bluelander | Recertification Day (Reply)

Yesterday I had to endure the indignity of laying out every detail of my financial life for the last 6 months bare to ensure my continued housing. It's a humiliating and dehumanizing process, and the paperwork is designed in such a way to make people feel existential dread basically no matter what. They're filled with dire warnings that knowingly falsifying information on the forms is punishable by fines and jail time, while simultaneously making it impossible to fill out the forms 100% correctly.

On one of the forms, I had to sign a sworn statement indicating any property that I "dispensed with for less than fair market value". I swore that I did not, because what the fuck? Like, did I throw anything away that I technically probably could've sold on ebay for a few cents+shipping? Yeah, I'm sure. None of it would've been worth the time and energy of listing it. Could I have collected every aluminum can I used over the year and gotten a couple bucks for recycling it? Theoretically, but I don't have a car, am I supposed to have taken garbage bags full of cans on the bus to the recycling center in case I got more than enough to cover the bus fare? Nobody would do that.

And yeah, I'm sure the only care about high-value property like cars or real estate, but they don't actually say that.¹ They make us think that if someone actually sat down and went over every detail with a fine-toothed comb, they could find something to get you evicted at best or arrested at worst. Is someone going to do that? Probably not, unless some bureaucrat at the housing authority decides they don't like you. It's not discrimination when there's technically a reason for it.

This kind of selective enforcement could be illegal, but who's going to represent us? Even if we found someone to take the case pro bono, how would one prove intent? What if there's no pattern? What if the person reviewing my case just had it out for me, specifically, because they saw a donation to a political cause or charity they don't like? Even if I could fight it, where would I live while the case made its way through the courts?

I'm being paranoid, probably none of this will happen and I have nothing to worry about. But me being paranoid and afraid is definitely the end goal of this process. The purpose of a system is what it does.

Anyway, that whole process was exhausting, and I had to go into work late because the meeting was 11:00 AM, and I had to stay late and I still didn't get my 8 hours in, so I have to work late throughout the week to make up the rest of the time, and I had to go to the pharmacy after work and didn't get home until like 20h00, and I have too much to think about this week so I don't know how much writing I'll be able to do. I'll try

UPDATE: also I'm out of data on my phone and work has been busy this week. I'll see you when I see you

1: So I just looked this up, and in the past it would only qualify as something I need to disclose if the difference between the value of the asset and what I received exceeds $1000. But apparently this rule changed this year and the threshold is gone. No one seems to know about it. The form this year was the same as last year's, and it doesn't mention a threshold either way ¯⁠\⁠⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠⁠/⁠¯ I hate it here.²

2. This is academic for me, but even if I did have valuable assets, how the fuck am I supposed to know what "fair market value" is? Who decides this? What if I can't reach that number? What if someone decided the car I sold is worth $5000 but I couldn't get anyone to buy it for that amount? What if I was forced to sell it for $2500 to make rent? I'd lose my housing for that? I HATE IT HERE