Mrs. Izabela is now 81 years old. She is ill, suffering from discopathy and vision problems. In August 2008, she says, she was driven out of her home without a court judgment. “There was a terrible row, and I was thrown out the door,” she recounts. She was left homeless. Since then, she has been staying in various places—sometimes for a few days, sometimes for several months. She shares her small pension with those who have taken her in, helps with household chores and teaches German.
After the August incident, she was advised to report the matter to the prosecutor’s office. “But I knew I wouldn’t do that. She is my daughter,” Mrs. Izabela says. “I didn’t want to ruin her reputation.”
It was supposed to be completely different. Since the 1980s, Mrs. Izabela had lived with her two children—a daughter and a son—in a small attic room. She inherited the apartment after her mother’s death. Several years passed, and her daughter got married and moved out. She promised to take Mrs. Izabela in. She even temporarily registered her at her address. “She told me I would be able to live there for the rest of my life,” the woman recalls. “She also told me to deregister from the attic apartment because I wouldn’t be going back there anyway.”
As Mrs. Izabela emphasizes, the conflict erupted suddenly. “I never argued with either my daughter or my son-in-law. I gave her all my savings, paid for the apartment, and always kept a few zlotys aside,” she says.
After losing her roof over her head, she placed advertisements in the press asking someone to take her in; she hopes someone will contact her after this article is published. She also submitted an application to the Municipal Housing Management Authority for an apartment. It was rejected. The reason? The application did not meet the formal requirements. “I was supposed to provide the floor area and address of the apartment where I am currently staying,” the woman explains. “But the people I live with do not want me to provide such information. No one will take me in permanently.”
After her application was rejected, she wrote to the mayor of Bolesławiec. The document states: “[...] further wandering is already beyond my strength. […] The letter I received from MZGM indicates that I meet the income criteria, but do not meet the housing conditions qualifying an applicant for improvement, because I am homeless and do not live anywhere. To me, MZGM’s position is completely incomprehensible in view of my living and housing situation. After all, I am currently without a place to live through no fault of my own. […] I am a very ill person; above all, I need peace and rest. During the day, I often have to lie down in my own bed, but I have nowhere to put or set one up.”
“This matter was discussed by the Infrastructure, Spatial Planning and Construction Committee of the City Council. At the time, several solutions to the situation were proposed,” says Jarosław Karbowski, head of MZGM. “Among other things, it was suggested that Mrs. Izabela could move into a nursing home in Zgorzelec. However, some committee members favored having her family take care of her. None of these proposals met with Mrs. Izabela’s approval.”
Karbowski spoke with the elderly woman’s daughter. He heard that she did not intend to take her mother into her home, but was prepared to pay one-third of the rent for an apartment; Mrs. Izabela and her son would have to cover the rest. The homeless woman’s daughter also told the head of MZGM that she had rented an apartment for her mother, but Mrs. Izabela did not want to live there. “I’ve lost my trust in her,” the elderly woman admits. “I’ve been through so much in my life, and there is no apartment for me; they tell me to go to a nursing home,” she adds bitterly.
The woman recounts that one winter she met a homeless man at one of Bolesławiec’s bus stops. He took off his shoes in front of her. His feet had been amputated. “He said he had frostbitten them because he was homeless. He couldn’t get an apartment because he had family who were supposed to take care of him. But his sons had gone abroad,” the woman recounts. “I asked him: How do you intend to survive the winter? He replied: I have a gas cylinder and several quilts; whatever happens, happens. I said that I wouldn’t want to live that way, that I would rather freeze to death.”
If anyone would like to help Mrs. Izabela, please contact the editorial office.
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