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One of my still-favorites after all these years: I was working on getting emergency housing for residents of Niagara Falls affected by the Love Canal. They needed to be moved out immediately. We were working on a housing project (Packard Court) and a man came in all upset because he had not received a voucher for hotel and restaurant use. I looked up his name and he was not there on the rent role. He got really excited and says he's been living with his wife and kids for years in the same unit, under the same roof. Nope, not there. "I wants my benefits and I wants them now!" he says while pounding on the desk! Nope.
It turns out he and she were never married, he was the father of the kids (at least he didn't run off) and he was not on the lease for the unit, therefore no relocation benefit. He worked at a local chemical plant making mountains of overtime. She was on welfare with "no" income with multiple kids all getting state allowances. They had 2 cars, etc. It was a very cozy deal that I later learned was (is) quite a common scam. And they had no money saved, nothing, living week to week. They will always be poor, even as they burn through all the cash that passes through their hands.
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