I had an aunty with rheumatoid arthritis and I knew it was incredibly debilitating but I didn’t see her much and never really understood until I saw it hit my not so old wife. It is really fucking scary and a lot more than just joint pain. Fortunately she got to a specialist and on treatments that have it more or less under control but a lot of the treatments wouldn’t have been around in the past and once joint damage is done it is permanent.
Public housing didn’t used to be only for people on welfare, at least not over here in South Australia. It might have been different interstate. When the Liberal and Country League established it here 90 years ago it was affordable accommodation for working families to help industrialize the state. South Australia was always struggling economically against the biggest states and had to work harder and smarter to attract industry and workers. A worker might be ok with lower pay if rent was more affordable. Playford accelerated the industrialisation post WW2. People living in housing trust homes were making Holden, Chrysler, vehicle parts, whitegoods etc and while the homes were basic, the shit they had in England or wherever they came from wasn’t great either.
I think the idea that public housing is a scarce resource for people who can’t or won’t work is a modern invention. It was supposed to be affordable housing, with no judgements and no time limits. It wasn’t emergency housing. It filled a gap in affordable housing that private enterprise couldn’t supply then or now.
I had an aunty with rheumatoid arthritis and I knew it was incredibly debilitating but I didn’t see her much and never really understood until I saw it hit my not so old wife. It is really fucking scary and a lot more than just joint pain. Fortunately she got to a specialist and on treatments that have it more or less under control but a lot of the treatments wouldn’t have been around in the past and once joint damage is done it is permanent.
Public housing didn’t used to be only for people on welfare, at least not over here in South Australia. It might have been different interstate. When the Liberal and Country League established it here 90 years ago it was affordable accommodation for working families to help industrialize the state. South Australia was always struggling economically against the biggest states and had to work harder and smarter to attract industry and workers. A worker might be ok with lower pay if rent was more affordable. Playford accelerated the industrialisation post WW2. People living in housing trust homes were making Holden, Chrysler, vehicle parts, whitegoods etc and while the homes were basic, the shit they had in England or wherever they came from wasn’t great either.
I think the idea that public housing is a scarce resource for people who can’t or won’t work is a modern invention. It was supposed to be affordable housing, with no judgements and no time limits. It wasn’t emergency housing. It filled a gap in affordable housing that private enterprise couldn’t supply then or now.