the rix mix

Woman across the hall, who is not all there mentally & belongs in a group home or 24 hour care facility, nearly set this building on fire yesterday trying to cook something. Fire alarm went off, hallway was filled with smoke. I put on sneakers, grabbed my envelope of important documents & headed out the door, realizing my response time was still too slow. But not as slow as the fire department. Disappointing response time. They were beaten here by Louie, the landlord's guy. Fortunately, it was all smoke no fire. That lady's gotta go. But legally, maybe she can't be made to do what is clearly in her & our best interest. A social worker checks up on her once or twice-a-month, sometimes has to knock on the door for five minutes, &  never goes into the apartment. She needs to know what happened.   Eviction with no place to go except a shelter is not a humane option. A judge would never agree to it. A good temporary solution, not possible, would be to turn off her gas, remove any electrical cooking appliances, & enroll her with Meals on Wheels until there was an opening in an appropriate residential facility. There are worse possibilities than eating pre-cooked room temperature meals.