare coverage). I chose that latter.
I knew then, just as I do now, that real human rights advocacy (as opposed to lip-service advocacy) can be a bloody business. If you are the real deal on the advocacy front you’re in good company: Mandela, King, Gandhi, Susan B. Anthony, Malcom X, Medgar Evers, Harvey Milk, Elie Wiesel, Simon Wiesenthal, Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Frederick Douglass, Malala Yousafzai, just to name a few. All of the aforementioned paid dearly for their advocacy. Loss of freedom, loss of life. So, when it comes down to it, any price I may have paid pales in comparison.
It seems to me the job, if you will, of any real human rights advocate, is to, by any non-violent means necessary, drag the oppression and the oppressors into the open, and hold them accountable.
Recently I was pondering a column about accountability. I found myself wearing a rather large smile when several thesauruses listed accountable and responsible as synonyms. I know a few oppressors who, on the one hand, would, with misplaced pride and predictable defiance, say they do their jobs responsibly. Yet the moment you hold them accountable, these folks would slither under a rocks with remarkable speed and spit out venomous accusations of unfairness at those holding them accountable.
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.
Actions speak louder than words. A cliché. When I was a boy my father reminded me there are reasons clichés become clichés, and the reasons are often good ones, which I believe to be the case with actions speak louder than words.
As one who lives with a disability, in my case a brain injury, I am weary of the many who offer up words of advocacy and support for brain injury survivors yet when it comes down to standing up to those who deny our rights they do nothing. In the world of brain injury there are all kinds of people in the profit and non-profit arenas who, when it comes to taking a stand for equal rights, fail miserably. Too many who claim to care remain silent when they know brain injury survivors are being denied equal rights, real quality care and support, meaning, in part, that those providing the care are qualified to provide the services they are being paid to provide, paid with taxpayer dollars no less!
And so it is that this year my eye will be on the actions versus words arena. When the actions don’t match the words, I’ll say so. Yes, I know, I will upset some. I don’t care. Why should I? The ones I’ll be upsetting are the ones spewing lip service. They don’t deserve caring, not when the rights of others are being denied and their silence and inaction makes them one of the forces contributing to the denial those rights.
Everyone and every organization is fair game. I am overjoyed that my state’s new governor has made it clear ethical standards are a must and in some instances in this state, they are severely lacking. True that governor.
Peter S. Kahrmann - Est. 1953 