18 kids? Sheesh ! And to think I waited to get a cat until I knew I could afford vet bills, cat chow, etc…
Happens quite often here. About 10 years ago, the Canadian Government built hundreds of homes for the people that live on an Indian Reservations not too far from the city where I now live. Even though they lived in the middle of the boreal forest (IE-Trees EVERYWHERE), many of the residents took it upon themselves to rip their brand new houses apart and burn the wood that there home was built with as firewood for when they had parties and other get togethers. Cupboards, cabinets, furniture, doors, actual 2x6 and 2x4 construction material, ANYTHING.
Then, they cried that there houses were dumps and falling apart and unfit to live in. So, the government then fixed the homes for them free of charge. This entire incident was quietly hushed up by those in the government. I know this was not a unique scenario either.
Actions like this and the above do not help stereotypes.
Which stereotypes would that be?
Poor, charity recipients in the OP and in my case, natives.
Damn, the OP brings back some bad bad memories. When my grandmom got older, we moved her from the Ft. Worth countryside into the city where my aunt could care for her. A strong Christian woman, she wanted to rent the country house out to someone needy and a large family was identified, I think through her church. They had 5 or 6 kids and whenever we’d stop by to check on them the place seemed to become more and more run down. Checks from them were normally late and/or short and then they stopped coming at all.
I’ll never forget Dad and I going up to check on them when they wouldn’t return our calls. This hundred year old house than grandmom had been born in and had seen at least 5 or so additions was in a shambles. AC units ripped out of the windows, wallpaper in shreds, doors gone, windows busted and the yard and landscape dead. Trash and crap was strewn everywhere as if they’d actually tried to make the biggest fucking mess possible.
We couldn’t rent it to anyone else before sinking many thousands into it and before that happened hobos from the nearby train tracks discovered it and started staying there. When we ran them off they returned and torched the place.
We salvaged a few strips of wallpaper to remember the place by and had the place bulldozed and dump trucked the debris off. A once beautiful country house with several lifetimes of memories gone. I’d always planned on living there someday but it was not to be. Trees have overgrown the entire place now and unless you already knew, it’d be impossible to tell there’d ever been a homestead there.
We never could tell grandmom what had happened to the old place, both because the thought of the house being gone would have torn her up and because we didn’t want her to know her charity to that family had been so poorly rewarded.
Lots of needed folks are appreciative. Some, unfortunately, live a pathetic existance because they bring it on themselves. I’ve no doubt the kids from that family are living in another shithole today with kids of their own. Don’t wish it but pretty much expect it.
That is tragic!
When my family moved out of the home I grew up in, they put it on the rental market. Beautiful multi-level custom home.
Renter after renter slowly trashed the place, with the last one doing the majority of the damage.
I returned to the house after years at college (my brother living in it now) and was heart-broken! My brother has fixed it up quite a bit, but still, it hurts!
How is Rap like Porn? Both are better with the sound turned off.
Well, fellow dopers, lightning has apparently struck Habitat’s efforts once again this week.
Check this link: http://www.thestarpress.com/articles/3/004411-5083-021.html
Apparently drug issues were involved, and shortly after a police raid, my buddies with the big red trucks were summoned.
From running a construction company and doing a lot of work for absentee landlords, I’ve seen my share of what we call “Section 8” housing in PA, where there is a subsidized rent situation for persons of reduced income. What I find to be most disturbing is that there are some very nice people, hard workers, good parents, who have had some bad breaks, and are struggling to better their lot, yet for every one whom I could describe that way, there are 7 dirtbags.
I’ve gone into units and found unsupervised kids that should have been in school, playing amidst drugs and paraphenalia, while a parent is passed out on the floor. I could go on and on with tales of the wanton destruction of property I’ve witnessed, but that serves no purpose.
The waste of humanity is what grieves my soul.