Re: Saturday’s article about safety issues at Forsander Apartments (“Locked out: Residents of Florence’s Forsander Apartments air concerns about the locking of front doors”), I wholeheartedly agree with the immediate need for an intercom and remote way to let in visitors to accompany our outside locking building doors.
In fact, I am dumbfounded that a public housing complex serving seniors and the disabled did not have this all in place years ago. This is a very serious safety issue. Why are we at Forsander being treated differently than the other Northampton Housing Authority’s public housing complexes, including Cahill on Fruit Street, who have benefited from having these safety features in place for many years?
Like my fellow tenants, I also have contacted Housing Authority officials about the immediate need for an intercom system and have received no response.
As someone who worked for years as a special education teacher and consultant before complications from a serious medical condition disabled me, it is infuriating to see the laws that made such a difference for so many, including my students, being flouted. Joining my neighbors, I call on the Northampton Housing Authority to do the right thing and provide us with the basic services that it is their job to do. In addition to rectifying this serious breach of safety, it is also a matter of showing respect to some of society’s most vulnerable citizens and appropriately using public funds.
Hélène Powers
Florence