#rathouse

Like, I have a therapist who can help with a certain set of issues. I have medical professionals who can help with another certain set of issues. Outside of that, I don’t have anyone with life experience similar to my situation who can help.

I’ve spent most of this year trying to figure out how to get us housed somewhere we can afford (lol) and ideally not sharing walls with other people (double lol) because the stress and anxiety of it exacerbates my existing health issues in a very bad way. I’ve researched and dug and written letters and every nonprofit organization, government, charity, religious, and otherwise, would have me believe there is just literally nothing to help two disabled adults live somewhere independently. There are so many restrictions on saving, not that we have much to start with. I can’t run a gofundme without losing what disability support I do have. It is a maddening conundrum.

This needs to happen, mainly for my health. The house we are in (not ours, it’s very complicated) is not healthy for a lot of reasons (mold, rats, etc.) and other social stressful reasons. I do not sleep well here. My belongings have been destroyed by rats. There is water leaking into the living room from the unmaintained roof through a moldy hole in the ceiling. I do not get proper rest because I can’t control the temperature, I can’t be comfortable, I can’t not be in a constant state of hyper-alertness. It is awful. I am pretty sure I would be in less than constant pain if I were able to actually relax and rest. But at this rate things just keep getting worse for me, a little at a time and despite my best efforts I am not doing great.

GENERAL — 61/262 — Rathouse and Town Hall

The Town Hall is the seat of the Bailiff and the Council. Originally it was an ordinary town house, gradually transforming into the local government office or Town Hall. In Bohemia the first Town Hall was established at the end of the 14th century. The buildings were usually of brick, at least the lower floors, with many rooms having vaulted ceilings. The ground floor of the municipal building hosted shops, a tavern, the site of the public scales, a sentry room and an armoury. The room housing the public scales (which set the standard for all other scales in shops) had a cubit length measure set in the wall and samples of other small measures and weights, which were universally valid throughout the town’s administrative domain. On the first floor of the Town Hall was the Council Hall, the chapel (in an oriel), the scribe’s study and residential chambers. The upper floors served as a granary or warehouse. In the cellar there was a jail and a goods store. The Council Hall hosted the meetings of the City Council and its cabinets contained documents, deeds, charters and privileges and the town archive.

TRIVIA

— In many medieval towns the public scales were not only places to weigh goods, but official functions housed in dedicated buildings adjacent to the town hall or market square. Initially, towns that built their town halls early housed the official municipal scales inside these buildings, in rooms specially designated for this purpose. If the town hall building was too small and prevented the local authorities from correctly conducting their responsibilities, additional premises were often added to secure the needs resulting from the operation of the municipal scales — these buildings were called weigh houses. Apart from the scales, the weigh houses also housed standards of other measures, for example, korzec – a unit of volume and units of length (pręt, łokieć, stopa).

At the start of the week I figured this wouldn’t be a problem because it looked like the weather was going to be in the 80s or higher, and whatever the temperature outside tends to be, is also what the temperature inside tends to be. So it was fine for a couple of days.

Then it cooled off again, kind of just to the edge of being uncomfortably cool. Temperatures overnight have been in the 30s and 40s because it’s still technically spring and so the house is pretty cold in the morning, and has been staying pretty chilly even during sunny hours.

My EDS is not handling the sleeping-in-the-cold very well and I have been sort of stiff and in misery as a result of all this. I made one warm room in the house with a space heater, so I’m essentially trapped in here unless I want to trigger a pain flare. Which will likely happen anyway.

I am running out of hope because we’ve been in contact with multiple organizations at this point that are supposed to help us find affordable, accessible housing, and there’s always some little gotcha clause that disqualifies us. Or the wait list is years long. Or it’s specifically for elderly people only, because why would anyone younger ever be disabled? There is just. Nothing out there. No one cares.

I really just want to cry because I cannot find a solution. I just want to go back to how my life was before all this when I wasn’t living with family and had some semblance of independence and my brain wasn’t totally fried from being in pain 24/7.

I’ve been tearing my hair out trying to figure out how to “move on” from our lives being derailed, when we have $0 in savings (and are disincentivized from attempting to save due to the assistance programs we are currently receiving but won’t be after next year or so when we lose eligibility) and rent everywhere has doubled and tripled. I literally do not know what to do.

Not homeless enough to qualify for anything that could get us somewhere, and also too homeless for anything that might help. There is a big crack in the system and we fell right through.

I also want to avoid living in an apartment situation again if it can be avoided at all. Stairs are going to destroy me physically, hearing noise all the time from other tenants aggravates my anxiety and mental health conditions which in turn messes up my physical health pretty badly because I lose sleep. The silver lining of the current situation is realizing how badly I was affected by the places we had been living and how at least that part of my health has been more controlled.

I just. Feel so frustrated. How do people do this? I am sure we aren’t the first couple in this country to both suffer a bad health decline almost simultaneously, while losing housing, and so on. Lightning doesn’t strike twice except when it does, and it did.

I just need like. A foothold. Somehow. Those videos of people converting buses into homes are wildly impractical and yet I’m so envious of a place that’s yours, that can’t really be taken away on someone’s whim, that you can just pick up and plant elsewhere when need be. I just want to live in a hut that doesn’t cost a quarter million dollars, that can be paid off, so we can at least try and rebuild.

I am basically screaming into the void here, but the clock is ticking on how much longer we get any kind of assistance and I need to start thinking of ideas now before that runs out. I’m researching grants, which we mostly don’t qualify for, because I’ve just got absolute nothing to work from. I feel like an insane person going over and over and over the same things I’ve already read hoping to find something I missed, but there’s just nothing.