Oh What An Ordeal
I know of a man that lived with his fiance’ in a home that they rented in another state. The relationship was not working out for him and while he was trying to salvage the relationship the home went up in flames with him in it, the others escaped fine. He was burned 65-75% of his body. He was in a coma for just over one month and he went through 4 surgeries for skin grafting. He had to re-learn how to walk again and laid curled up in a hospital bed for over eight months ending in a nursing home. One year and eight months later he still has open wounds and has chronic pain. While the man laid in his coma, his fiance’ cleaned him out of his insurance, money and belongings and furnishings that survived and a motor vehicle.
Unfortunately for him their was no recourse available because everything was jointly established. Although she did not work during their entire period of their relationship nor did she contribute to the bills they still put all in joint accounts for the most part. It was found out by him that while he was in the coma she was in bed with other men, no doubt looking for her next victim. When he first was brought out of the coma she visited and even stayed for like 3 or 4 days on the first visit and about 3 on the next, he was in a hospital over three hours drive away from where they had been living. She actually helped in him re-learning how to walk, however, during that last visit he discovered text messages on her cell phone which then he knew of her escapades. They talked a few times by telephone but the calls were growing further apart. He was moved to a location that was only 15 minutes were their supposed new house that she picked out for them was located. She led him to believe that he would be going back son as he was released. She didn’t visit and the phone calls stopped after he had asked her to take money from his account and go and buy him some clothes. He never heard from her again.
Many months later he wanted to leave the nursing home but had nowhere to go and had only a mother in another state. The nursing home only offered to give him the address of a homeless shelter. That shelter was only a night shelter and you had to leave each morning and then be amongst the first in line at night to get a bed or be left outside. His mother lived in a senior center and he was not permitted to stay there. He figured if he had to go to a shelter then he would go back to his home state near his mother whereas he could receive help from her. See at that time he was not walking fully and had no body strength after laying in a bed for 8 months and losing 60 pounds. As well he still had bandages that needed to be changed and dressed two times daily.
Entrance: Climb thru back window/boards. No electric, water, or heat
The man flew back to his home state went to the county government office which in this case was Gloucester County Board of Social Services, New Jersey. He explained his situation that he had no place to live, his health insurance ran out, and he was unable to work. He had all the documentation of his medical records and all the wounds to prove his case. They denied him, flat out with no referrals other than a non-profit group that would provide a motel room for one to three evenings. The three was if it was a weekend. Well it was and it is important to know that it was below 32 degrees outside. It was February in New Jersey and a foot of snow on the ground. The Motel was a dump and that is being nice. It stunk, was very dirty, the bathroom tiled floor was cracked in several places and when he flushed the toilet the toilet waste water would rise up through the cracks on the floor. He couldn’t sit on the seat he had to hover. The bathtub was so disgusting that he needed flip-flops because he couldn’t step on it’s floor nor the bathroom floor. Needless to say the cockroaches overran the room. The thermostat didn’t work and the hot water baseboard heat had only one setting, Super High, and the office controlled it. It would get so hot he would have to call the office and have them shut it off for a while because the air was to hot and dry to breathe. Then he would fall asleep and wake up a every couple hours FREEZING so he would call they would turn it on and then he woke up two hours or so later and had to call to shut it off because he was sweating profusely. Now remember he just left the nursing home and still had both his arms and both legs fully bandaged with yet still open sores. Upon complaining to the desk over the conditions, the Western Indian called the non-profit group and said he was being unruly and that they wanted him out. Now I know for fact that all he did was mention how dirty it was and stunk as well as all the cockroaches and asked if he could be moved to one of the rooms in the new building. The motel had a new building with at least forty new rooms and over half were empty. The unfit room cost $64.00 per night. That is not cheap, not for that dump (and that is being nice). The people at the non-profit got on the phone with him and immediately started yelling at him, telling him to be thankful. They didn’t care that he was not unruly and he explained and they didn’t care.
Monday morning came and he got back down to Social Services and they turned him down for food and medical attention as well and reaffirmed the denial of housing saying that the emergency took place in another state and that state was responsible for housing him. Now what sense does that make when he was where he was. They offered no help whatsoever. His only recourse was to apply for a hearing and off into the snow he went looking for some shelter outside and in a boarded up house. He had to be careful with the neighbors. Now he first applied on January 30th and his court date for the hearing never came until April 11th. They left this disabled person outside in the winter for almost two and a half months. Well it was three months because he didn’t get any housing until April 28th.
Now check this out. He had to get a Legal Services lawyer to help him with the appeal. The lady was so rude and insesitive to his needs that he would get sick each time he knew he had to call her or when she called his cell which some kind person had gotten him. Now on top of his physical disability he also had mental illness as well. He suffered from Bi-Polar/Manic Depression and Antisocial Disorder as well as a couple of other things. Well everyone knows about client/attorney privilege and the attorney was trying to get rid of his case the entire time and regularly conversed with the liaison for Social Services. Well through this time of waiting and going back and forth to Social Services he noticed that the workers when speaking to him were all of a sudden bringing up points that he had just been discussing with his attorney, topics that they didn’t need to know about until court. well just days or a week before the court date he had been talking to his attorney and she had mentioned something about shelters. He told her that the agency never offered him a shelter placement mainly because that county does not have one. They would of had to pay the county next to them for him to go to that counties shelter. So during his talk with his attorney she kept bringing up the shelter and he said for her not to bring it up because he could not go to a shelter in the city because of his Antisocial Disorder. He could not be around people. He couldn’t fit in some instances and people with this disorder often say things that are on their mind without any thought to the other persons feelings. This could get him in allot of trouble in an inner city setting. Additionally he explained the need for medical care and a place to stay around the clock.
Well it just so happened that later that day the agency called and told him to be there the next day because they had housing for him. He got there the next day and sat down with the Social Worker and she put some pages in front of him and said sign here, here and here. He said hold on, slow down, tell me what is going on and let me read what I am signing. She wouldn’t let him read it and in fact pulled it out of his hands and said are you going to sign this or not? He said not without reading it and knowing what he was getting into. She told him it is a shelter in the city and it has nurses there, they would disperse his medication to him throughout the day and they would also do his bandages, Now are you going to sign or not? He said; “well what kind of shelter is it, do they kick you out during the day?” She said she didn’t know and to just sign. He asked where, she told him and he knew the place. it was a very bad neighborhood, where he did not belong. They kick out everyone in the morning and you can’t go back in until 7 pm except to get meds and such. That would mean he would have to bus in and out three times a day because there was no place for him to go during the day and it was to dangerous, especially in his condition he was extremely vulnerable to attacks. This place is in Camden, NJ. Camden was the Murder Capital of America for at least a decade. Well he said he would go look at the place and check it out before accepting. She said; “So you are not going to sign now?” She dismissed herself for a moment when he told her no and she came back with a letter denying him of any housing, food, and medical reconsideration’s either then or in the future because she stated that he turned down the offer of housing.
He knew for certain that the lawyer was in on that by comments that the social worker (Beth) made. She actually used some of the same verbage as he did with his attorney. So he knew the attorney talked to the liaison and cooked this up. He said to his attorney that’s alright court is next week. Now the reason the attorney did that was because she was to be on vacation the day of the hearing and she had wanted to postpone the court but he would not allow her because he was in the cold and couldn’t wait another two and a half months. She had only just decided to take a vacation day on that day knowing she had court. After he had said to his attorney that it was alright because court was next week she told him that court would now be cancelled because he refused shelter placement. He said; How could it be cancelled when I made application to the court not them?” He had enough with her and fired her from the case, by writing and telephone. Well a couple days go by and she calls or wrote and said that she had spoke to the liaison in reference to a couple things. well he was furious. Number one she was not permitted to speak to anyone, she had been dismissed from working the case. 2, She got him in a jam and found that she had been talking to the liaison and he believes she directed the liaison to cancel the court, either that or the liaison did it on her own. Just by chance a day or two before court he called The State Office of the Courts and found that someone had called in and cancelled the court date on HIS behalf. That’s right someone from the County Government Agency, The Board of Social Services of Gloucester County, New Jersey, called and said they were cancelling for him because everything was settled. Fortunately he spoke to the exact right person when he called and got it put back on the books. Incidentally about that lawyer, she worked for Legal Services of New Jersey in their Woodbury, NJ office. He still has all the notes on every conversation and meeting with each and every person mentioned.
On the day of court of course the attorney didn’t show because she was dismissed. I thought she would though on behalf of The Board, because that is who’s interests she represented when she was on the case. For the board the liaison showed with the social worker, Beth, and the boss. It only took about 15 minutes and we never even went on record with the court and with the Judge’s help, because he agreed with him, he was able to put together a deal with the boss for housing. The Judge sided with him immediately and even agreed that he should not have gone to the shelter.
The Social Worker the next day in the office was unhappy and sent him on a wild goose chase looking for boarding homes. The list she gave him had wrong phone numbers and contact info. As it turns out Boarding Homes are for those that have real serious Mental Issues ad they need to be supervised all the time. That tells you what kind of person that social worker is in her heart. He eventually found a rooming house with an available room and she sent him there with all the paperwork, and after the whole deal was said and done she got in one more cruel zing, she told him that since that room is in a different county, we only pay for the first month and now you have to go to that county office and reapply to them all over again.
He is still in that room seven months after that ordeal, he has five months of help left and then he has to go back on the street. Here’s the kicker, He had applied to Social Security for Disability Insurance back in September 2008 and once approved the agencies will get their money back out of his first check which will have all the back months on it.
To this day One Year and Eight months after the fire that disabled him for life, he is still waiting to be approved by Social Security. He was turned down twice and last month went to a lawyer and since has been notified that a court hearing will take place within approximately 18-24 months. His rental assistance runs out as previously stated in five months.
written: 12/27/09 By: Reverend Robert Minister, Author
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