Originally published at: Woman with a disability asks to be euthanized after being denied accessible housing again | Boing Boing
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I’m tired of being so angry all the time. But I am, because the alternative is letting this shit continue.
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*screaming goes here
SOMEBODY FUCKING HELP HER!!
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So we are reminded the government managed to get the other unavoidable thing in life covered with red tape.
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How many empty rooms do people have in their Toronto McMansions? How many churches are in Toronto with access to vast sums of money and patronage property? How many social service workers do the bare minimum just to throw their hands up, say “there’s nothing I can do” and get her case off their desk?
Lack of empathy is a social disease and money is the precipitating factor.
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her only income is from Ontario’s Disability Support Program (ODSP). She receives a total of $1,169 a month plus $50 for a special diet.
For reference and comparsion, a quick Google shows that the average rent for a studio apartment in Toronto is currently $1549. In an overheated housing market like that, the term “average rent” doesn’t necessarily imply the presence of a working elevator and good ventilation and building upkeep or square footage that this young woman requires for her conditions.
I did not expect that someone would have to jump through bureaucratic hoops in order to ask the government that refuses to house them to also kill them. JFC.
And that’s in a country that allows medically assisted death. As terrible as her situation is, it must be even more hopeless for a counterpart living in a country where “pro-life” Xtianists prohibit even that as an option.
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I am also on ODSP. I get the same amount. There is nowhere in Ontario where I could live independently on it. If it wasn’t for my family I would have killed myself because there was no way I could pay rent, utilities, groceries, and incidentals. As it is I pay my mom more than amount allocated for my rent (you only get $500 towards rent), and put $125 a month for the privilege of having a Canadian disability savings grant which is supposed to be going towards my pension. I’m allowed to have $3000 in a bank account before they start docking the amount I get. I can get $400 in monetary gifts a year before they start docking for that so I ask my family for things I need rather than $$ for gifts. A whole new nightmare happens if I happen to inherit anything. I think it was 2018 I got my last “raise” which was an extra $20 a month.
I am grateful to to get anything at all because at the very least I can financially contribute to my upkeep, but there is no way I could live alone on what they give me.
The way things are now guarantees that I live in poverty, and only because I have material support from my family I can have an okay standard of living. If I was trying to do everything on my own I would have committed suicide because there was no practical way I could deal with my conditions plus the reality of living in this world.
So in short, I completely sympathies with this woman and hope things work out for her.
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JFC, that’s… what the fuck is wrong with the modern world…
Reminds me of John Green’s video last night…
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John Green is a great person for all the work he’s done in books, videos (the history vids are my favorite) and general understanding and care he displays for others
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“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
-Matthew 25:40
I’m not a believer, but most of those who consider themselves such are in for a rude fucking awakening.
The world would be darker without you. Which feels incredibly selfish to say in the face of your reality. But it’s true. 
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Katryn, I feel for you. I am glad you have help. Please know that there are others in the world who want to help – food pantries, mental health services, support & referral groups – so don’t be afraid to ask & persist until you find the people who actually care. I wish you strength & joy.
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Where the hell are the anti-abortion scumbags who demand respect for a wad of cells but don’t say shit when a human being desperately needs help maintaining life. Oh Sorry, you’re on your own. What a bunch of heartless creeps
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JFC is right. This late stage capitalism really, really sucks.
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Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and Matt Groening told us point blank that suicide parlors and suicide booths were in our future. That future is now. Welcome to the monkey house.
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I gave your post a like, but the below seems off-target.
Nobody goes into social work for the money. Nobody goes into social work for the glory. Or the glamor. Or the short hours. Heck, even the satisfaction of helping people is burned out of you by the grind of not being able to help everyone who needs it as much as they need.
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I did not expect that someone would have to jump through bureaucratic hoops in order to ask the government that refuses to house them to also kill them.
The government would prefer that the poor not bother them with requests for help with their life or their death.
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Fair enough. But multiple people with some power somewhere are failing her. That’s usually institutional, but I don’t mean to disparage social workers in any way (my mom’s been one for her entire career!). Thanks for the check. Despite all of the horrors we’ve seen in the past decade or so I still occasionally find myself aghast and enraged and my reason fails me.
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Not even the first time this has happened this year. I just signed up so I can’t include a link in my post, but if you look at the original CTV article, there’s a link under Related Stories: Woman with chemical sensitivities chose medically-assisted death after failed bid to get better housing
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How much support you get is very much dependent on who you get for a social worker. I was lucky to get in the system with a guy who was about to retire and set me up with everything he could think of and anything I needed was approved before I got off the phone.
His replacement was a nightmare. I had to fight for anything I was entitled for and if I didn’t use the right wording (rent vrs room and board get a different amount, and I had to say I cooked all my own food to get the food allowance) my payment was docked by a quarter. Thankfully my mom fought the decision and I was bumped back up to the full amount, but for a few months I was in a panic because I didn’t get as much as I paid my mom for rent. With this lady it took months to get reimbursed and a couple of times my medical travel was not approved in time for me to go for my appointment even though I let her know the moment I had the appointment booked.
Since I moved I got another SW and as soon as COVID hit suddenly I didn’t have to fill out all the paper work and have everything signed by a doctor to be approved. I didn’t have to get my medical travel pre approved, I just sent in my receipts and appointment card and I got reimbursed right away. It just shows the previous bureaucracy was unnecessary and just there to make it harder to get what I was entitled to.
So the system as it is CAN be used to help those in need when the will is there, but this lady was not lucky enough to get someone who wanted to help her. She shouldn’t want to die because a couple of people with the power to help didn’t.
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