SMOKE-FREE AT LAST!

BC HOUSING PROVIDES MARKET RENT SUBSIDY TO MOVE TO BE SMOKE-FREE

Fervent Wish for Smoke-free Housing GRANTED 

  

BC Housing, finally, provided the market rent subsidy that I, and five others, applied for four years ago – after denying me my latest beseech in March 2012. Why now? It's a mystery.

Like on Kelsey Grammer's Frasier, I have now left the building. Free at last.

I am grateful and relieved. Euphoric - a better word to describe how I feel, but that does not translate into silencing. Others similarly affected did not share in my good fortune. Being granted the market rent subsidy certifies me, a non-smoker, as the very hardest hard-to-house.

A colleague suggested that I am part of the hundredth monkey phenomenon. If that is so, then I, and the group we became, am #7. The rest that I know of number to 35 dispersed throughout BC, mostly isolated priming the pump or turning the car crank-handle. We who stand up and speak out, rather innocuously in my thinking, repeating lines from government produced documents, have a ways to go to that hundredth monkey tipping point. Six years have past since Clean Air Coalition dispersed ideation for smoke-free housing.

We are actors in a drama repeating lines written for us. Some prefer to remain anonymous believing their creditability remains intact; and preferring not to withstand the harassment. Others, like myself, decided to be more public in order to raise awareness of this very public problem. In doing so, I have garnered a great deal through knowledge exchange that I simply could not have done on my own. I share it, so others may find it of benefit. I suffer burnout from the coping with second-hand smoke.

BC Housing provides several kinds of market rent subsidy. The SAFER subsidy assists seniors. The RAP subsidy helps low-income, working families with market rent. In 2008, we were informed about the portable private market rent subsidy, and five of us had our doctors submit completed forms.

Four years ago, five of us applied to BC Housing for and were put on a market rent subsidy list. One immediately accessed it under the Mental Health Act. Mid-may, BC Housing granted me the subsidy to live smoke-free. Ask BC Housing for it, through tenantinquiries@bchousing.org – to be smoke-free.

Five years ago, a senior housing support worker delivered me to what might be considered the grandest location in Super Natural BC. Ocean to the west of me, parks to east, with eagles, herons, and owls over here and there, I lived in the perfect rural urban setting anyone might imagine. Who knew that in amongst some of the most expensive real estate in BC, there existed a non-profit; a mere 1.7 km (17 minutes walk) from Crescent Beach. Here I would heal in this haven, promised the senior housing support worker and representatives of Crescent Housing Society board and management. This would be my home, where I would heal and retire.

Except, secondhand smoke from tobacco and marijuana affected my health and quality of life, and amounted to what might be the primary complaint in the complex, seconded only by management of it.

Convinced by everyone I implored for help on the matter of moving, who responded with “there's nothing more to be done,” I gave myself over to accommodating, assimilating, and acclimatizing myself, with varying degrees of failure. It undid me. It did.

I also gave myself over to an idea from my imaginings. No it was not the HR claim.

Living with chronic pain, you need powerful, interesting, enjoyable distractions. Ask Stephen King about that.

So enamored by the location, and acoustics of the complex courtyard, I sought out what South Surrey, White Rock, and area have an abundance of – musicians and conductors. By January 2008, my exuberance for the sound of music in the courtyard received equal enthusiasm from the South Fraser Community Band. By February, the band confirmed the July 10^th date, and I received the blessings of Crescent Housing Society. The sound of music did indeed fill the air with an open air concert in the courtyard: a sterling, stunning event – a first for this grandly designed courtyard.

If you end up with a lemon, you make – lemon-aid.

The band enjoyed a grand time, and eagerly volunteered to come back – 2009, 2010, and 2011. I cancelled the event in 2011; the social climate being inhospitable.

Alas, secondhand smoke from tobacco and marijuana kept the spotlight, and became the focus of attention at an all tenant general meeting in mid-March 2008. At the end of March 2008, a new smoking tenant moved in beside me: the proverbial straw that broke the camels back. All of it now exists as recorded history. History got written in the subsequent paper trail. The story needs only telling.

Myself and others were relentless in our reporting of intrusions and interruptions of secondhand smoke from tobacco and marijuana. I gave over my time to gathering documents under freedom of information.

Let's be clear about why BC Housing granted the market rent subsidy.

I reported incidents of secondhand smoke incessantly, and resorted to living off-site when I could arrange it, and left a five-year paper-trail.

Of late, I heard myself described as the squeaky wheel, in the rather pejorative sense. Think about it. When your car engine, car wheel, car brakes, bicycle wheel, when any thing squeaks and squeals, might that be a scream for attention to fix it.

I am two months away from our group HR hearing.

What do you do living with fans on 24/7 trying to create increased ventilation and air flow, and in a climate where fans aren't really needed? Music masks fan noise. And...

I turned to learning about growing orchids. Orchids remain happiest with a strong air flow.

I have now left the building.

WILLOW PARK ESTATES GOES SMOKE-FREE, COUPLE CANCEL HUMAN RIGHTS COMPLAINT

Fervent Wish for Smoke-free Housing GRANTED

While the media spotlighted the Krossa's in Maple Ridge daring to extend ideation for smoke-free housing from multi-unit dwellings to single-family homes, the Langley Times reported that Pamela and Gord Weitzel ecstatically announce their victory against secondhand smoke, and to be smoke-free.

Around the time of filing my own and group Human Rights complaint, the Langley Times published news about Paul and Rose Kabatoff, the McDaniels and the Weitzels.  Stratas owners grabbed the focus of attention over non-profits, and the rental market began to offer more non-smoking suites for those who could pay.

While the Weitzel's filed their claim in the fall of 2010, they did so only as a result of about five years of trying to work with their strata council, who repeatedly insisted a lack of authority to do anything.  With the McDaniel's case, their decision makes it quite clear that the strata holds certain authorities, even in the face of belligerent smokers,  and could have done more.

Not only is smoking and tobacco the source of primary preventable diseases, the long, arduous, distressful complaints process is preventable if those in authority inform themselves on their obligations, and with relevant knowledge especially around health and safety and nuisance. I firmly believe that a beginning step left missing in all this civil war remains a thorough knowledge exchange, including with relevant people. Then if the dispute around knowledge can't be reconciled, it quickly moves into conflict.  It becomes personal and opinionated; the issue shifts to umbrage.  

In the meantime, the paper trail grows, and so does the financial claim for aggravation and injury to dignity.  The Human Rights process, for some, amounts to a rather expensive education.  For those who experience disability, suffering illness and disease, being forced to assert your rights to protect your health speaks to the fact that your disability carries no weight.  Take a look at the people who are championing the freedom from secondhand smoke, and their professional histories.  They all have serious chronic illnesses.

A medical profile excerpt from my own group claim reads:
male, 83, stroke, quadruple bypass, limited mobility, limited breathing
male, 93, stroke, heart attack
female, 77, 3 heart attacks, 1 stroke, diabetic, macular degeneration
female, 63, post-traumatic stress, fibromyalgia, sleep apnea, suicidal depressions
male, 88, emphysema, chemical sensitivity, lung cancer,
female, 75, primary pulmonary hypertension, heart and lung disease
female, 55, allergies, insomnia, anxiety, depression.

Others not on the list suffer from asthma, COPD, and bouts with cancer, and suffer secondhand smoke from tobacco and marijuana on top of it all.  

Whiners?  Complainers? Agitators? Squeaky Wheels?  Not a one in the bunch.  Rather forced into a situation when those in authority did not meet their obligations, felt challenged by the reporting and their obligations, or took umbrage. 

If both sides are informed of their obligations under Nuisance and Human Rights, there might be a greater chance of settling before the claim goes to a hearing.

Krossa's from Maple Ridge Dare Extend Ideation For Smoke-Free Housing From MUDs To Single-Family Homes

KROSSA's Instilling a Fervent Wish for Smoke-free Housing - Part XXXXX +3

 

“Don't buy a house that's eight feet from one another if you don't want to smell or hear your neighbour.” Smoking neighbour Scott Urquhart

http://www.theprovince.com/health/smoking+outside+homes+Maple+Ridge+family+urges+city+hall/6936673/story.html 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/07/16/bc-smoking-ban-patio.html 

“Do people have a right to smoke in their own home, even if they expose others to the fumes against their will? Could a ban on smoking in homes ever work?” Bill Good Show, CKNW

Imagine these quotes in a PowerPoint presentation on a screen, and a law professor asks something like, “What law do these quotes fit under?”

Asked what I think of the latest headlines and stories on smoke-free housing coming from a small Maple Ridge cul-de-sac, my mind went straight to Kenny 1990 and NuisanceLaw - mandatory 101 foundational (summer) reading. Hopefully, such reading provides the information to begin re-formulating the kind of talk currently making headlines.

This need not be a debate (pissing-match or rumble); make it a dialogue.

Wendell KROSSA and his family extend ideation for smoke-free housing from multi-unit dwellings into single family homes – and it is private ideation that government hoped would never make itself public. Now provincial and federal governments will increasingly be forced to confront the issue publicly, and not just in their private caucus rooms.

KROSSA and his family have focused the spotlight on single-family dwellings while three more cases involving multi-unit dwellings, which began four years ago, head for a Human Rights Tribunal hearing.

Two other cases (Vancouver and Langley) partially resolved themselves when the seasoned smokers died. One was found long dead with a cigarette in his fingers. Truly gruesome.  After 7 years, the strata owners voted to be smoke-free, seemingly without a whimper.

It is one of the main reasons why legislation hasn't happened on this issue: how to regulate smoking in multi-unit dwellings and in single-family homes.

Now, it becomes a matter of meters. Moving away from attached dwellings, into detached dwellings that are one, two, or three meters apart, but smoke-free buffer zones exist of 7.5 meters and more. Krossa opened up the issue from detached houses six or eight feet apart, and now homes that are on 'estate' type properties. How to regulate everyone fairly! Potentially fodder for an annus horribilis.

With statistics from various sources showing smokers as a dwindling population, the non-smokers and never-smoked majority are stepping up and speaking out.

So governments may think that its a matter of meters over regulating smoking in terms of outright bans. Which is more palatable? Caught between a rock and a hard place: a double bind; damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Still, there is the matter of enforcement. Maple Ridge may think itself too small and too financially constrained to have enforcement abilities. They need to partner up with City of Surrey who do have enforcement officers.

And if you need supporting evidence, work freedom of information access. Gather the information you need. You won't feel so all alone in this.

Urquhart acknowledges that he and his wife smoke outside because smoking indoors reduces real estate value, and they run a home business.  Two reasons they adhere to not smoking in their home.  They then smoke outside, where the secondhand smoke moves outside onto another man's property and into another man's home.   This is Nuisance Law. Urquhart also dismisses third-hand smoke, and that people smell third-hand smoke too.

Urquhart references Krossas having a Tourette's fit. The smoking neighbour used a vile ad hominem attack, one invoking the neurological disorder of Tourette's Syndrome.  That is akin to a racial or ethnic or sexual orientation attack.  If you cannot touch the issue, then attack the man's character and change the focus and then the issue. Urquhart shows contempt for, and slanders Krossas. File under libel.

Urquhart reportedly states that “the Krossas can knock themselves out legally and talk to all the politicians they want, but he believes their efforts will be in vain.”

"We've already spoken to city council, and until the Canadian government actually bans smoking, this bylaw will never touch us as far as smoking on our property.” Highly probable, though not impossible.

Urquhart considers himself untouchable.

All the executives in the tobacco industry believed themselves untouchable, even in front of United States Congressional Hearings . History now reads of billion dollar settlements between Attorneys General and the tobacco industry, of which the Quebec Tobacco Trials are the first for Canada.

The arena, now, may be the small Maple Ridge cul-de-sac. But across the province, across the country and around the globe, people's light summertime reading needs to be Nuisance Law beginning with Kenny 1990 (38 pages).  It will make the government nervous.

Krossa's shifting the focus onto single-family dwellings: Huge! Huge! Huge! It'll just take a while for people to acknowledge the drift.