I am facing homelessness

but I am still better off than the mother who is crying out for help in this morning's paper.

This woman and her husband have a profoundly disabled child. He needs machines and medical equipment to survive. It is said they are about to lose their rental property of eight years in September because their landlord cannot afford the repairs needed to make it safe. They are "priority one" for public housing because rentals will not provide for the sort of adaptations they need. 

There is obviously more to the story than we are being told. What made the story more newsworthy is that a member of the government department responsible for housing apparently sent an email to this woman. Nothing unusual in an email perhaps. There have probably been plenty of emails between the department and the family. This time however the writer suggested that the mother "manifest" a suitable house.

I had to look twice and then twice again at that. I thought I knew what it meant but it seemed so unlikely I had to check. Yes, the writer was suggesting the mother actually sit there and try to get accommodation by "thinking about it often and with focus until you receive it".  I am sure that is going to work! 

If I was a mother in that position I would be appalled and very, very upset that anyone could be that thoughtless or insensitive. Yes, there are some lazy. irresponsible, dishonest and thoughtless individuals who believe they "deserve" something like that and it can be got for nothing. This woman is caring for a child. I could see no evidence of tattoos or piercings and I am quite sure neither she nor her partner smoke around a child with breathing difficulties. The story suggests they are doing their absolute best for their child.

I do not suppose this sort of "advice" is condoned by the department in question but I wonder how anyone working in that area could think it was appropriate. Where are the social workers like the one I once knew, the woman who would visit a family and do the ironing for the mother while they talked? 

We have a housing crisis. I am part of it too but I know two of my siblings will make sure I have somewhere to shelter at night. I want to see a woman like the one in the story able to provide shelter for her child first. Something is very, very wrong if we cannot do that.