ECOASIS

Does Anybody Care ?
Renée Gabrych

I am tired of living in hell
Olly Gabrych

Housing Crisis for People with MCS
Line

Two days later, the landlord threatened to evict me
Ruth

Sometimes I had to become homeless
Anonymous

Two days later, the landlord threatened to evict me

Ruth

In order to keep out the scents/smoke, I had to seal off my bedroom and bathroom HVAC vents and the bathroom ceiling fan. This means I have no heat in the winter or A/C in the summer. The temperatures have dipped to as low as 59 degrees in the winter (especially when there is an east wind blowing into my bathroom) and reached 90 degrees in the summer. Due to my Environmental Sensitivities, I am extremely sensitive to both heat and cold. In the summer, I have to use ice packs on my body, stick my head under the cold tap, and have cold showers to cool off. In worst case scenarios, I sit around in my underwear – the only good thing about being isolated (nobody can see me). I’ve had heat exhaustion in the past, and don’t want a repeat. In the winter, I sleep in my flannel PJ’s, a hoodie with the hood pulled up over my head, and curled up underneath my sheet, comforter/duvet cover, and a doubled fleece blanket covering me . . . with my head UNDERNEATH all of these covers, just to stay warm. During the daytime, I often have to lie down under the covers to stay warm. I don’t have any spare electrical wall sockets in my enclosure [the sealed-off portion of her apartment] to plug in my portable heater (without tripping the circuit breaker), and no electrical sockets OR a working window to vent a portable A/C unit – and the Fire Inspector told me that, to pass the Fire Codes, all appliances must be plugged into wall sockets, and not power bars. (My landlord sicced the Fire Department on me when I refused to vacate this enclosure after the renovations were finished, and I continued to tell him that the air quality was worse than before the renovations . . . and one morning, after my neighbours “shared” their marijuana with me, I had such a bad MCS reaction to it, that I was “unresponsive” (able to hear everything around me, but unable to move/speak/function) the next morning when there was a fire drill, and was unable to get out of bed. I told my landlord that, if this had been a real fire, I would not have been able to get out of this enclosure, because my neighbours had, literally, poisoned me with their drugs. Two days later, the landlord started harassing me, threatening to evict me.