USDA Elderly and Disabled Housing Abuse (Part 2), Corrupt AK USDA Rural Housing

Part 1, Part 3, Part 4,

They know, destroyed evidence or are lying about it. Isn't that a crime?

It's another who the hell do I think I am horror story which involves agency, community, statewide bullying,  severe gaslighting and destruction of documents,  something that Alaska is expert at (check here, and here).  Due to the lack of oversight at this property by the corporations and the Alaska USDA I have been given no choice but to tell this story which causes me much anger at being forced to do this. They were given years to straighten up and fly right. It is clear the USDA and these corporations are corrupt beyond belief. I have lived here for for about 4.5 years hoping the USDA, the AHFC would do something about Quantum Management and VITUS or that VITUS would maybe catch a clue and fire Quantum Management, but no because they are of the same ilk. These low income housing corporations are linked. Quantum Management is doing what VITUS wants them to do.

Last summer when the two onsite managers resigned I was ecstatic, did a happy dance and will be discussing why in the future, but due to the typical nepotism and deceptive manipulation which is SOP in Alaska that happiness and hope was crushed. The assholiness here continues and the USDA is  orchestrating a coverup. They seek to silence the voices of the disabled and elderly low income tenants, with much emphasis on me.

Senator Murkowski knows.

Senator Begich knows.

The apartments where I live are USDA Rural Housing for elderly and disabled. Over a period of years I have experienced quite a bit of abuse and so have others. It was intentionally directed at me however, not just by management, but by another resident and her family.  I know that by speaking up I will be targeted for bullying and sabotaged along with being hated, but I expect it now and considering who they are it makes me proud to be hated by them and their behavior does not shock me anymore. Go ahead and spread your negative gossip, it bounces off me like rain off a duck's back. I am however sick of all of the abuse and fraud. The hope to leave here so I was safe to tell the story is not possible and after so much time it is clear they are not going to change or make restitution.

Captain Zero knows.

This is yet another story that is very difficult to believe, corrupt and filled with tankers full of incompetence. Robert Pierson at Governor Parnell's office who was asked by myself to intervene a long time ago at first told the managers the government was paying a subsidy and I was paying rent and had some rights. Not too long after this he changed his tune. Why is that Mr. Pierson? Who contacted you, what did the onsite managers or the USDA tell you? Were there some emails and what happened to them? Who sent them? Considering all of my complaints there have to be some. 

The USDA in Alaska has been involved in a scandal in the agricultural division due to loaning money they shouldn't have. One of the recipients of that money was a former employee of the USDA who is con artisty. Sarah Palin fired the Agriculture Board and put her incompetent buddies in charge so they could scam. I have been told over and over by USDA staff that they essentially just loan money, that is their mission. They were exasperated at my attempts to get them to regulate the corporations, it just was not their job. USDA has many regulations that are impossible to access even with FOIA requests which are simply ignored. FOIA requests, no haven't seen any.

I requested information about regulations of specific subjects in a FOIA request. They claim they do not enforce the regulations and gave me the corporations can do as they please because they own the property spiel. In other words to hell with the Landlord Tenant Act, USDA regs and fuck you disabled and elderly people. The USDA has allowed the corporations to do as they please here for years while they were contacted about abuse, lack of maintenance on the property, construction abuse, incompetence and tenant fraud. Check out Andrew Halcro's blog and search for Mat Maid for more information about loans from the USDA.

Only whistleblowers are the problem for the USDA in Alaska. I have called them crying and had Cynthia Jackson laugh at me for using the wrong word because my ME/CFS and PTSD were flared up so bad my brain was not working well. It's hilarious when USDA housing residents live with such  abuse that it makes them very ill because caring about people has nothing to do with issuing loans. This was not all just the ME/CFS and PTSD, there was the head injury as a result of an unbelievable amount of abuse from three corporations including a construction company, negative gossip about myself from a neighbor which I could hear and at least one onsite manager which influenced abuse from the construction company(sources are afraid and I will never reveal them). There were also constant disruptions along with massive noise from construction and illegal threats of eviction, harassment that was on the level of criminal which caused the POTS component of the ME/CFS to flare to the point that I fell forward into my refrigerator and bashed my skull trying to right myself. This is part of the December trauma that I discussed in Part 1.

That head injury happened some time ago and I still have symptoms of post concussion syndrome, the headaches were horrible and continued until recently and the tinnitus I guess will never go away. ME/CFS symptoms include chronic migraines and other types of headaches, so the headaches secondary to this put me in horrible pain. I can't afford an MRI and the last time I had one in Alaska the doctor tried to keep me from seeing the report because his diagnosis was wrong, but mine was right. After all these issues with health care here my attitude is they are mostly useless in the rural areas unless you enjoy medical bullying and like large medical bills for incompetent services.

I mentioned lack of maintenance, let me make it very clear that was the past on site managers (there were actually two doing maintenance then), the new maintenance man who takes care of the property is A #1. He knows what he is doing and actually works his butt off. He also pays close attention to keeping the sidewalks very clear of ice as the population is elderly and disabled. He does this for two properties. This man has nothing to do with this and is the kind of worker I was use to before I came to Alaska, a person who goes to work to do his work and has pride in how it is done. You can bet they bullied him, no doubt.

Let me repeat, I sent two FOIA requests to the Alaska USDA in an attempt to get information about the tenant complaints against Quantum Management, the Alaska based construction company Criterion and the owners VITUS, emails about myself from any source and complaints from other tenants at this and other properties owned by VITUS were also requested. There were of course gossipy emails because that is how they roll here on the Kenai Peninsula and in Palmer where the USDA offices are. You betcha. I would be very surprised if libelous material was not in the emails and had been sent to the Mr. Pierson I mentioned earlier. Let me also repeat that they claim they can't find these things or any complaints from tenants.

Shortly after I made the FOIA requests the two former onsite managers resigned stating the reason was they were getting paid minimum wage (leaving out the part where they also got an apartment to live in and probably some utilities paid), which after about three years I guess started to bother them. Cynthia Jackson I am told got a promotion (of course she did). I have no idea where she is now. The person who took over Cynthia Jackson's job, Nancy Hayes told me the USDA has none of the documents I had requested. The tenant complaints were MASSIVE! Then she tried to change the subject by asking me about applying for a loan to which I replied that I am on Social Security and had no income for seven months which of course resulted in bad credit so who the hell would give me a loan? I considered that this might be some kind of bribe. I have asked Nancy Hayes by email this:

I am wondering if you are sticking to the story that the USDA has no complaints from any of the tenants here. If so, that indicates wrong doing on the part of a USDA employee, perhaps Cynthia who not too long after she disappeared my FOIA requests got herself transferred, then the managers here suddenly decided to leave. 

I got no response. Calls to the office of  the director of Alaska USDA for years have been ignored,  that includes the current Director Jim Nordlund.  This is standard operating for many agencies in Alaska even the federal ones. Deborah Davis who I have also told the stories about this place likes to say the USDA just does loans and doesn't police the corporations too. I think they put some kind of microchip in their brains. Dehorah Davis did you see my FOIA requests, emails or the complaints of the tenants here and at VITUS's other properties?

The claim of a lack of tenant complaints is disproved by the below document they mention receiving "numerous letters concerning the ongoing construction and the proposed rental increase", (more about those rental increases later) they have periodically raised the amount of the subsidy in spite of incompetence, abuse and wasting of the money they were loaned on an inept construction company. Apparently they don't count the multiple phone calls they received about the problems.

Let me mention the USDA in Alaska is located in Palmer and the construction company has a branch in Wasilla, Hmmmm. VITUS and Quantum Management are in Washington state and I am just guessing here, but may have asked the USDA or someone in Alaska government for a competent and honest construction company they could use for their Alaska properties. It could have also been that lowest bidder, incompetence Alaskan construction thing. Welcome to Alaska. Then there is this part of the document:

We understand there have been many issues with the construction /rehabilitation right from the beginning. The gentlemen that came to Laurawood and made promised that were not ultimately kept are no longer wit[sic] the company that purchased the property. That may not be compensation for your inconveniences but it may comfort you to know that the owmers[sic] of the property recognized that errors were being made and moved quickly to rectify those errors. Today there are new leaders at VITUS who are working to resolve the issues with the contractor and with the new management company.  USDA is monitoring both to ensure that Laurawood is being constructed and managed as per the regulations. I have no idea what they mean by new management company, it is the same one. The above was an intentional con job perpetrated on vulnerable people by corporations that are fleecing the tax payers with the help of the USDA (more about that later as I might as well go full whistleblower ).

"USDA is monitoring both to ensure that Laurawood is being constructed and managed as per the regulations." 

But wait, I thought the corporations could do as they please and you had nothing to do with enforcing regulations, you simply issue loans. I'm all confused and shit.

All the staff at the USDA just lie their asses off. The only truth here is that there were problems from the beginning, but Quantum Management and VITUS did nothing, ignored us and were abusive. The onsite managers who they mention at the end of the letter went on a two week vacation during a critical stage of the construction leaving their son in charge who blew cigarette smoke in my face one day when I was upset and crying. He was not an employee of Quantum Management at that time as far as I know, when confronted his mother would say he was an independent contractor, I just laughed and laughed and shook my head. That is so Alaskan of her. There are other reasons why the onsite managers were not what the USDA said they were and I will be discussing this later.

Please repeat the USDA Rural Housing Mantra with me: Corporations can do whatever they want they own the property and we just loan money. Are you convinced or do you think they only tell certain people that poppycock? The rent increase is an old value, it is much higher now than this raise in 2011 (more on that later). They approve all of their requests no matter how much the tenants protest.

VITUS did not move quickly to rectify the errors as this letter says. Problems with onsite management were never addressed as well as lack of maintenance of the property. In other words they did not take care of maintenance and nothing was done about that. The construction was not completed and the fact that I was targeted for bullying by the construction company (Wasilla) and the onsite managers and a neighbor/her family was not addressed. There was lip service, BS, manipulation, lies but mostly crickets.

They lied to us big time when they wanted to buy the property to manipulate the tenants so no research would be done on them. When we finally did start checking we found out the management company had big problems. Most of that negative stuff has been wiped from the internet now, really I was expecting them to change their name like corporations with bad reps do. I will be discussing those lies later.

There was a Rebecca who promised to pay for the damage to my garden, Cynthia Jackson at the USDA told me Rebecca told her they were paying for it as well. They lied and did not pay for it. I have not touched it since that summer, that patch of ground is completely dead, a total FUBAR along with the other little garden I was taking care of.  Why would I take care of it, what is the point, they ruin everything. It appears Rebecca who was a nasty piece of work is an employee of VITUS. The damage was never paid for, LIARS.

They know many times over, but remember they let hundreds die in the past.

I of course out of anyone would have the courage to complain, but was targeted by many including the on site managers whose names I have redacted. If you knew the whole story you would say they don't deserve that favor. Yes they were working for a corrupt corporation but they were part of the problem and still are. So, this story I will tell because it may help others and may cause some who intentionally harmed others for

In Alaska? I'm not that imaginative.

advancement or greed to be looked at with the reality of who they actually are. It also sheds light on the lack of oversight and protection of seniors and the disabled or even just for tenants who need agencies such as health departments that are non-existent here. Adult protective services has no offices in the rural areas and are quick to say they will fly someone in if it is important, that means most of the problems are ignored.

USDA Elderly and Disabled Housing Abuse (Part 1), Crazy Bullying

Part 2,
Part 3
Part 4


Over a period of many years I have been through hell at the property I live in, there is little low income housing for those on disability in the state of Alaska. The systematic bullying and incompetence needs to be documented. During the period of severe abuse I posted some of the incidents on Facebook which had made me very ill and distraught, but wanted to write about it on my blog. I was threatened by an onsite manager for posting something on FB. Severe retaliation has happened to me for complaints not unlike what happens when one files a grievance in the prison system in Alaska including the disappearance of paperwork. I searched for years to find another place to live, that is not going to happen, low income people can’t pay rent here without a subsidy and the voucher program has been put to a stop due to the convenient excuse of a 9% cut in funds. Certainly I found out the hard way that renting a room in a lodge will result in being surrounded by prostitution, meth cooking, child abuse, thefts of my property, manufactured criminal charges against me and my cat being harmed, so there is no way in hell that is happening as law enforcement protected them and participated in the actions to harm me instead. Craigslist and newspapers were searched every day for an affordable van to live in for years, including holidays and I considered going to Anchorage and just becoming homeless for the sake of my health, but I need a kitchen due to my special diet and a bathroom is quite helpful as well, then there are things like heat. I am in a Catch 22 situation.

This was not going to be part 1, but recent events have changed that. Obviously I do not want to have to write this and have waited a long time, years for someone to listen and do the right thing, but that is never going to happen. There will be retaliation. It is very upsetting to me that I am forced to do this by the heinous government in Alaska and the corrupt Alaska office of the USDA, then there are the corporations involved along with individual bullies. I find the courage knowing it may help others.

Last week I called the governor’s office trying to find the man I had told about the problems with this apartment complex a couple years ago name Robert Pierson who was the constituent relations specialist who helped people with low income housing issues. It has been clarified many times over now that the Parnell administration does not help people in low income housing nor do they want to help low income people get housing they can afford, this includes tents so of course, so that position was eliminated. Robert Pierson is no longer in that position and now does some kind of documents...propaganda? We have seen other recent propaganda about Governor Parnell recently in the MSM.

I spoke with Christine Irvin (I think?) who is over several issues and sounded sincere just like Robert Pierson did when I first spoke to him. He later changed his tune probably after being adjusted by some people and began blaming me for the problems. Nope I am not the problem of that you can be sure,  but in Alaska the whistleblower or person who complains is ALWAYS scapegoated to protect politicians, incompetent staff and corporations, ALWAYS. My purpose in the call was to ask Mr. Pierson if he had a statement due to my writing about the problems where I live, but never mind.

I live on Social Security Disability in subsidized housing. Every year to qualify for the subsidy we have to fill out tons of paperwork, pay health care professionals to sign documents verifying our status as disabled, what medical costs we have, etc. For years they made me pay someone to say I was disabled while I am on SSDI, it's insane. It appears that this year SSDI is proof enough, finally. It is utterly ridiculous for elderly or permanently disabled people to have to sign documentation that they are not attending college and if they are who gives a rat’s ass. Those who have gone through this process know it is ugly. The corporation that owns the property I live in has made the process horrendous, but it has gotten somewhat better over the years. The first year they owned the property it was the definition of both oppression and incompetence.

Going into the assholery that has occurred in the past, yes it is way worse than it appears in this post,  is for a later date, but let me give some very recent history. For two years my Christmas was ruined by a combination of resident abuse and management, corporate incompetence and abuse issues. Last year I asked the onsite manager who did the paperwork if I could change from doing it in December due to one of my disabilities, PTSD being triggered in December mainly due to abuses she and her husband along with the corporate entities had perpetrated. She said yes, we could redo it in the summer. Last spring the two “managers” left and nepotism took over her job and a man who is actually competent to do the maintenance and has work ethics took over that area. I have no idea how that could have possibly occurred, but thank goodness for that. So, the paperwork did not get changed, but they knew I did not want it done at Christmas time. Keep in mind making me sick is the goal.

So here is what happened recently. I got this paper the first part of December. The date of the appointment is in November which at the time I thought was just a mistake. I went to his office on December 16th where he rather abruptly told me the paperwork was in my mailbox because he was told that was how I wanted it. Remember the nepotism. I think now he had no idea I was coming. I was very unhappy to go to his office due to the cigarette smoking which is supposed to not be allowed on USDA property at all and I told him so. It not only affects the office, but also the laundry room or if you just walk by the office you can get a lung full of smoke. One would wonder at the thinking that goes on behind having a manager of an elderly and disabled apartment complex who smokes like a chimney.

 

The paperwork was not in my mailbox until later in the day with this notice on top of the pile of papers. Notice the date of the appointment.

 

In the meantime knowing how incompetent the healthcare providers are here and how crappy and abusive the low income clinic is I called a doctor's office due to his supposed expertise at the kind of treatment I need, nutritional supplements and a special diet. His staff told me he opted out of Medicare which is very common here in red, Republican-y, capitalist, egocentric, with a layer of I hate the federal gubment libertarianism Alaska. The translation is it's all about them and large profits. The first appointment would be somewhere around $400-$500 depending on lab tests and he would only sign the document of medical necessity for the subsidized housing if I bought the supplements from him. I can't afford this, but would never seek healthcare from this conman. People in the healthy nutrition community would be shocked to find out who this doctor is. I seek healthcare from those who primarily care about people not profits. This is a yearly issue and I have gone through a large number of health care jackasses here. Healthcare for the disabled in rural Alaska sucks, oh they call it healthcare, but it is something else.

 Then the second re-certification notice was left in my mailbox.  Note is says the third one is to be served with the final notice to terminate tenancy and he says he will contact me that week. He did not bother to sign it.

 

I watched people come to the office door and ring the bell with no response. One lady came three or four days in a row. Knock, knock knock, no response and then later he would go get in his car and leave, so he was there. Then there were appointments with a couple women who seemed like they may have been assisting applicants in some way to apply for the apartments that have sat empty a long time. Empty apartments is odd considering the shortage of subsidized housing for the disabled, but anyone in the know will divert people somewhere, anywhere else. There is other housing for the elderly in Soldotna, brand new beautiful housing which elderly women with huge smiles told me about because they live there, but of course now there is a long waiting list. I am so glad they got out of this place. For the disabled under 62 there is little housing I am 58.

At the end of last week after I called the governor's office and spoke to someone I received the next two documents in my mailbox, just these two documents and not the third notice which seems to be required. Please note the Orwellian note used to disguise the threat and that it also does not make sense. I would consider him knocking on my door to be further harassment and no he does not have everything he needs as the note states illogically. He's implementing office hours, really? Why were office hours not implemented before and why the hell does he not answer the phone or door? Leave a messsage? I have tried that many times there was no voice mail. The last line here almost made me vomit.

If he has all the information in his hands then why am I getting this notice?

Please note the first notice was on December 2nd and the second was on January 3rd, there was an appointment dated November 16th in the document from December 2nd. Unable to travel back in time I went to the office on December 16th and was met with abruptness and if he was just going to give me the paperwork why not just put it in my mailbox with a note. The reason is that makes logical sense and does not allow for bullying, sabotaging or setting me up for gaslighting with the USDA, Quantum Managment or VITUS. There was no notice given on 12-1-13 or 1-1-14 as this document states. Do you understand why I say the word fuck a lot when dealing with these people?

His accusation that I did not keep an appointment or failed to contact him is libel pure and simple. The paperwork indicates that he stated he would contact me that week which I took for notice that an appointment notification was pending. Past attempts at leaving him a message and my observations of others trying to make contact by going to the office door reveal huge frustrations with attempting to deal with him and I am sick to death with this bullshit. This is clearly an attempt once again to construct a scenario in which they can evict me, but certainly any and all opportunities for bullying are generally taken. I will tell the story of the first attempt to evict me done by his relatives (he was involved) later and it is very likely he is being directed by one of them to do this. 

In the above Annual Recertification Notice which is checked for the second notice it is stated that the third notice is to be given thirty days prior to the effective date. He indicates the effective date to be March 1st. The date of February 2nd on this above document is not the date it was given to me. I received notification of pending eviction on February 7th, last friday (I asked them not to give me any of their little notices on Fridays, so now that is the day I generally get them, but it wasn't put over my outgoing mail). This means that rather than prior to the thirty days before the effective date it was given to me tweny-two days prior and the Third Annual Recertification Notice was probably not given due to that. It was given to me with a back date on it to cover his ass, but that was not even thirty days prior to the effective date.

Most likely I would not have any of this material at this point if I had not called the governor's office and he may have had a plan to later claim that he had given it to me so he could give me a ten day eviction notice. At the end of last week is when I called the governor's office it is an amazing coincidence that suddenly this paperwork appeared in my mailbox on Friday? I assume that someone inquired about my many allegations and this paperwork resulted. All of this could have stopped years ago if a state agency or the USDA had done their jobs, but they want me to be targeted.

There was another strange occurrence in December, but first some background. Last fall during an inspection I went outside to confront the corporate representatives. I told them that the manager was putting his little notices on top of my mail so the mailman would not pick it up. This has happened several times over a period of years. He made a statement about it being a mistake and he was sorry which made me even angrier because in order for this to have happened he would have to either be severely intellectually impaired or doing it intentionally in a junior high bullying act. There is no other explanation. I told him I would contact the Postal Inspector’s office if it happened again in front of the corporate dudes to put an end to that assholery. Some clueless guy started talking some crap about how the manager was new at his job.  Hello buddy you don’t need to have ever been on the property before to know this is an act of assholiness and it's illegal to mess with someone's mail. It was also not true that he was new to the property. The rep. from the management company put on a show that he hadn't heard about the problems before when he had been in my apartment (only because I went and got him) and I told him about some of them and I made multiple phone calls over along period of time to Quantum Management and VITUS with no response. They have participated in the lies and abuse.

In December I ordered something that came by UPS. UPS has a new policy that for apartments they don’t have to deliver to the address that you provided them, they can dump the packages with the managers of apartments. So, be aware UPS is not providing the services you pay for. They falsified their documentation and said they delivered it to my door. It was not here. When I checked on line to find it was delivered to my door and UPS said over and over they delivered it to my front door I assumed it was stolen. Nope, UPS lied, they left it at the manager‘s door and he just put a little happy face note on it and did not bother to notify me it was there. Then UPS sent someone out to investigate. I spent a lot of time on the phone and a police report was filed. He wasted a lot of people’s time, but UPS was part of the problem if they had been honest about where the package was it would have helped. I found out he had it during the twenty-third of December appointment. When I essentially asked him WTF without using those words. He said that he would not touch anyone’s mail. Did he not touch it to put the note on it? He said he thought it was from the USPS even though it says in large letters UPS on the box. Did he not find it odd that the postal carrier did not take it? When I asked the manager why he did not simply leave me a message to come and get the package, he stated he had not not thought of this, yep this is what myself and others have to deal with here. He said, 'Oh dear" when I told of the trouble his lack of actions and bad decisions had caused trying to suppress a smile. Certainly he would not consider the interests of tenants to be in his job description as an apartment manager, but for most of us who get a neighbor's package it is automatic to make sure they get it ourselves. It triggered my PTSD because of the abuse during Christmas that has occurred here and to this day I have not been able to open that package and kept it covered so I could not see it until a couple days ago...PTSD. I assume he thought it was a Christmas present he was depriving me of, it was not.

There is no way in hell myself or anyone else should have to deal with this crap and I have more, so much more. Tomorrow's post is about corruption at the USDA which is certainly also criminal. Who would be surprised by that from the Alaska office of USDA?

Yes I am afraid not just of these people, but of others in the community such as a couple of troopers, some hoodlums in the area, DOL/DOC employees and others involved with the state of Alaska but they will not stop me from finding the courage to tell this story. I would be a fool not to be afraid and I know from experience retaliation will occur.