Hamilton Indigenous Housing

Late yesterday afternoon UNH’s held a Easter Dinner in the community room hosted by the KMHC staff, I have to admit I had a good time. Earlier in the day I made a special trip to the local bakery and picked up a dozen dinner rolls for the event. The KMHC staff gave exceptional service.   It’s not everyday one gets to see H.O.W. probie Christine and receptionist Sharon wearing an apron serving food with a smile. The HSC was also stationed at the buffet table serving turkey dressing.   To make the best of an awkward moment as I passed her I said ‘I’m ok’ and moved on to the other foods. Tenants Sue, Dave, Judy, KMHC staff member Deb and her daughter Naomi sat at our table. Dinner conversation ranged from sharing life experiences, classic rock music, education and guessing the age of those sitting at our table.   LOL I invited Luke the cleaner to sit with us but I think he felt more comfortable sitting in a back chair. Never the less I said to him ‘I’m glad you joined us...

This afternoon a copy of the last tenant meeting minutes report from February 4, 2014 was slipped under my door and “twisted truth” was typed in the report.   This is how the fearful and unstable HSC labeled my blogs.   I quickly scanned through the report then immediately returned it to the KMHC receptionist.  I said to Sharon “I’m returning this, I’m not interested in reading fiction.” and I left.   :P On Friday we received a “24 hour entry notice” and guess what it’s about this time!   The maintenance crew are to come in our units and clean the window blinds.   I immediately thought this is not a maintenance issue, this is housekeeping.   Years ago when the former Superintendent was doing her annual inspection I asked about the window blinds.   She replied, it’s the tenants’ responsibility to keep the windows and blinds clean and dust free and gave me some cleaning tips.   Since I’m a fanatic about cleanliness I had no problem with doi...

I didn’t mention this here but I did on Facebook   Three weeks ago I decided to join a journalism workshop to improve my writing skills and to learn the technique in writing a good story.   I’m glad to announce I successfully completed the workshop. I have to give credit to former UNH’s outreach worker Lorraine Brown for giving me the encouragement and inspiration to pursue this. I have a story to share with the blog readers: a few years ago Lorraine was on her smoke brake sitting in front of the KMHC building so I decided to ask her opinion in regard to my Native Housing blogs and I still remember her words. "Tony you have a skill in writing don’t waste it on this place (she was referring to KMHC) focus your writing on bigger, brighter and more interesting things".   At the time I wasn’t sure if she was trying to steer me away from writing about KMHC or was she really concerned about me.   Last summer when I saw her @ Jackson Square mall we had a nice chat, in t...

Last week tenants were invited to an informal gathering in the community room to offer any program ideas in hope of spicing up this place.   New staff member Brad LaBarron was the host he seems relaxed and a down to earth friendly person. I expressed my thoughts and ideas and so did other tenants.   As a group I like when tenants are not afraid to speak up and share their ideas and opinions. The meeting went well until HOW stout shaped Lynda Jones got irritated when tenant Linda expressed her thoughts.   Tenant Linda is an outspoken woman, I like her she's a hoot when she gets on a roll nobody can stop her. :) Brad wrote down the list of ideas from the tenants and hopefully a few will become reality.   I thought “Good luck in regard to obtaining funds from UNH’s for programs, it’s like French kissing a moose….it’s a big challenge but not impossible". LOL  :D Friday afternoon I received a "notice to enter apt” from probie HOW Christine Demik.   They ar...

On Saturday Feb 22/14 @ 12:55 pm I came home from Shoppers Drug Mart. As I approached the front entrance door tenant and former friend Dean K was coming out, he looked angry and came towards me in attempt to elbow me in the ribs or to give a heavy shoulder block. Since I saw him coming I quickly responded by moving out of the way and he didn’t connect.  The way he stumbled forward I thought he was drunk, he was shouting obscenities which I choose to ignore and proceeded into the building.   I know this was caught on security tape.   There is something seriously wrong with Dean, few times he’d see me in the mall or in the downtown area he doesn’t come near me or bug me but in the KMHC building he thinks he can harass tenants   In the past I’ve put up with his snide and rude remarks in the hallway and now he’s trying to get physical again.   The KMHC office is totally useless in these matters. If required I’ll use this post as an incident report for the police....

Scanning through my previous blogs and in effort not to be repetitive. For the next while I'll be using the comment section for writing any updates and follow ups.  I invite the readers to scroll down the list of posts and check the comments.  Has UNH's improved KMHC.......the jury is still out and hasn't made their decision. :P tk

The other day while watching HSC Ingrid’s attempt to get herself out of a snow bank and looking quite ridiculous at it. I thought, I’ll bet she’ll have problems on the road and sure enough she did.   Getting stuck in the snow twice then finally gave up, abandoned her vehicle and walked home. Don’t worry she had a heavy set companion with her so she wasn’t alone. Continuing on from the last tenant meeting, when a fellow tenant asked HSC Ingrid about the security camera in the community room here’s what happened next:   Ingrid turns around from her chair, looks around the room and said “Where’s the camera, I don’t see one!”  I thought what a buffoon.  The woman couldn’t act her way out of a wet paper bag. She was in the room when the camera was installed months ago. :D HSC Ingrid Nosel violated the agreement we made last year, advised by PC Terry Oliver we are not to speak to each other directly.  Standing near my fellow tenant and trying to listen to her spe...