The COVID-19 pandemic has caused so much misery for people in Burnaby and around the world.
One area of misery has been with people victimized by the panic felt by others over the virus.
I spoke with a man named Dan who said he was forced to have unavoidable surgery last month. When he was finally released, his Burnaby roommate wouldn’t let him into the home “out of fear of the virus.”
Now, I’m sure some people will actually agree with the roommate, but you shouldn’t be allowed to just bar someone from their legal home.
I don’t know all of the details about how this happened, but the impression I got was that Dan just decided to let it go and not fight it.
I get that the roommate would be concerned, but there are protocols in place for someone being released from the hospital due to a case unrelated to COVID-19.
The NOW had another story recently about a health-care worker ending up in a Burnaby hotel because someone locked her out of the home she was sharing.
Fear of COVID-19 doesn’t give you the right to just lock someone out of their home.
For Dan, things got worse as he tried to quickly find a place to live.
“As shocked as I was, I quickly started looking for a place to stay while I could sort things out,” he said. “One by one, Airbnbs that claimed to have a vacancy turned me down. I thought I was doing something wrong, but I mentioned it at the motel (they weren't thrilled by the site of my catheter) about my problems with Airbnb, and was told that they were referring customers to the motel because they didn't want them in their homes.”
Even desperate Airbnb owners won't show some humanity.
Just a terrible situation as people let fear get the better of them.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
