Maus on Wheels

anyways have mouse

I live in northern sweden. It gets fucking cold here. My town for years has had heated benches on the main pedestrian street as well as in a couple squares and parks in the central parts of town.

Not anymore, as of a few days ago. The city council has voted to turn them off because a nearby hotel complained about the unhoused people sheltering from the cold there.

No alternative place was given, no help was offered, no services opened up. The hotel offered no rooms, obviously. Just police sent to tell people to leave and someone from social services to tell them that the benches will be cold. Unheated benches all over town have also been removed over the last several weeks. And I'm getting word that the cops are going to try to clear the forest encampment again. They always seem to do this just as it gets properly cold.

The nearby shelter is severely underfunded, understaffed, and is always at capacity. There is nowhere to go. The politicians only seem to want these people dead. Got down to -35°C a while back. Even the heat in my apartment couldn't keep up.

I don't know where I am going with this, but I spent all day today in various government offices lodging complaints and chewing out council members. I will be a spectre in their lives until they do better. And probably for a while after that because they need to be shamed for their disgusting behavior.

And in the meantime, we're going to keep doing outreach, bringing hot food to public places and sharing it, and encouraging people to shame those who hide behind doors in government offices while they cause harm to the people.

Article on the heating being turned off.

We've gotten over a hundred people to write, call, and email to complain. Today I visited the City Hall to ask about any updates. The person who handles the complaints has sent them to the relevant people and the response they gave was that this is a matter to take up with the Region. Which is a lie and we both knew it.

But I wheeled myself over to the Region Gävleborg offices and checked with them. They confirmed that it is the municipality's responsibility. So I went back to City Hall.

On the way, I stopped again at the benches. Still cold. Called the number on the sign to report the outage. They told me that they can't turn them back on without the city telling them to.

So when I went back into City Hall to let them know that the Region said it's the Kommun who deals with that, they immediately try to tell me that it is Gävle Energi who I should contact. And when I told him what they said, he went and got someone else to talk to.

The new person was clearly not someone who makes decisions but was probably just brought out to make me go away. She gave the same line about safety and the hotel being bothered, etc. She asked what I expected to get out of this and what I expect them to do. In a very "what's done is done, your complaints are futile here" kind of way. But she did give me a name. Jan Myléus. A member of the City Council and representative of the far right Christian Democrats. Apparently he played a major role in this decision.

It has been a bit so I figured I would give a small update.

We've still been calling, emailing, and spreading the word (those who have been sharing this around have helped). But this is Sweden in December so pretty much nothing is going to get done. We have some ideas to pursue next. Luckily it has been warmer this last week or two. But it has been wet. And wet kills.

On the more infuriating side, if any of our unhoused and undersheltered neighbors leave anything in the square even for just long enough to go to the nearby train station to use the toilet, the hotel has been calling people to haul off their belongings. It used to be a safe place to leave things for a bit. Several people have lost everything. Including blankets, tarps, warm clothes, gloves, cooking and eating things, food, sleeping pads, tents... we have tried to collect things to replace them, but we are run dry. Even my personal funds have been drained.

I live in northern sweden. It gets fucking cold here. My town for years has had heated benches on the main pedestrian street as well as in a couple squares and parks in the central parts of town.

Not anymore, as of a few days ago. The city council has voted to turn them off because a nearby hotel complained about the unhoused people sheltering from the cold there.

No alternative place was given, no help was offered, no services opened up. The hotel offered no rooms, obviously. Just police sent to tell people to leave and someone from social services to tell them that the benches will be cold. Unheated benches all over town have also been removed over the last several weeks. And I'm getting word that the cops are going to try to clear the forest encampment again. They always seem to do this just as it gets properly cold.

The nearby shelter is severely underfunded, understaffed, and is always at capacity. There is nowhere to go. The politicians only seem to want these people dead. Got down to -35°C a while back. Even the heat in my apartment couldn't keep up.

I don't know where I am going with this, but I spent all day today in various government offices lodging complaints and chewing out council members. I will be a spectre in their lives until they do better. And probably for a while after that because they need to be shamed for their disgusting behavior.

And in the meantime, we're going to keep doing outreach, bringing hot food to public places and sharing it, and encouraging people to shame those who hide behind doors in government offices while they cause harm to the people.

Article on the heating being turned off.

We've gotten over a hundred people to write, call, and email to complain. Today I visited the City Hall to ask about any updates. The person who handles the complaints has sent them to the relevant people and the response they gave was that this is a matter to take up with the Region. Which is a lie and we both knew it.

But I wheeled myself over to the Region Gävleborg offices and checked with them. They confirmed that it is the municipality's responsibility. So I went back to City Hall.

On the way, I stopped again at the benches. Still cold. Called the number on the sign to report the outage. They told me that they can't turn them back on without the city telling them to.

So when I went back into City Hall to let them know that the Region said it's the Kommun who deals with that, they immediately try to tell me that it is Gävle Energi who I should contact. And when I told him what they said, he went and got someone else to talk to.

The new person was clearly not someone who makes decisions but was probably just brought out to make me go away. She gave the same line about safety and the hotel being bothered, etc. She asked what I expected to get out of this and what I expect them to do. In a very "what's done is done, your complaints are futile here" kind of way. But she did give me a name. Jan Myléus. A member of the City Council and representative of the far right Christian Democrats. Apparently he played a major role in this decision.

I would like to point out, however, that there has never been -35°C in Gävle. The past 15 years has seen -25°C at the coldest. November this year saw -10°C. However, it's been very snowy, wet and nasty.

I live in northern sweden. It gets fucking cold here. My town for years has had heated benches on the main pedestrian street as well as in a couple squares and parks in the central parts of town.

Not anymore, as of a few days ago. The city council has voted to turn them off because a nearby hotel complained about the unhoused people sheltering from the cold there.

No alternative place was given, no help was offered, no services opened up. The hotel offered no rooms, obviously. Just police sent to tell people to leave and someone from social services to tell them that the benches will be cold. Unheated benches all over town have also been removed over the last several weeks. And I'm getting word that the cops are going to try to clear the forest encampment again. They always seem to do this just as it gets properly cold.

The nearby shelter is severely underfunded, understaffed, and is always at capacity. There is nowhere to go. The politicians only seem to want these people dead. Got down to -35°C a while back. Even the heat in my apartment couldn't keep up.

I don't know where I am going with this, but I spent all day today in various government offices lodging complaints and chewing out council members. I will be a spectre in their lives until they do better. And probably for a while after that because they need to be shamed for their disgusting behavior.

And in the meantime, we're going to keep doing outreach, bringing hot food to public places and sharing it, and encouraging people to shame those who hide behind doors in government offices while they cause harm to the people.

Article on the heating being turned off.

We've gotten over a hundred people to write, call, and email to complain. Today I visited the City Hall to ask about any updates. The person who handles the complaints has sent them to the relevant people and the response they gave was that this is a matter to take up with the Region. Which is a lie and we both knew it.

But I wheeled myself over to the Region Gävleborg offices and checked with them. They confirmed that it is the municipality's responsibility. So I went back to City Hall.

On the way, I stopped again at the benches. Still cold. Called the number on the sign to report the outage. They told me that they can't turn them back on without the city telling them to.

So when I went back into City Hall to let them know that the Region said it's the Kommun who deals with that, they immediately try to tell me that it is Gävle Energi who I should contact. And when I told him what they said, he went and got someone else to talk to.

The new person was clearly not someone who makes decisions but was probably just brought out to make me go away. She gave the same line about safety and the hotel being bothered, etc. She asked what I expected to get out of this and what I expect them to do. In a very "what's done is done, your complaints are futile here" kind of way. But she did give me a name. Jan Myléus. A member of the City Council and representative of the far right Christian Democrats. Apparently he played a major role in this decision.

I live in northern sweden. It gets fucking cold here. My town for years has had heated benches on the main pedestrian street as well as in a couple squares and parks in the central parts of town.

Not anymore, as of a few days ago. The city council has voted to turn them off because a nearby hotel complained about the unhoused people sheltering from the cold there.

No alternative place was given, no help was offered, no services opened up. The hotel offered no rooms, obviously. Just police sent to tell people to leave and someone from social services to tell them that the benches will be cold. Unheated benches all over town have also been removed over the last several weeks. And I'm getting word that the cops are going to try to clear the forest encampment again. They always seem to do this just as it gets properly cold.

The nearby shelter is severely underfunded, understaffed, and is always at capacity. There is nowhere to go. The politicians only seem to want these people dead. Got down to -35°C a while back. Even the heat in my apartment couldn't keep up.

I don't know where I am going with this, but I spent all day today in various government offices lodging complaints and chewing out council members. I will be a spectre in their lives until they do better. And probably for a while after that because they need to be shamed for their disgusting behavior.

And in the meantime, we're going to keep doing outreach, bringing hot food to public places and sharing it, and encouraging people to shame those who hide behind doors in government offices while they cause harm to the people.

Article on the heating being turned off.

"All oppressed people have a right to violence"