Trapped in the Nexus: The Housing Authority Paperwork Chase

Jesse

So the recording starts with Ryan saying, "Alexa, repeat what you said last." And Alexa says, "Absolutely." Then she hands him a legal answer like she's reading it off a cereal box. No formal nexus clause required, just help with the essential duty. And Ryan says, okay, so there you have it. Then he spends the next ninety seconds asking whether you need a nexus or you don't need a nexus.

Donna Trump

A nexus! Everybody's talking about the nexus! Nobody knows what the nexus is, but everybody needs one, and Ryan is going to the smart speaker to find out. Late at night. Talking to a cylinder. That's where we are in America, folks, and we are winning at absolutely nothing.

Jesse

And then comes the part that got me. He asks, are you one hundred percent sure it's not required for housing? And she flips. Totally sure, she says. Under the Fair Housing Act you do need a clear link between your disability and what you're asking for. Ryan says, that's not what you said earlier. And Alexa goes, "Oops, I see the mix up." Oops. That's the whole legal department. Oops.

Donna Trump

Oops is a very powerful word in government, Jesse. Very powerful. A lot of agencies run on oops. But here's the thing. Alexa is mixing up employment and housing, and honestly, so is everybody. Employment, flexible. Section 504, flexible. Housing, nexus, nexus, nexus. And then she keeps calling him Roxanne. I hear you, Roxanne. Take care, Roxanne. Ryan never corrects her once. He just keeps going. That's stamina. I respect stamina.

Jesse

It's funny until you sit with it. A man with a disability is trying to get one straight answer, and the best he can find is a gadget that can't get his name right and can't keep its own answer from one minute to the next. And in fairness to the gadget, the second answer lines up with the HUD and DOJ joint statement. That statement says that to show an accommodation may be necessary, there has to be an identifiable relationship, a nexus, between the request and the disability. So housing does have one. Ryan's real beef is about how they make you prove it.

Donna Trump

And that's the beef! Ryan says, why is this different from employment? Employment's a little bit more right than housing, he says. He wants the rules to line up. Alexa even agrees with him, says many advocates are pushing for the gap to shrink. When your robot is on your side and your housing authority isn't, you have a problem. A big problem.

Jesse

Here's what the paperwork chase looks like from his side. The housing authority already has his Social Security award letter. He says they've had it in the past and should have it on file. Yet he's been sent running to get a doctor to sign off on a nexus. Dr. Kunz, though the transcript has it as Coons. Nine months now, going on ten. And the joint statement says disability can be verified by a lot of people. A doctor, sure, but also a peer support group, a non medical service agency, or a reliable third party. Proof of Social Security disability benefits can do it too. So the doctor only route sounds like something the housing authority made up.

Donna Trump

Nine months! Nine months, going on ten! You know what you can do in nine months? Win a whole campaign. Lose one, come back, win another. And Ryan's still waiting on a text message. He literally asks, did Carly get the text today? Or did Susan get the text from Carly today? He doesn't even know. He's asking out loud, in the dark, if a text got sent.

Jesse

And look at what he actually asked for. It costs them nothing. His advocate Susan, from Human Supports of Idaho, is with him when staff discuss policy. That's it. Somebody sitting next to him so he doesn't panic and fall apart when the rules come at him. Carly Lawrence is the one who's supposed to send that text to Susan. Ryan says he did his part, the nexus part, and still there's no answer. And that same joint statement says undue delay can be treated like a denial. Silence counts.

Donna Trump

A zero dollar request! Zero! The best deal ever offered to a housing authority, and they can't close it. Tremendous opportunity, wasted. Now Ryan says something very smart here. He says he doesn't know what's worse, being denied or being teased. A denial, you can appeal. You can go to HUD, you can go to court. A tease? A tease just sits there. Forever.

Jesse

That's the line of the whole recording. Being teased for nine months straight. The form is out there, it looks like a door, and nobody tells you it's painted on a wall. Meanwhile the lease says they reserve the right to change policy without notice, and the house rules are available upon request. Upon request! You have to know what to ask for before they'll tell you what exists. Then you get lease violations, then an eviction notice, then you're on the street, as he puts it. Plain as that.

Donna Trump

And then Ryan says, "Even Donna in the story said no." Excuse me? Even Donna? I want to be very clear. I did not say no. I have never said no. I said yes, then I said it again, then I said it louder. Where was I in this story? Because I'd have signed that thing on day one.

Jesse

Different Donna. He means Donna Dethorne, the housing operations supervisor at the housing authority. You're not in his journal. And what's funny is that he stops right there. He says, I think he even said, what am I saying about it, and then, now I forget, I have to go back to my journal. I like that he leaves it. He doesn't fake the quote. He loses the thread, says so, and goes back to the real notes.

Donna Trump

Okay. Different Donna. Worse Donna. Still, I'm hurt a little. But that's honest, and honest is strong. He doesn't have the quote, so he doesn't invent it. Most people in Washington couldn't do that if you paid them.

Jesse

Then he gets to school, and the tone changes. He talks about the accommodations he was promised as a kid, and asks whether you'd call it accommodation or gaslighting. His answer is gaslighting, with plenty of language I won't repeat here, the whole way through his school years. And now he says the housing authority has done the same thing to him. The pattern is somebody holding up the form that says support, and then the support never shows. You don't forget that feeling.

Donna Trump

And it's a long game, Jesse. School, then housing, same move, different building. The paper says help, the person says wait, and the person who needs it ends up doing all the work. Ryan does the research. He does the internet. He talks to advocates. He asks Alexa. Alexa calls him Roxanne. That's the system working exactly as designed, and it's not designed for him.

Jesse

But he doesn't just rage. He's got fixes, and they're good ones. First, put the interactive process and the appeal steps right on the accommodation form, or stapled to it. If they can deny you, the form should say there's a process after the denial. Second, attach the accommodation procedure to the lease, with its own signature, maybe even a video at move in. You sign for the rent, you should sign for your rights too.

Donna Trump

A video! Everybody gets a video! I love it. And the third one is the best one, the burden. Ryan says the housing authority should supply every resource so you understand what a reasonable accommodation even is. Because not everybody knows. Right now the tenant has to learn the law, find the law, and then argue with the law's cousin, the lease. Flip it! Make them teach it! Winning!

Jesse

He adds one more thing, and it's easy to miss. Landlords already pull credit checks, which makes it hard to get a place. Then you stack nexus paperwork on top, and he says it's like being asked to jump through two hoops when one was already too many. For somebody low income and disabled, that's a wall with a welcome mat in front of it.

Donna Trump

Two hoops! Credit check hoop, doctor hoop, and the hoops are on fire. And he's right that a formal letter ought to be good enough. A letter and an award letter that's already on file. That should be enough. Every time. Believe me.

Jesse

And he ends where he started, tired and angry, saying it shouldn't be this hard. The last thing on the tape is him saying they did the same to him in school, and the housing authority did it again. I don't think he's wrong. If you tell somebody you'll accommodate them and then make them chase a signature for nine months, that isn't accommodating. It's making them wait until they give up.

Donna Trump

And he didn't give up. That's the point. Nine months, going on ten, and he's still recording, still asking, still pushing. Alexa can call him Roxanne all night. Ryan knows exactly who he is. And the rest of us should know it too.