this is not a quilty post....no photos are posted either....
when i began my search for housing in maryland nearer my daughter, my only child, i applied to several housing locations. after a year i was contacted by CSI...i was in maine and received contact i was at the top of the list. i asked if i could wait a week or two to come for an interview...next thing i knew, a woman named felicia martin contacted me and told me i had "refused" the apartment, that she tried to contact my POA and got no response...clearly she had the wrong applicant. no apology received and housing opportunity lost. next i received another call from the same company demanding i come to maryland for a interview. i took time off work, shelled out $300 for train and rental car for the day. again i was told i was at the top of the list, but at the interview i found i was "near" the top of the list, a blatant lie obviously. a wasted, expensive trip. third time (not a charm) another interview was demanded, again i was lied to about being at the top of the list, again spending over $300 for travel and another useless interview. i crossed this company off my list. i continued homeless and kept in contact with several other possible apartments, all aware of my situation and my place on their lists. then i received a call from claudia and mary sue at taney village in frederick. HUD had given this complex an excellent review and the location was good. claudia and mary sue promised me this was a no smoking complex, written in the lease, which it is. they failed to tell me, however, that it is largely ignored and not enforced. i didn't realize it until i drove 500 miles and arranged a moving van for my belongings. finally the end of the waiting was in sight. only when i arrived did i realize about the smoking. i was told it was residual odor from previous tenant....more lies. i slept on the floor for 2 weeks waiting for my furniture. just before the moving van arrived, a call came from my first choice but it was too late. i had signed the lease at taney village, much to my extreme regret.
in the 4+ years, i have complained heartily to management, to the parent company, to county offices, fire department, health department, obtained letters from my physicians imploring cessation of the smoking, not just for my health but that of many others. there are many here who are sedentary, on oxygen, debilitated and immobile, situations all made worse by second-hand smoke. nobody of authority cares a whit. the smokers continue to do as they please knowing full well there is nobody after hours or weekends to stop them. during this pandemic there are signs everywhere from enterprise residential stating how much they care about their tenants....this is pure fiction.
the smoking has continued and includes not only cigarettes but other substances, all of which are detrimental to everyone's health. since my surgery, i have atrial fibrillation and some of these smoked substances cause my heartbeat to race, which is of great concern to me. every week for 1-2 days i am sidelined because these behaviors affect my health negatively. i hate these people--all of them. i hate this complex, not because it isn't fancy or chic but because many of the people who live here do as they please and care nothing about anyone else in the building. some idiot fries fish at ungodly hours, and the smoke filters thru to my apartment. that's because the blueprint for the vent system was copied directly from steerage on the titanic....the manager and head maintenance have been here many years and look the other way frequently. in fact, the head of maintenance actually LIVES in the building...not sure why as nobody is allowed to contact off hours....they and the long-term tenants have a perceived, unspoken, mutual understanding that doesn't include enforcement of lease rules for all. all their kind words are pure lip service, nothing more. i have worked very hard since my cardiac surgery to completely recover. i haven't been able to attend the fitness center since tuesday because i have been ill due to selfish behaviors of the low life riff raff morons who care only for the freedom to light up when they please with full knowledge there will be no repercussions. i am convinced the property managers all attend the same sado-masochistic training academy and learn how to drive the tenants to an early grave.
if you are a taxpayer, this is where some of your tax dollars go....supporting low income housing that contributes to the demise of its residents. for two years now my name has been on other housing lists that also promise no smoking facilities...it's a HUD law now, but even HUD does nothing but post signs on the property....signs the smokers hang around to smoke on the property. the smokers are mad because they think they have rights...what they do not have is the right to impact my health with their nasty butts....i am not the smoking police...feel free to smoke if you like, but why does your choice to smoke obliterate MY choice not to or be around the smoking? smokers have the right to smoke everywhere that it isn't prohibited, which it is here....period. you just haven't grown up to realize that means YOU! and unfortunately the mother superior of this abbey for the aged prefers not to do her job.
