MONTANA SOCIAL DISTANCING IS A WAY OF LIFE

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I am so grateful I live in Montana, though we have a few cases of COVID-19, we are fortunate enough to have the ability to get outside and breath the fresh air, take in the sunshine and wash all the stagnant air out of our homes and lungs.

Social Distancing at it's best in Montana.

My daughter invited me out to their place before they shut down the schools here in Montana. If she hadn't I know I would not have felt comfortable going outside and I would be scrubbing down every wall, surface, nook and cranny with a toothbrush and straight Lysol cleaner.

Our Management Company issued a rather strongly worded letter about their expectations of the tenants during this time. I can understand the concern for their maintenance people and the need for them to be able to pay those people and others who work for the company.

I would like to take the opportunity to let Landlords know that just because this virus started halfway around the world, some of the deplorable buildings that you continue to rent out with broken sewer lines, uncleaned units before moving new people in, painting over the muck left behind by former tenants all can lead to a virus here in America.

The need to follow proper codes, procedures, and maintenance on buildings is paramount to stopping the spread of many types of health issues. We have Building codes in place for a reason, to protect those who live, work, and play within them.

If we continue to look the other way on these issues just because there are limited units available for our nations low-income, working, elderly, vets, and families we are inviting another health crisis for our most vulnerable populations who have no choice but to continue working unless they find themselves in the hospital or the grave just to meet their rent obligations.

WHAT DID TRUMP DO TO YOU?

I was asked today "What did Trump do to you?. My reply was he made it unaffordable for me to get a job.

Now, I ask you does that sound like something an American President who touts job creation would do? The answer my friend is not blowing in the wind, but YES!

Thanks to the HUD Secretary Ben Carson and his rules to take more than 30% of personal income, and forcing people to take jobs that actually end up costing them money because the rent went p due to the increase in income. If you can not work the whole 20 or 40 hours of that job, it does not matter because you will be forced to pay out on those hours you could not work, but HUD thinks you can.

It does not matter if you work full-time or part-time, it will cost you money in the long run, the money you won't have even if you go to work.

If I were to work my usual seasonal, part-time job, which is supposed to be 20 hours, but due to a herniated disk, fibromyalgia and some other stuff, I am not capable physically to always work 20 hours. I have tried my best, laying on the floor, standing up at my desk and still dialing that phone. I still have to pay out on those hours I did not work the 30%. If I work 14 hours, I payout for 20, if I can only work 9 hours that week, I payout on 20 hours.

All income is figured as if you will work the entire year. If you only work six months out of the year, they average your gross income for 12 months and you pay 30% of that you don't even have to work the hours, but you will be required to pay for them. It costs me $300 a month out of my fixed income to work that 20 hour a week job, plus everything but $20 a month from that job to pay the increase.

I don't mind paying my fair share, but that is just it. It needs to be fair. If I am going to pay out over $500 a month for rent, then I better be able to wash my clothes in clean water and not sewage water backing up into the washer. I should be able to open and close my front door without having to lift it up into and out of the casing, causing damage to my rotator cuff.

HUD does not enforce their own rules, Montana State HUD inspectors overlook issues because there is no low-income housing, Montana slum lords continue to let perfectly good buildings (if taken care of) to rot down around tenants ears because no one is holding them accountable.

What good are city codes when no one enforces them when businessmen pass off these public housing buildings three months before HUD tells them to start repairs so they don't have to repair them and the next businessman in the ladder can milk the rentals for a while until he has to pass it off before being required to make repairs?

As I type this, there is a cracked sewer line under my apartment. When the furnace kicks on and the temperature is just right, I think I am standing by the outhouse on a hot summer day. Fond memories, I think not!

They tell me if you can't afford it don't do it. Well someone should tell the slumlord the same thing or make him fix his buildings.

Trump made it impossible for me to get work, and have enough money after paying all the bills and rent left over to eat, buy a tank of gas or even buy new underwear. What did Trump do to me?

  

IMPEACHMENT TRIAL ONE YA-WHO'S OPINION

theconversation.com

"That's right, just another idiot with their own interpretation on the impeachment of the President of "these Divided  States"."

 I have tried my best to keep my mouth shut during the political upheaval of America, but I am so afraid and disappointed in the way the country is going that I can no longer keep my opinion to myself. "As if it matters!"  I understand that my little, opinion does not matter as it does not influence anyone to change their mind, take action, or even give a crap. Yet it is my first amendment right, so I am taking the opportunity to exercise it.

From the very beginning, I stood out here in the abyss shouting "The Emperor has no clothes", but no one noticed. I went and protested when Mr. Trump ( he is not my president, I did not vote for him) arrived in Great Falls, Montana for his July 5th rally.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/donald-trump-mental-health-754139/

I question whether the Trump Administration has a clue of what they are doing, suppose to do, or are required to do? His camp seems to talk out of both sides of their mouths and then deny they spoke in the first place. I was taught as a child that "Honesty is the Best Policy". Isn't that what the First Lady's campaign is all about, "Be Best" for the emotional and social health of children? I thought the President would be an example of "how to act" not "how not to act" for his own wife's reputation.

Is this Trump's best? the best attempt at duping the American people? or truly and honestly the best he can run the country into the ground? There may already be irreversible collateral damage caused by the folks he put into temporary positions or had to leave their offices due to a conflict of moral ethics. Are we really going to be stupid enough to ask for another four years of lies, deceit, double standards, when the president is taking his own government to court for billions of dollars in damages? (Credit: revistanordeste.com.br/) Should this be a telltale sign to the American Public that Mr. Trump can not live up to the requirements of the position of President of the "United" States"?

 I have been assaulted on three jobs, much less important than the Presidency, yet I did not have a case for pain and suffering, why should he when the job he choose to apply for came with a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances.

I can't wait for the State of the Union Address, it should be one of a kind. Personally, I would like to see Trump step down from office. Yet, I am nobody, just another Ya-who with an opinion.

Section 8 Home Choice Inspection Texas and Apartment Inspected by Helena Housing Authority

Paying for the Privalage to Cause More Damage to My Herniated Disc, Only in Montana

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPsjmFZRu9lvpKMtW4tQ0ozzKDkbMpGt7OnEJ5eGtlB_tjc3CLTEObIQ5M9ly4KtQ?key=R1NxOE5sTEh2elFfUUhyTWpsaFI1ZDRyWWxid0pn

823 N. Davis St, Helena, MT. January 10, 2020, 11:40 am. Door reported on Dec. 17, 2019

How long is a reasonable time to repair a door that is pulling away from the door cassing where it is attached by the hinges? Is it reasonable to expect a person with a chronic pain disorder, a herniated disk to lift the door in and out of the cassing just to enter and exit the property? Is this acceptable by HUD? Is this how our tax payer dollars are being spent? Allowing Landlords to ignor repairs that can be physically damaging to the tenant is not acceptable.

Where do you report these types of Landlords in Montana? No where, because there is no money in forcing the Landlord to repair his building (s). The attitude is if you don't like it move.

How can you move when the State of Montana Housing Division misscalculated your rent. You over paid your portion while Montana allowed you to. Upon discovering the error, Montana Housing will repay the portion you overpaid to the Landlord. Never mind the $750 you covered for Montana Housing's lack of ability in calculating rent should have been returned to the Tenant so that she could use it to move out of said apartment. No, that would be logical and reasonable. Montana Housing is not.

Who's Mean's Are Livable

President Scott Sales, R-Bozeman stated to the Great Falls Tribune in a May 1, 2019 article "We have to get back to the point where we live within our means to some degree."

It is here you as the reader will look at the means that I have to live within. From this exercise maybe some of you will have a better understanding of how important, Affordable, WorkForce, Low-Income or Government Subsidized housing is. Not only that may you also come to understand that living with Government Subsidies is no walk in the park, especially under this administration.

In order for me to live within my means, I must work only with the amount I receive from Social Security Disability, as I can only work 12 hours a week now. I don't know of an employer who has those kinds of hours to offer. So we have our $851 in hand and are ready to go out and get a place to live on our own, without government help or in a government-subsidized building. This means we will be looking at the real rental price and all the other bills that go along with it.

"The median monthly gross residential rent in Montana was $759 in 2017 according to the Census ACS survey.¹ Average gross rent was $772 in 2017. The median rent more accurately depicts rental rates in the middle of the distribution of rents and is thus preferred in the analysis below. 2018 Montana median and average rent data will be released in September of 2019."

Now, in 2017 the average gross rent was $772 a month of a one-bedroom apartment, $851-772=$79 left to pay utilities, auto insurance, food (as we can not use SNAP, we must live within our means), gas for the auto, phone service, doctor's visits, prescriptions, toiletries, and to feed our service animal. No cable tv, or internet, eating out, going to the movies, or even for a drive. $79 is not going to go very far, even in Montana where you don't have to have cash every day to ride a bus or park your car.

This scenario tells me I need to look for a lower-cost place to live as it is my biggest expenditure. So let's take a look at alternative living arrangements that can be done with $851 a month without breaking the bank.

To share an apartment with someone who has rented a place at $772 a month, we would have to pay half of that plus half of the utilities, Rent: $386 a month, lets say utilities run $100 a month, so we add $50 to the rent of $386 and we get $436 over half of my income so we know that is not going to work either.

Let's see what the math would be to live in a motel with monthly rates, the only one available is in Butte, that is a 68 mile drive, so we need to factor in the cost of gas to get there: 68 miles x $2.75 a gallon of gas= $19 or about 7 gallons of gas if we get 10 miles per gallon. Now the room for a month in Butte will be $119 a night for 31 nights plus $19 in gas to get there = $3,708 total just for housing a month. Well, that will never do.

Our next option is to look at campgrounds and sleep in our vehicle. Now in the state of Montana, there is plenty of places you can pull over and stay for free without having to be in the city limits, or you can stay at Walmart for the night for free and have sketchy things take place under the cover of darkness. These two choices fit our budget, but they do not allow for bathroom usage, we will need to haul water so we can clean and cook for ourselves.

To stay in an established campground for a night can cost you anywhere from $14 General to $7 a night if you are disabled and a senior, this cost is without electricity, and for a rustic site is $6 dollars a night for senior and disabled residents of Montana, $12 General. You are only allowed to stay 14 days in a campground, so we will have to move to another in two weeks. We want to get by as cheaply as possible, so we will take a rustic site at $6 a night (we won't factor in the gas this time as it will be less than $5 to move to a campground down the way). $6 x 31 nights stay =$186 for 31 days.

$851 monthly income - $186 monthly camping fees = $665 left to pay auto insurance, food, toiletries, gas, phone, groceries, doctors, prescriptions. Hmmmmm, it seems to me that this is well within my means.

Well, you can't camp in the winter! It's too cold! Waite a minute, it wouldn't be too cold if I had a portable electric car heater for the interior of the vehicle, no CO2 emissions as it runs off the cigarette lighter, there are more sweaters I can put on as well as build a fire, or drive into town and visit friends, family, walk around shopping centers, or go to the library during the day.

In this article, I hope that I have shown you what it means to live within my means. I would love to live this way for a year just to be able to save some money for a rainy day, but alas if you choose to live this way you can expect to have unwanted visitors thinking you are of the wrong element, need to receive mental health services  or should be run out of town before other's think they can do the same thing.

Some of the homeless are not really homeless, as they have chosen to live within their means and not put up with all the negative connotations about taking from Uncle Sam, using so-called "Entitlement" programs that actually control how much money you can make, save, and get yourself out of poverty. 

CALCULATING MY RENT

"A budget should be a reflection of our values," Steve Bullock said on May 1, 2019, for an article written by Phil Drake of the Great Falls Tribune. Unfortunately, HUD does not project such an attitude about what a budget should reflect. In this article, I will be sharing my current experience with the Montana Board of Housing HUD Home Choice Voucher Section 8 program, and how the 2019 HUD budget has impacted my life.

I will be using real numbers here, not made up ones, the numbers that the Social Security Administration and the IRS have for me. This will not be a smoke and mirror type demonstration, but one based on my perception of the facts in this situation.

“We’re in the midst of this housing crisis and Trump wants to walk away from America’s commitment to housing and increase rents on poor families.” Sarah Mickelson of the National Low Income Housing Coalition stated in an article with thinkprogress.org.

I currently receive $851 on Social Security Disability, before you start making judgments, I worked all my life. I paid into the system, and have continued to pay into the system even while on disability. Not all of us are takers. I also receive $102 in Snap Benefits, a Section 8 Home Choice Voucher (I am supposed to pay 30% of my gross income for rent) and HUD pays the 70%  I can not afford. Last December, I was fortunate to have a job that paid $9.50 an hour. Even though I could not work 20 hours a week consistently, those hours were used to calculate my gross income from that job.

Let us do the calculation for the earned income, the $9.50 for 20 hours a week comes to $760 gross a month. Now we multiply $760 by 12, even though I only could work that job for six months out of the year, as it is based on seasonal activity, $9,120 gross a year plus the gross yearly SSDI $10, 212 comes to $19,332 total monies.

METHOD 1

TOTAL PROJECTED YEARLY INCOME

Using the yearly incomes calculated above, Earned Income at $9,120 gross from a seasonal, part-time, six months long job, and the SSDI, which no taxes are required to be paid from, $10,212 gross.

$760 earned income + $851 SSDI = $1,611 x 12 months= $19, 332 yearly income with seasonal (6 months, part-time, contracted 20 hrs a week, inconsisten in meeting required hours) work.

$851 x 12 months = $10,212 yearly income SSDI Only

ADJUSTABLE INCOME

Allowable Deduction yearly Disabled: $400   

SSDI + EARNED INCOME

$19,332-$400 disabled deduction= $18,932 adjusted yearly unearned income x 30%= $5,679 (30% of income) available to pay rent/12 = Total Tenant Payment $473 30% of monthly income for rent. 

I actually paid $551 per month while working that $9.50, 20 hours a week, part-time, seasonal job, that I could not meet 20 hours a week consistently during that six month period. 

SSDI ALONE

$10,212 - $400 disabled deduction = $9,812 adjusted yearly income x 30%= $2,943 (30% of SSDI) available to pay rent/12= Total Tenant Payment of $245 30% of monthly income for rent.

I actually pay $292 per month from just my SSDI, as I am no longer working that part-time, seasonal position. I am told that is because the rent is $47 above the allowed amount, yet when working it is an overage of $78 a month.

METHOD 2 ANTICIPATED INCOME

PHA (Housing Authority) uses all known sources of income- PHA's are required to use and verify income through the EIV (Enterprise Income Verification) system. 

We see in my personal examples, using my income come that I have overpaid rent while working, and when not working as there seems to be a mathematical error in the amounts I arrived at compared to the Montana Department of Commerce Housing Division claims I am and was to pay for rent. They continue to not send confirmation by a Family Summary Report required by HUD to me stating what numbers they used to calculate my rents.

After meeting with Helena Housing Authority on August 27, 2019, it was confirmed that I had not been allowed the EID. HRDC in Bozeman did not transfer over the EID when I moved to Helena. and since they made the error of not allowing me the EID, Helena used the wrong information to calculate the rent I was to pay. My earned income should have been divided in half as the EID allows for a 50% disallowance of this income for a total of 24 months, the preceding 24 months are disallowed at 100%.  The EID can only be used once in a lifetime, and for an accumulation of 48 months total. There will be more information in another article on the Earned Income Disallowance.