Discussions

I am sure we have all heard, read and discussed the housing shortage problem in Brandon. This post is about the same thing, with a twist...  
 
My in laws own a home that is right next door to a MB Housing duplex. The unit right beside her house has been empty now for almost 4 months, even though all work on the unit was completed within 2 weeks of the last tenants moving out .... so for 3 and a half months a MB Housing Unit has been available with no tenants... and NO this is not an isolated incident.  
 
I just moved out of a MB Housing complex last year. We lived there for just over 3 years before we left. In that time we saw quite a few people come and go. Alot of them were my friends, thus I had been in the places and knew they didn't need that much work. Also having been there that long, we knew most of the workmen that fixed up and painted the places and we'd visit and have coffee with them, so we always knew when a place was finished being worked on. Not all but many of those units sat empty for months. The longest a unit sat empty was for 8 months.... 8 MONTHS, that's 2/3's of a year!!!  
 
Now I'm sure that you are all aware of how long the waiting list is for subsidized housing in Brandon like MB Housing and Friendship Center Housin, etc, etc. I am just blown away by this, I always have been!  
 
On another note, while I was living in MB Housing a single mom with a baby girl moved into the unit next to mine. After about a year of her living there I saw her moving things out slowly over a couple of months. Through different people it was discovered that she had moved in with some guy that she was having a another baby with. So anyway, I expected that she'd soon be moving out of the unit completely because she was, by this point, living completely in the home this fellow owned and had taken ALL of her furnishings out, she only came back to check her mail. After several months it was discovered that this girl had no plans on giving up her MB housing place because she was on assistance and if she told assistance where she was living and who with, they would cut off her assistance. So, she was not only lying and ripping off assistance, she was keeping this MB housing unit, even though she was no longer living there. Anyway, someone finally did report her (AND NO IT WASN'T ME) to both assistance and MB Housing. BOTH assistance and Housing looked into it, found it all to be true, and did nothing. She was informed that to keep the place, she'd have to live there AT LEAST PART TIME!!! Which she hasn't done... this was all about 2 years ago, and the chick is still collecting welfare and still has but does not live in the MB housing unit....  
 
Now I realize none of this is my business and is in no way affecting my life or anything like that... but what about those whose it is?? What about those people waiting to get into MB Housing that REALLY need it and can't because of things like this?!?  
 
Just wanted to make people aware of what their tax dollars are going to and maybe put some more pressure on MB Housing to get their selves in order .... although I realize this post probably won't do a thing.... that's my vent for the day! Thanks.  
 
Edited by lisaN, 2009-08-10 00:27:49