Into the Light 9-23-15

I moved into a permanent place to live today:  a new location, an alien location.  I have become very very very sick, neurologically, consequence of losing my home and medical equipment in Superstorm Sandy, and consequence of the Disaster Recovery System’s complete failure to validate or help disabled people in disaster.   It is a heavy burden.  I pray that I can reverse the damage,  replace my lost medical equipment, and stabilize my injury, now that I have a location to put my equipment in: and that I can restore the comfort of what is a home for me.  I hope  that someday there will be good and kind people in the world again and that the attitudes of people, agencies and programs will not be the barriers I need to overcome.

Right now, I am sad, afraid, lost and hurting:  longing to be home, knowing the past and everything familiar is gone forever; hoping there is a future for me;  knowing the future is of my own making – holding on.  Holding on!

To all those people who refused to help me in any way, you know what you did:  you are imprinted in my flesh.   To those people who held my hand and walked with me, you are inseparable from who I am going forward, giving me strength.  Hold on.   It has been a horrific journey, full of loss, unbelievable unkindness, the ugliest nature of man, and the truth about what it still means to be disabled in an able-bodied world.   Reality comes crashing down on you when you lose your home, your sanctuary,  and, you learn how truly different you are:   and how unforgiving the able bodied world is of difference.  You learn how much work there is still to be done to make us equal!

Beyond the implications of disability, it is a sad time:  letting go of all I was, my history, my direction, my illusions, my hopes and dreams, my personal  treasures, to find a new direction, re-invent myself, heal, recover hope and faith in man, to move forward without bitterness, to find physical comfort and stability.  Today I must unavoidably look into the profundity of all that I really lost, make peace with it, or be destroyed by it.

I heal telling the story of the lady in the wheelchair, who lived through a great storm that changed the lives of so many ordinary people forever, and ultimately created  powerful people, rising from the rubble, forged by adversity and the incredible strength of the human spirit to endure; the story of tens of thousands of people who begged for help and humanity from government agencies, and got nothing but empty promises, denials and delays; and the story of disabled people, thrown into the chaotic world of disaster that was unprepared for them, each different in his own way, people who needed just a moment extra, kicked into the floodwaters, to swim, or die.  Many died!

We each have a story to finish:  a journey to complete.  I believe in you and me:  survivors, because we refused to stop trying.  We move forward, secure in the knowledge that we can be delayed, but never ever defeated.  Home is comfort, and peace:  where nobody can hurt you anymore; where nobody is disabled or able-bodied. People are just people.  God Bless and bring home all Survivors of Superstorm Sandy and of U.S. Disaster Recovery failure.  God Bless us all!

My Reality. 3-6-15

My reality.
I have been up all night with a terrible pain in my left chest.  When I was home and this happened  I would just get into my deep soaker tub for about 7 hours.  After about an hour, it would start to feel better, and I knew it was just my spinal cord and not a heart attack.  But without my equipment, I just have to put a heating pad on my chest, remain very still, take morphine and pray it is just my spine once more.  I don’t run to a hospital in the middle of the night because I pass out from the spinal pain, and a doctor who doesn’t know my condition will punch me in the chest or put the paddles on me, because he cannot get a heartbeat.  This is my reality and what I deal with every day!  I was always scared, but never
unable to help myself.  Life with spinal cord injury and severe autonomic damage is  continuing medical crises that need to be continually managed:  daily hazard.  Nobody who is not affected by this 28-month-homeless nightmare can ever understand what each one of  us lost!!!

NYRising Complaint summary

In the event of my death, let this document stand before man and God as my true and accurate testimony: in the hope that no man will ever again be abused, dismissed, abandoned, and retaliated against in Disaster Recovery, simply because he/she is different and has special needs.

NYRising Complaint ­ XXXX

I, XXXX let this document speak for me on this, the 23rd day of January, 2015. NYRisingProgram/NYRecreate Acquisition Program XXXX

This COMPLAINT is filed against NYRising, NYRising Community Reconstruction Program, NYRising Buyout and Acquisition Programs, NYRecreate, The Office of Storm Recovery, The Housing Trust Fund Corporation (HTFC) and New York State Homes and Community Renewal (NYS HCR) and its Office of Community Renewal.

This is my documented Record of egregious conduct and Intent by all of the above named parties, directly and indirectly, to Harm me, Limit me (and my heirs) Impede and Prevent me in pursuing my legal Rights; and Deny me Due Process; and of Acts and Actions by the aforementioned parties, their Directors, Counsel, Contractors, Consultants and Agents, to deliberately, with collusion and forethought, to Deny me my NYRising/NYRecreate Program and Constitutional Rights; to Deny me Due Process; to Interfere with Due Process; to Act in Bad Faith; to Manipulate me in Program Process, Procedure and Appeal; to Misrepresent, Manipulate, Abort and Deny my Right to and/or Outcome of Appeal; TO ATTEMPT TO BREACH MY VERIFIED ACQUISITION CONTRACT OF SALE, USING THREATS, HARASSMENT, COERCION, UNDUE INFLUENCE; withholding information; entering into a Bad Faith Contract of Sale; Breach of the Implied Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing.

And to Discriminate against me on the basis of my Disability; Discriminate against me By Association; Refusal to Provide Reasonable Accommodation in Programs and Services; continuous Denial of Responsibility to Implement Federal Disability/ADA/Accessibility Statutes, Standards and Requirements; Compelling me to Submit to an “Access Inspection” of my gutted, Substantially Damaged house by four Contractors (by their own report) with absolutely no qualifications in Access, Barrier Removal, Disabled Renovation, ADA Statutes, Federal Access Technical Requirements; and Retaliation because I pursued my Right to be treated like a Disabled Individual in Programs and Services and requested that the Programs and Process comply with Federal Disability Statutes.

Refusal of Equal Access to Programs in NYRecreate Acquisition/Buyout Program, while affording it to NYRising Repair/Renovation Applicants; Failure to produce, comply with and implement Internal Disability

NYRising Complaint ­ XXXX. (XXXX)) ­ Page 1 of 12

Policy and Procedures to expedite Disabled and Special Needs applicants through the system (This paperwork was a requirement for all companies to provide during the Bid Process.)

I was held to a different standard because of my Disability and because I requested Federal Statute Protections, and judged by a different Standard in Program Implementation, specifically in the Appeal Process and the documents I was required to submit: Subjectively, Judgmentally, with Bias, by Program Directors.
I was told that the Appeal Board evaluated the Certified Letter and Retroactive Independent Appraisal in increasing the Acquisition Offer amount (following submission to the Appeal Board of the Certified Letter and Retroactive Independent Appraisal). There were no other intervening factors. However, the entire amount increased by the Appeal Board following their consideration of my Access Documents, is now under threat of being arbitrarily withdrawn.

I hold a verified NYS Acquisition Contract of Sale dated October 3, 2014 with a Closing date stipulated to be November 2, 2014 and a purchase Price of $XXXX. NYRecreate refused to Close on schedule, even though I have consistently notified them over the last year that there was an urgent medical need for closure. NYRising/NYRecreate is attempting (3 1/2 months after the Contract of Sale was vetted and verified by two New York State Boards, signed by New York State) to Breach that Contract of Sale and reduce the sale price determined by the Appeal Board in Albany after completion of a lengthy Appeal Process (during which I was required to have written by professionals several reports not required of any other applicants), to reduce the Contract of Sale amount by $45,000 by threatening to throw me out of the Acquisition Program without cause if I do not immediately sign an Amendment terminating my right to execution of the existing legal Contract of Sale: I am being forced into signing papers to modify my Contract of Sale by threats, undue influence, and against my will, and forced to make statements that these coerced actions are voluntary when in fact they are not.

In the event I am forced to sign a Contract Amendment or any other paper Under Duress, I state here that I did not sign voluntarily, without being terrorized, threatened, harassed and coerced, for a prolonged period of time and slandered repeatedly to those who tried to help me, by Directors of NYRising/NYRecreate, threatened with homelessness, bodily harm because of my medical condition, by being thrown out of the Acquisition Program without cause.

I do not give up my legal rights, my liberty, nor do I agree to any limitations placed upon me by threat, coercion and duress. I do not agree to any change in my legal verified Contract of Sale or give up my right to have the original Contract executed as it was written and signed by me in good faith of my own volition on October 3, 2014.

NYRising Complaint ­ XXXX (XXXX) ­ Page 2 of 12

All aforementioned parties are responsible directly or indirectly for the bad faith actions, threats, coercion and extreme duress, and Denial of and Manipulation of my Right to Due Process in the NYRising/NYRecreate Programs and specifically in the Appeal Process, and in execution of my verified Contract of Sale, personal injury and for placing me in medical jeopardy.

I affirm that directly because of and inclusive of the above noted acts and actions, I sustained significant financial, emotional and physical harm.
I hold these statements to be true and accurate.

Respectfully, XXXX, XXXX, NY