Subsidized Again

forever young?
Originally uploaded by smannion

As you may already know, my mum is a person who has mental health concerns. She has lately been forwarding all her mail to an imaginary person and her phone has been cut-off: probably because she didn't pay the bill.

She is also a person in subsidized housing. To maintain her subsidy her housing provider requires proof of income once yearly. Well since she's been ignoring all letters and she doesn't receive phone calls they were forced to jack up her rent to more than triple what she normally pays as of last December. In January her rent bounced altogether. I've been in touch with them and they're very sympathetic. In fact they are the ones that got in touch with me to inform me of the situation. I should also add that my mum would never accept what they're telling her because she insists, among other things, that rent is now free and that the prime minister has made it so.

Anyway, I called CPP and pleaded with them to send me her proof of income, or to even send it directly to her housing provider; but they said they couldn't because of privacy. In the end, however, they did agree to put my name on it and send it to her address.

So that Sunday I went to her house and told her that I was expecting a letter and to please save it for me. She said she would. Crossing my fingers I visited her again yesterday and lo and behold she produced the letter. Naturally she insisted I forward it on directly to a person she named (this person is in her head). Instead, I called her housing provider and faxed the information over. Yay! What's even better is that they will retroactively refund her money for the period she was charged market rent. Double Yay!