Executive Parking

            On Monday morning I called up the number of the worker from Social Services that had called me on July 24^th to tell me that it wasn’t too late for me to apply for the Toronto Transitional Housing Allowance even though it was four months past the deadline. When I informed her that I’d received a letter on Friday saying that I was ineligible for the allowance because I was past the deadline, she said she was “in shock”. She told me that she would talk with her supervisor and get back to me.

            Meanwhile I called up the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing to talk with someone about my rejected application. I was only on hold a few minutes. The guy I spoke to said he would arrange for someone to call me back within 24 hours.

            An hour or so later the Toronto social worker called to ask how big my place is and if I pay for utilities in addition to the rent. I told her that I have a small one-bedroom apartment and I do not pay for utilities. She suggested that perhaps that was why they’d rejected my application. I pointed out that those questions were not even on the application and that they very specifically gave only one reason why I was disqualified from the program. I read her the precise wording in the letter: “ You are not eligible for the program due to the following reasons … your application was received after the application deadline date of 21-Mar-2017.” She let me know that she would refer back to her supervisor.

            In the early afternoon I took a siesta. I woke up when there was fifteen minutes left of my hour and a half in bed. I got up to pee and then lay back down to enjoy a few more minutes in bed. A few minutes later the phone rang and it was a woman named Cheryl from the Ministry of Housing. I explained the situation and though she didn’t make any promises she advised me to write a letter containing my explanation to the TTHAP, care of her and then to fax it to them.

            I didn’t have any money to send a fax so I called up the worker at Social Services. I was thinking that maybe she could send the fax for me. I didn’t ask her to do it but she said something about not being allowed to. She suggested that I go to any community centre and I could send a fax for free, but if for some reason I couldn’t, to come to the Dundas office to use their machine. I asked her how things were progressing at their end. She related that her supervisor had sent an email to the ministry but there had not yet been a response.

            I wrote the letter but then it was time for my bike ride, so I put figuring out how to fax it on hold. I finished exploring the area between O’Connor and Victoria Park, south of Eglinton and north of Taylor and Massey Creeks. My rides for the rest of the summer will be closer to the Danforth between Woodbine and Victoria Park. Hopefully I’ll find so interesting alleys to photograph.

            There were a lot of beautiful cloud patterns in the sky as I rode home. On Brock Avenue just north of Queen the old location of the liquor store, which still actually belongs to the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, is now all covered with graffiti and the parking lot is fenced in. As I was riding by I noticed there was a high backed executive style office chair all by itself in the parking lot and I thought it made for an interesting image. I went around to where there was an opening in the fence and started taking pictures of the chair in relation to the graffiti and the sky.

            When I got home I printed the letter that I’d written and took it to the computer and fax place down the street on the next block. I was surprised to find that the place was closed and it looked like it was out of business after more than two decades in Parkdale. The Guyanese or Trinidadian owner’s stuff was still in there but it was all in disarray. I walked west to Mobil Computers, but that was closed too. I went to the library on the chance that they had a fax service but they didn’t.

            I resigned myself to sending the fax the next morning and went home. It occurred to me though that there must be services online that there must be services online that convert digital documents to send to fax machines. It didn’t take long to find MyFax, which lets customers send two faxes for free a month, but for any more they would have to pay. It was easy and the company sent me an email to let me know that the fax went through successfully. That’s a good service to know about.