Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Dealing with Housing - and Other Benefits for People with Disabilities

Let me start by saying I am grateful there are benefits available to people with disabilities, like subsidized housing, Social Security, food stamps, Medicaid, etc.  Without such benefits, I would be living in my car.  If I even had a car.  I purchased my car way back before I went on disability; I have no clue how I will manage to afford a new car when this one dies, which it will eventually, because cars don't live forever.  But anyway, without benefits, I'd probably be living in my car, eating at soup kitchens, unable to afford the many vitamins and supplements I need, unable to access any health care, without a service dog.  My life would suck big time.

But accessing these benefits is not easy.  Consider yourselves lucky that I was not blogging back when I first had to stop working and apply for disability.  All you would have read about every day was how stupid the whole system was, how it made no sense, how stressful and confusing and exhausting it was, and so on.  I think that's all my therapist at the time heard, every week for about three months.  But I'm going to share a little of it with you now.
  • There was the time I got a seven-page form in the mail from Social Security, with a letter instructing me that the information had to be received by the Social Security Administration in ten days from the date on the letter.  Well, I received the letter on a Thursday afternoon.  According to the date on the letter, the information had to be received by Sunday.  Of course, mail doesn't run on Sunday.  I tried to call the claims specialist that sent the letter to ask if I could have more time, but didn't get an answer.  In order to make sure the information was received on time, I needed to put it in the mail on Friday.  I had to stay up all night long completing that form.  The form consisted of seven pages of essay questions, seriously, like "What do you do all day on an average day?" and "What things do you need help doing in your daily life?"
  • There was the time I hand-delivered some paperwork to the local Social Security office, to make sure it got there safely.  A full month later, someone called me from Social Security to tell me they'd never received that paperwork.  I insisted I'd taken it there myself, the person looked again, and found it had been misfiled.  That meant it would take a full month longer to process my claim.  Some idiot at the Social Security Administration did not know their alphabet and could not file papers correctly, so my benefits ended up being delayed by a full month.
  • There was the Department of Job and Family Services office, otherwise known as the welfare office, in Cincinnati, where I used to live.  I would arrive on time for an appointment with a caseworker, which I had to do in order to get food stamps and  Medicaid, and sit in a crowded, noisy waiting room for a couple of hours waiting for the caseworker to get to me.  The room would be crowded with noisy kids, crying babies, exhausted and frustrated parents screaming at them to shut up.  Just the place someone with severe anxiety and PTSD wants to hang out for a couple of hours.
  • There was the ridiculous amount of information Social Security wanted in order to consider my application for disability.  They wanted a list of every job I'd had for the past 15 years (since I was 31 at the time I applied for disability, that meant they wanted to know about every job I'd every had, except for a few babysitting gigs I had as a young teen), including the name of the company, when I started working there and when I stopped working there, how many hours a week I worked, how much I earned per hour, my job title and job duties.  They wanted the name, address, and telephone number of every health care provider that had ever treated me for my disability (and you realize doctors sometimes move, right?  It can be quite a challenge to track down current information about them).  They wanted medical records (and do you know how hard it is to track down medical records from a doctor that moved ten years ago?).
Sorry.  I kind of got off on a tangent there.  See how frustrated I am about it still, ten years later?

Dealing with all the red tape of getting subsidized housing is bringing that all back.  They want a ridiculous amount of paperwork and won't accept what I think would be reasonable documentation.  For instance:

  • They want proof that I am disabled, but the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will not accept the Social Security Administration's finding that I am disabled.  Oh, no.  They need a form filled out by my doctor saying I am disabled.
  • They also want proof that my dog is a service dog.  They want to know that I have a disability and need a service dog, and they also want to know that my dog has been individually trained to perform tasks that mitigate my disability.  However, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will not accept a copy of the paperwork my doctor filled out just six months ago when I was applying for a service dog.  They need their own form that says I'm disabled and need a service dog.  They also will not accept any of the paperwork from the program that trained my service dog.  They need my doctor, who had nothing whatsoever to do with the training of my service dog and probably doesn't even remember the things I told him my service dog was going to be trained to do, to fill out a form saying the dog has been individually trained to perform tasks to mitigate my disability.
  • They need proof of how much money I have in the bank.  However, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will not accept a copy of a current bank statement showing how much I have in the bank.  Oh, no.  They need a form filled out by someone that works at the bank which will show the same thing a current bank statement would show.  
And there is a whole bunch of stuff like that.  And who knows how long it takes all those people to fill out all those forms and fax them back?  And I can't move into my new apartment until that happens.  In fact, they can't even calculate exactly how much my rent will be until that happens.

See why I have a headache?

10 comments:

  1. Aiiyeee, the government will make you crazy! They have requirements that the employees don't even understand why such and such is needed - all they know is it's on the list of requirements and they don't question why or if something else would be just as acceptable. Believe me, I KNOW - I had the pleasure of working for the federal government for 27 years and at retirement was still walking around saying "We have to do WHAT??? WHY??" to which no one could provide an answer, other than "That's how we've always done it" -- crazy making. I know how frustrating it can be for the public to try to navigate all the twists and turns, and my heart goes out to you having to wrestle with them again. I won't insult you by telling you to be patient, etc....but I will swing some cats for you and pray to the gods of obscure paperwork for a speedy outcome for you. I'm sure you're anxious to move forward with your life.

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    1. I'm sure it is frustrating for the employees, as well. Unfortunately, it would take an act of Congress or something to change it.

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  2. Unfortunately most of the employees DON'T question the "regulations" - and many of them just don't seem to care that they are making the applicant's life miserable. While there are some excellent civil servants, there are also those (like anywhere else) who do the bare minimum to get by. When it's time for an employee's annual performance review, there are two categories for the supervisor to choose from: Acceptable or Not Acceptable. Gee, really gives the good employees an incentive to work harder, more efficiently, huh? I didn't mean, in my original reply, to say "oh, feel sorry for me 'cause I was a federal employee" - I could have left at any time. Just trying to explain how set in concrete so many things/people in government service are. An act of Congress, so to speak - it would take a lot more than that, as I don't think Congress could fight its way out of a wet paper bag. I think we need to summon the flying spaghetti monster to try to fix this. Or maybe privatize federal services - might see some significant changes if the government was run like a business. Best of luck to you in your housing quest. I'll be sending positive thoughts your way.

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    1. I think privatizing some services probably would help. I suspect one reason customer service is often poor when dealing with government agencies is because people have no alternative. What am I going to do, take my business to some other food stamp place? Apply for disability at some other agency? If I get fed up with the poor service and decide not to apply for benefits, that just meas they have less work to do and they save money.

      I also suspect that the good employees kind of get weeded out. They probably get frustrated and end up quitting, while those that don't care so much about providing good services to people in need and want to do as little work as possible would stay.

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  3. I used to work at a HUD complex as a leasing agent. The paperwork is crazy, but it way worse for the leasing agents. For every single paper you fill out we had to fill our four or five pages. It's insane. BTW the waiting list here is actually closed. It's over three years long and was still growing so they closed the list. There are two forms of HUD. HUD projects and Section 8 housing. Section 8 will let you rent a house and subsidize the rent. Easier to deal with when you have a dog.

    I don't have a service dog but am a pet owner. I never thought of the difficulties that service dog owners went thru until I started reading your blog. Very informative. I will never assume that a service dog is only for blind people or that I can pet it. You have taught me a lot. Thank you.

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    1. Fortunately, since Isaac is a service dog, renting isn't a problem with him. The Fair Housing Amendments Act (FHAA) requires most landlords to allow a service dog even if they typically don't allow pets, because a service dog is not considered a pet. A service dog is typically considered the same way durable medical equipment is considered. A landlord could not legally refuse to allow a disabled person to move in with a wheelchair, and they can't refuse to allow a disabled person to move in with a service dog, either. In addition, they cannot charge an extra deposit for a service dog or extra rent, the way they sometimes charge extra for pets. Tenants are responsible for any damage their service dog does, though, and they have to pick up after their dog.

      I'm glad you've learned a lot from my blog. I always like hearing from readers.

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  4. I've actually learned a lot. The things i've learned will not help you unfortunately but will help anyone I come into contact with who has a service animal. I will never ever pet or ask to pet a service animal. I appreciate the things you go thru and post to teach us. Know that you aren't speaking to the deaf.....so to speak...lol. There are others of us, i'm sure, who have learned from your blog. It's been an inspiration to me. I actually subscribed in my yahoo reader so I get your posts as soon as you post them....lol.

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    1. It doesn't bother me too much when people ask to pet him, actually, as long as it doesn't bother them if I say no. Which I usually do. It's not because I don't want him to be petted, it's just that he gets so excited at the attention that it's hard for him to do his job and behave himself. Sometimes, though, when someone asks, if Isaac is really calm and I have the time, I will say they can pet him but ask them to do so really quietly and calmly so he doesn't get too excited over it. And I always tell people thank you for asking. It's what is sometimes referred to as "drive by petting" that really bothers me. That, and people talking to him and making kissy noises and getting him all worked up.

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  5. It's really not surprising that you still feel frustrated about the whole process of applying and getting your disability benefits even after a decade. Proving you're incapable of working is already a lot of work. The government will perform all the necessary processes to make sure that you're a legit beneficiary. But aren't you thankful that after all those dragging processes, you now get to enjoy its benefits? And the fact that you shared a firsthand experience with all these is a real help to those who are going through the same ordeal.
    Erminia Cavins

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  6. I too have been through all the frustrations you have, except the service dog issues. I am having a dog trained now and I had no idea there could be so much difficulties and loads of paperwork from housing! Thank you for the heads-up. Thankfully though, my current landlord doesn't oppose me having dogs. (my daughter already has one.)

    I'd say I hope you don't have to continue with all the nonsense, but I am all too familiar with the twice a year Medicaid and yearly housing re=certifications. Grrrr!!! I hate it! It only serves to aggravate my symptoms and you would think these programs would acknowledge and simplify the process for those with psychiatric issues.

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