The organizations set to be evicted include groups for the elderly and infirm, as well as for people with dementia. Many of the affected groups fear that it will be difficult to find new buildings that are both affordable and accessible to their patrons – people in need who often have physical disabilities.
For the last 22 years, Piteå’s Cooperative Body of Organisations of Disabled People (HSO) has rented a massive two storey building for its 16 groups that serve nearly 3,000 members across the city. The local government is governed by a Red-Red-Green coalition of Social Democrats, members of the Green Party and the radical Left Party. It was ultimately this government that chose to evict the disabled and turn their building into housing for newly-minted migrants.
While the local government insists that the crestfallen disability organizations will be able to make use of an abandoned school, there are many concerns about how user-friendly it will be to the groups' members. For example, Elisabeth Eliasson, from the Swedish Rheumatism Association, commented that it has been easy for their members to meet at the group's current location, which is easily accessible by electric wheelchair. The move will force many people with the disease to have to use public transport, which can be rather inconvenient for those who are wheelchair-bound.
And of course, HSO group leaders have not been given any kind of estimates from the local government for what renting the former school might cost. Some groups within the organization are concerned that the move will lead to the total demise of their activities.
Carina Lindegren of the Dementia Association noted that if renting the school comes with too high a price tag, “then our group will cease to continue.” She also lambasted the city's decision to provide housing to migrants at the cost of the HSO, and noted that it is exactly the kind of action that "creates problems in a community."
Of course, this is not the first time the Swedes have come up with disturbing ways to deal with their massive influx of migrant refugees. In August, authorities in Norrtälje actually had the audacity to request that wealthy homeowners give up their houses and allow them to be used by migrants.
Targeted mailshots inquired, “Does your country house stand empty in winter?" For some reason, since houses in the Stockholm municipality are often empty in the winter, the government felt that it had the right to ask private individuals to allow perfect strangers to stay in their homes. What could go wrong, right?
Breitbart reports that the area's director of social services, Ali Rashidi, told Svenska Dagbladet, “We thought that there are certainly many houses and rooms that can be rented out for the winter. We like many other municipalities have housing needs." Rashidi also noted that the municipality would ensure that rent was paid to the homeowners, if assistance was necessary.
Apparently, the idea was born after 30 migrants protested that their newly-built modular accommodations simply were not up to snuff. One of the migrants is reported to have said, "We had a meeting the day before and decided that we do not want to continue living under these conditions.” Apparently, these people assumed that they would each be given their very own apartment, and were not pleased to learn that they had to share a kitchen with other migrants. How terribly inconvenient for them.
Sweden's upheaval of the HSO just shows that it will continue to bend over backwards to appease the needs of these so-called refugees at the expense of its own people – a truly sad state of affairs.
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