All The Small Things And Charlie Sheen
Without Prejudice
Everyone knows how much I adore my Grandkids. It's a given. And as my daughter with five little boys ( now, 7 sons and one delightful baby girl ) was struggling at the time with housing my younger daughter and I stepped up to rehouse her. We added her to the list for Ministry housing which at the time was ten years long.
Yvette and her boys were living in an older house at Dandenong, too small, had mould in the cupboards and was far too close to the Highway. Brock was five and asthmatic and we discovered that mould and car fumes could be triggering his asthma attacks and we were to be proved right.
She and the boys had shared my house for six months before she was housed in the small house but after two years it was inadequate. To gain entry into the Public Housing system we went to Doctors,
the Salvation Army, the Cat Team, we gathered letters of recommendation, doctors letters, an AVO against the father of the five boys who had chosen alcohol and drugs as a virtual profession. Our very own, Charlie Sheen. But with violent behaviours.
He had been to the old house and broken windows, attacked his son who was ten and trying to defend his brother. His younger brother ( who wants to be a Policeman ran next door and called the cops. The neighbour next door grabbed the baby off Yvette and ran next door and hid until the Police arrived. We knew he would keep coming to the house while on the run.
The Police were so helpful. It took a while to find Yvette's ex but find him they did and arrested him for assault. Yvette was a mess. So Alena, my younger daughter and I asked for an appointment with the head of the Ministry in Dandenong, took Yvette with baby in a basket and told her not to speak. The head of the Ministry didn't particularly like Yvette as Yvette was feisty and told it like it was.
The head of the Ministry was a woman, but luckily brought a man to the interview, who was her Boss we think. We insisted we were heard. We told them of the assault, the mould in the house, the crowded bedrooms. The Head of the Ministry was unhelpful, cool. We asked for a newer house and more room. She argued and in the end Alena said,
" If you don't help Yvette and the boys, we are going to the Press and if Yvette is assaulted again, it's on your head "
Yvette and the boys were moved within six weeks. A newish four bedroom home in an outer suburb, twenty minutes from Dandenong, with a huge back yard and nestled in amongst owned homes, rather than an estate of commission homes. Yvette thin, weakened by gastro cried the day she took me there to see it. It was like a miracle to her. Brock suffered one asthma attack after she moved in, almost a fatal one but after that, never another, not one, and he is 18 now.
When they had lived with me, Yvette would drive me to work and use my car and we had to take the kids so she taught them to sing,
All The Small Things " by Blink 182. She, I and the boys would sing it every day and even though those boys are now men, pretty much, they know every word of that song and Phil Collins singing Son Of Man from Tarzan, one of their favourite movies of all time.
I am a big advocate of Public Housing, my parents strong Socialists and hailing from the U.K. Emigrating to Australia in the fifties with five kids, Post World War Two had no problem with accepting Public Housing. Nor staying in a Hostel in Adelaide for two years, to repay the Government for assisted passage.
To Be Continued..........
Everyone knows how much I adore my Grandkids. It's a given. And as my daughter with five little boys ( now, 7 sons and one delightful baby girl ) was struggling at the time with housing my younger daughter and I stepped up to rehouse her. We added her to the list for Ministry housing which at the time was ten years long.
Yvette and her boys were living in an older house at Dandenong, too small, had mould in the cupboards and was far too close to the Highway. Brock was five and asthmatic and we discovered that mould and car fumes could be triggering his asthma attacks and we were to be proved right.
She and the boys had shared my house for six months before she was housed in the small house but after two years it was inadequate. To gain entry into the Public Housing system we went to Doctors,
the Salvation Army, the Cat Team, we gathered letters of recommendation, doctors letters, an AVO against the father of the five boys who had chosen alcohol and drugs as a virtual profession. Our very own, Charlie Sheen. But with violent behaviours.
He had been to the old house and broken windows, attacked his son who was ten and trying to defend his brother. His younger brother ( who wants to be a Policeman ran next door and called the cops. The neighbour next door grabbed the baby off Yvette and ran next door and hid until the Police arrived. We knew he would keep coming to the house while on the run.
The Police were so helpful. It took a while to find Yvette's ex but find him they did and arrested him for assault. Yvette was a mess. So Alena, my younger daughter and I asked for an appointment with the head of the Ministry in Dandenong, took Yvette with baby in a basket and told her not to speak. The head of the Ministry didn't particularly like Yvette as Yvette was feisty and told it like it was.
The head of the Ministry was a woman, but luckily brought a man to the interview, who was her Boss we think. We insisted we were heard. We told them of the assault, the mould in the house, the crowded bedrooms. The Head of the Ministry was unhelpful, cool. We asked for a newer house and more room. She argued and in the end Alena said,
" If you don't help Yvette and the boys, we are going to the Press and if Yvette is assaulted again, it's on your head "
Yvette and the boys were moved within six weeks. A newish four bedroom home in an outer suburb, twenty minutes from Dandenong, with a huge back yard and nestled in amongst owned homes, rather than an estate of commission homes. Yvette thin, weakened by gastro cried the day she took me there to see it. It was like a miracle to her. Brock suffered one asthma attack after she moved in, almost a fatal one but after that, never another, not one, and he is 18 now.
When they had lived with me, Yvette would drive me to work and use my car and we had to take the kids so she taught them to sing,
All The Small Things " by Blink 182. She, I and the boys would sing it every day and even though those boys are now men, pretty much, they know every word of that song and Phil Collins singing Son Of Man from Tarzan, one of their favourite movies of all time.
I am a big advocate of Public Housing, my parents strong Socialists and hailing from the U.K. Emigrating to Australia in the fifties with five kids, Post World War Two had no problem with accepting Public Housing. Nor staying in a Hostel in Adelaide for two years, to repay the Government for assisted passage.
To Be Continued..........
