Clare Housing

I waited about two years to get into housing and Claire housing picked me up - when I did a program like this before 10 years ago it was through St Stevens. Very different process let me tell you. First off PPL is notorious for taking 10 years to do one piece of paperwork at a time! I was approved for an apartment here and it literally took two more months for me to actually move in. They left no phone numbers to contact anyone at - and no e mail addressees - property managers never returned phone calls or messages not even to verify is they received paperwork they themselves requested. So there was that to start with. Secondly - they advertise everywhere as people “living with HIV AIDS so if your a person who likes to live private - or don’t want your family to know your health business you can kiss that privacy away! How it is not a hypa violation of every resident there is beyond my understanding - it puts every resident at risk for scrutinization like at the Robinsdale location where people are harassed while going into their building and even I myself have been called a “the F word with aids” as I walked in to visit a friend that lives their. Their are construction workers working on a new building across from my building in the NE - and I’ve gotten snickers and looks and under the breath comments when I have to walk to my car. Everyone knows what these building are because even if you type the address into Mapquest it comes up “Claire Housing” …. It’s unsafe for the residents and completely outs any privacy standards we as people living with hiv or aids try to maintain do to stigma. It’s reduculous. My question is who is going to be responsible when a resident is attacked physically? Or worse. Lastly - the staff is undertrained about the jobs they do. It’s not their fault - it’s the corporation who trains them fault. I’ve been here two weeks plus and no one has been able to explain to me how finances and jobs work or break it down. What do I owe? Who knows? How much can I work? Who knows. No one seems to know anything about how anything works! It’s insane! I attempted to get cable and let the front desk know - waited two weeks for this since I’m literally staring at a wall in the quiet for two weeks in an empty apartment - which does wonders for my sobriety let me tell you - and finally when they show up to install my cable I find out we only have coaxle not Ethernet so I had to cancel my order - and am left with prolly only one company who I refuse to deal with because they mess everything they touch up. Would you not be informed about what cable companies or at the very least what kind of cable internet your able to get when you move in? So I asked about it and once again - no staff knew - no clue! It is extremely frustrating. Walmart orders are made for clients not by clients and those get messed up and don’t show up or show up and end up with someone else - I’ve had one towel to use the two weeks I’ve been there because my 18 piece towel set that was delivered disappeared and had to be reordered - it’s just kinda ridiculous. My suggestion …. If your insistent on moving into Claire Housing - talk to other residents because staff can’t tell you what you need to know. They simply don’t know how to do their jobs. I’m thinking off taking on the task myself of making move in packets for new residents - explaining how to watch out for themselves when confronted outside about their hiv status, packets on what cable companies to use to get internet - what kind of internet they can and can’t have to save them time - packets on local food shelves - packets on local salvation armies and good wills and packets on local rent to own furniture that takes weekly payments so you can get a therapeutic bed right away since as we all know some medications associated with hiv has blown out peoples joints and hips and a memory foam therapeutic mattress would be needed for those people. But the real question is this - why as a resident am I considering making these packets for people - when I’m fact these kinds of changes and information should be provided by the people. Who run this building? Instead the common answer for any question is - read your lease or I don’t know! Lastly - and this is my opinion only - if your struggling with housing - go to treatment - get into a sober house for a year and get a job and save every penny for that year as you won’t be charged rent and you can save a good 20 grand if your smart and find a good server job much like I was doing and my friend is still doing and just go get a normal apartment and bi pass places like Claire housing as it wil only test your sobriety and drive you frantic. Sorry - I know I should be more grateful but - it is what it is.