Oprah Power

Where is your gratitude?

Despite the humor intended in the title of this post, I am truly disgusted. Of course Oprah Winfrey is a proponent of gratitude! The primary issue I address here is my gratitude and that of my neighbors, although Oprah inspired me to write it. You see, my original intention and hope for this blog was to inform seniors, their families and caregivers. It was also to empower people; only a tiny percentage of the world's people, even of the world's wealthy, have Oprah Power.

Most readers who follow my blog will be familiar with some of the issues facing tenants of public housing. I happen to live in a comparatively nice-looking LIHTC, a highrise near downtown Denver. To my astonishment (not to mention the amazement of some of my neighbors) the building and landlord were featured on Denver's Channel 9 News recently. I say we were astonished, because, although this is reasonably attractive housing, it was touted as a progressive solution to public housing woes. I wrote two newspeople at Channel 9, two women, Adele Arikawa and Kyle Dyer, to express my surprise at the coverage, and to voice my concerns. Their reply? The single tenant of this housing with whom they spoke expressed her profound gratitude for her apartment. With regard to the issue of segregating the tenants of the tax credit set-aside portion of the property from the tenants and all of the amenities of the adjoining portion of the development, the tenant said she was aware of the situation, but has no objection on the grounds she is grateful for her home!

I have heard this standard applied previously; indeed, by this landlord's site manager on another publicly subsidized property, a senior multifamily Section VIII.  Gratitude was Manager Ginny's trump card, and she played it continuously, with impunity! The housing had originally been developed under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Denver and/or Catholic Charities and Community Service of Denver. When the complex opened its doors, as Higgins Plaza, it was managed by vowed Catholic nuns. As such gratitude for this shelter is virtually compulsory. (-Have an issue with bullying by your neighbors or the management team?  Are maintenance and repairs are mediocre at best? Have you long suspected the Manager of stealing the property of elderly tenants, transferring to long-term care, deceased or dying?) Where is your GRATITUDE? My own son-in-law, while I was protesting my unhappiness in living at Higgins Plaza, alluded to life under one of the City's bridges as my unacceptable and only alternative!

By the measure of gratitude I submit to you I am a generally grateful individual, hence the name of this blog. By the measure of gratitude for "the little things," Oprah is remiss, to reduce this to the ridiculous. If memory serves, the unredoubtable Ms. Winfrey protested the treatment she received as a member of the public entering Hermes. Apparently Hermes felt she was mistaken to enter the store. A clerk advised Oprah she could not afford to purchase so much as a handbag in the store, so the story goes. In any case Oprah did not care for the presumption behind the statement, nor its racist overtone. Hermes, on the other hand, appeared to feel she should have been grateful not to have been immediately barred from its store.  See: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/8338268/#.VkI0V66rRQY

You know the rest of Oprah's rather public issue with Hermes. No, Oprah was not sufficiently grateful to step foot in Hermes. Her gratitude for haute couture proved insufficient to overcome her expectation not to be followed, questioned and insulted, by high fashion's presumptuous bigots. Unlike the rest of us, Oprah had the luxury of publicly proclaiming her objection. Although we are told, as residents of public housing, the landlord cannot retaliate against us for voicing our concerns, legitimate or otherwise, it is absolutely not true. My former close friend and neighbor was effectively evicted and sued for unlawful detainer for disagreeing publicly with the landlord's new non-smoking policy and the manner in which it was introduced (and enforced.) The man's responses were inappropriately couched, but he should have had the right to express his objection and, for that matter, his annoyance, within certain limits of acceptability. The landlord could have insisted he keep it appropriate, not insulting, but, instead chose to evict, leaving him devastated. He lost a great deal of property, and has returned to his previous homeless state. He is a disabled American veteran. We should be grateful, and be able to demonstrate our gratitude for his service.

The Civil Rights Movement, it wasn't just a couple of, you know, superstars like Martin Luther King. It was thousands and thousands - millions, I should say - of people taking risks, becoming leaders in their communities. ~Barbara Ehrenreich

When the site manager at Higgins Plaza stated that "as a recipient of a housing subsidy, you should be grateful for shelter. My response was swift and clear. I said, "My financial status and arrangements are absolutely private. My housing subsidy neither removes any of my rights, nor does it negate my expectation that my housing will be decent, safe and secure, in decent repair and reasonably clean. Your company is accountable for adherence to federal law!" I have said the same things in my current tax credit housing. The sad thing was my willingness to move into housing under the control of the same landlord and management company. Be assured it is due to the scarcity of affordable housing in this city.

It all depends, I suppose, upon whether shelter is or is not considered a human right. It depends on one's view, also of the civil rights of Americans. Bottom line ... segregating people by income is egregious. Segregating an entire portion of a development by income is unlawful, if that portion of the development is a separate building and populated by a preponderance of the ethnic minorities in the development. This condition creates "disparate impact," and it is against the law. Perhaps one woman in this LIHTC is not at all concerned about being unable to swim in the pool, use the health club, or sip a cup of coffee in the courtyard of the development. That does not make it right, not by any standard.

So I ask, am I grateful not to be under the Cherry Creek bridge with my little dog and what remains of my belongings? You tell me. Am I grateful for America's tax credit program, which is notorious everywhere in the Nation for promoting segregation? You tell me.