In light of the above--a combination of increasing environmental stressors that negatively affect my #disability management and day-to-day functionality against a background of ongoing pandemic--it should come as no surprise that my #SocialHousing unit is presently the very opposite of tidy.

Annual stretches of multi-month #physical non-functionality from #ExtremeHeat (and also often terrible #AirQuality) make it tough to keep up with all but the most basic tasks.

And for many #disabled folks, our disablities, chronic #MedicalConditions, necessary #medications, and so forth may already have made "keeping up with the basics" pretty challenging in the best of times.

And these are NOT the best of times. Not by a long shot.

7/x

#housekeeping
#chores
#DailyCare
#DailyRoutines
#RoutineTasks

An intetesting peculiarity of living in #SocialHousing is that we are explicitly banned from having window-based #AC in our units.

While I live in #Alberta, my understanding is that this ban is found throughout social housing #leases in #Canada.

Granted, the writing style and language choices strongly suggest such leases were drafted in the early 1970s at the latest, and back then I would have easily agreed that #AirConditioning would not be necessary.

However, 50-some years on, the heat is routinely a bajillion (estimated 😛) degrees higher and #disabled folks and others in social housing are BANNED* from installing what is literally life-saving equipment under the 'new normal' of our #FireSeason summers.

*TBC: portable AC units are not explicitly banned (not commercially-available yet when the leases were written??? 🤔) but these have limited range and are usually energy-inefficient compared to modern AC window units

6/x

#health
#safety
#medical
#medications
#disability
#poverty

From social media posts and various discussions among those I know, these many changes have been challenging.

Yet I think I am not overstating it to say that for #disabled people like me, these events have been a relentless cascade of complications--ranging from minor to massive--in our already #complicated lives.

I am far from alone in that my disabilities or #medications or both make me very #HeatSensitive.

When we hit 24°C, I am (metaphorically) melting and not particularly physically or mentally functional until temperatures cool below that threshhold.

The heat alone is enough to make me feel as though I am utterly exhausted, even if I have somehow managed to get a decent sleep *despite* the heat -- the heat saps it all away, regardless. ☹️

5/x

#heat
#HeatStress
#HeatDistress
#HeatExhaustion