The 234 Apartment

David Engberg wheels through the third apartment he’s had in two years. PHOTO BY KARLOS RENE AYALA David Engberg and James Clark cling to their independence by a thread. Both men were born with cerebral palsy and live off Supplemental Security Income , or SSI—a stipend that puts them under the federal poverty line . So far, they’ve managed to keep a roof over their heads by splitting the cost of rent. But since the affordable housing crisis hit , the roommates have been priced out of two apartments in just two years. The stressful shuffling was witnessed by Jennifer Schmidt, their case manager at InAlliance, a nonprofit that provides employment and living services for people with disabilities. Advocates such as Schmidt are becoming increasingly alarmed by the way skyrocketing rents are affecting Sacramento County ’s 14, 000 disabled residents . Several independent surveys suggest Sacramento is experiencing some of the largest rent increases in the nation. Few feel those tectonic ma...

A Queens landlord 's quest to evict a cigarette- puffing single mom and her disabled daughter has gone up in smoke. For three years, rent- controlled tenant Lynn Blue had a case hanging over her, alleging she was a nuisance who needed to leave the Ridgewood apartment where she grew up. Blue not only smoked, but also had people constantly coming and going and left trash, according to the case filed by landlord Milena Jovic . A Queens jury sided with Jovic in 2015 and Blue said the verdict put her on a verge of a breakdown. The trial judge threw out the verdict, and the landlord appealed. But last week, three appellate judges ruled the trial judge was right to toss the jury decision. It was "like a mountain was lifted off me," Blue, 49, told the Daily News on Friday. "It felt like validation, you know. Somebody heard me." Jovic had accused Blue of smoking marijuana and cigarettes. Blue insisted she only us...

http://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/SF-Deltas-room-together-in-Nob-Hill-apartment-11729292.php By Juan Reyes Updated 11:06 am, Friday, August 4, 2017 Nana Attakora relax in Ouimette’s apartment in San Francisco . Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle" /> Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle The Deltas’ Karl Ouimette (left) and Nana Attakora relax in Ouimette’s apartment in San Francisco . It’s Wednesday afternoon and some pro soccer players are sitting around a small kitchen table , immersed in an intense card game similar to poker. San Francisco Deltas team captain Nana Attakora shuffles his cards with his thumbs, patiently waiting for his teammates to make a move. Bryan Burke throws down his hand and says he’s out of the game, followed quickly by Danny Cruz, as a song from Kanye West’s “Life of Pablo” album blares in the background. Attakora stares down Kyle Bekker, who’s taking his sweet time, but like his teammates before him, Bekker folds as well. This is jus...

Along Florida's Turnpike in South Miami -Dade, where potato farms and fields of row crops stretched all the way to the visible horizon at the time when Hurricane Andrew struck , it’s virtually all rows of close-packed houses and townhomes today. Now the unavoidable noise walls are going up to forever block vistas once among the most beguiling in South Florida. Along South Dixie Highway , where scraggly lots, small farm fields and vegetable- and fruit-packing houses once mixed it up with used-car lots and budget motels, the landscape is a cornucopia of strip malls, Publix and Wal-Mart stores and fast- food chain restaurants . And everywhere there is traffic, backed up one way in the morning, when three-quarters of all employed adults in South Miami - Dade head north to downtown Miami , Coral Gables or even Doral to work, and the other way when they drive back home in the evening. Lightning struck as thunderstorms swept through the ruins of Homestead in the days after Hurricane...

THE Queen threw open the gates of Windsor Castle to allow 500 music fans in to dance the night away to an Abba tribute band — right outside her own private royal apartments . And then when it got dark she gave permission for the hit film Mamma Mia , based on the music of Abba, to be shown on a giant screen in her Quadrangle to carry on the party. Windsor Castle Cinema Club was set up recently and has already shown Star Wars at the Castle" /> Getty - Contributor The Windsor Castle Cinema Club was set up recently and has already shown Star Wars at the Castle favourite Abba song is Dancing Queen" /> Alamy Live News It is highly rumoured that The Queen's favourite Abba song is Dancing Queen It was no surprise the Queen gave it the thumbs up after DJ Chris Evans revealed that Abba’s Dancing Queen was her favourite song and that she was a huge fan of the group. Hundreds of fans dressed in 1970s and 1980s costumes sipped champagne and boogied the night away a...