Let's get a little serious.

I hope everyone had a happy Halloween.

Today begins an official Mexican-American tradition called, "The Day of the Dead." There are many religions that celebrate the death of missing loved ones, this is just one.

The Day of the Dead (el Día de los Muertos) (click here), is a Mexican holiday where families welcome back the souls of their deceased relatives for a brief reunion that includes food, drink and celebration.

A blend of Mesoamerican ritual, European religion and Spanish culture, the holiday is celebrated each year from October 31-November 2. While October 31 is Halloween, November 1-2 is All Souls Day or the Day of the Dead. According to tradition, the gates of heaven are opened at midnight on October 31 and the spirits of children can rejoin their families for 24 hours. The spirits of adults can do the same on November 2....

I am going to talk about housing and health care. To begin, I find the description of the USA healthcare system as "sick care" offensive. It is not sick care. The USA healthcare system is not responsible for keeping people ill and it does not discriminate as to the habits of the patient. Every patient, even if they smoke and drink to excess regularly receives treatment.

But, first some bad housing news. This is not about real estate, it is about the most vulnerable in our country and society. They depend on fair and affordable housing. So, let me get a couple of pictures.

This housing unit has approximately 130 units dedicated to the handicapped and elderly. This building is at least 40 years old and built with monies to rural America by the USDA. It is a subsidized building. It is in disrepair in that it needs new siding. It had a new roof put on about five years or so ago. But, the siding is in a lot of disrepair including holes occupied by wildlife.

Less than two years ago the residents were asked to endure a rental increase of $20.00 for the sole purpose of residing the building. The residing never happened. The people that live in the building do have pride in themselves and their building and it is a bit of a shameful experience for them to have this building in disrepair.

This appeared on the bulletin board after two other notices were unofficially delivered to every resident. The notice is about another rental increase and it is substantial to the people that live there. There is one other thing. The residents receive an energy allowance as part of their rents every month. This one blew me away.

First as to the notices. Every resident was presented with a notice in their monthly newsletter stating changes in the lease to take effect immediately regarding a new bedbug policy. There has never been problems with bedbugs in this building as far as most of the residents can remember and they can remember just fine. The bedbug policy assigns responsibility and financial burden to the residents. If I get a copy of the notice I will post it here. My understanding is most of the residents acknowledged the policy with the office through a signature.

The second notice came as a handbill if you will delivered unofficially delivered by hand to the bottom crack of the door to every resident. It assigned any damage in the apartment to the resident. That means if anyone moves out they will never receive their deposit back because if there are marks on the wall from wheelchairs, etc. the repair cost is that of the resident.

There was a third notice delivered as well earlier in the year listing costs of maintenance services for every need, including the cost of changing lightbulbs. Depending on the type of bulb the costs vary. Mind you these are people that cannot conduct repairs themselves, even changing a lightbulb could be an issue and many live alone is very small apartments.

If I receive copies of these policies I will post them here.

This one blew me away. I could not believe the energy allowance to these residents actually went down. It is not because the cost of energy decreased and the expense is less, it is simply another way of raising the rent.

In recent weeks a repairman with scaffolding showed up to fill in the holes in the siding. He first left the job because he did not realize the extent the damage existed and he had quoted a far different price to the administrator. There was no bidding that has been reported.

When this one man business returned to begin filling in the holes with far more cost he also brought boards to replace the hopeless areas. This lone repair man is the answer by the management to replacing the siding. There is no new siding, it is nothing more (I suppose gratefully so to the mostly devout in the building) than repair and replacement as the repairman sees fit.

Who knows who actually has the input to all this, but, the manager ir more than willing to be a part of it.

I will allow this to sink in for awhile and then present an issue regarding healthcare that every American should be concerned about.