What government department determines if someone's living conditions are acceptable.....???

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Sourdough

"Eleutheromaniac"
HCL Supporter
Neighbor
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Mar 17, 2018
Messages
7,414
Location
In a cabin, on a mountain, in "Wilderness" Alaska.
Please don't guess, and if you feel compelled to guess please state it is a guess. I am questing to know what department, and maybe "sub-department" can decide someone's living conditions meet some regulatory standards.
 
Please don't guess, and if you feel compelled to guess please state it is a guess. I am questing to know what department, and maybe "sub-department" can decide someone's living conditions meet some regulatory standards.
Not even guessing just reporting.

My old time neighbor drank a lot. I suspect he went days on beer alone. Always inebriated. Maybe diabetic? His legs from the knee down were always bandaged and weeping. I volunteered to fix his toilet that was one floor down in the basement. They smell was gut wrenching.

He suddenly disappeared one day. Asking around it appears he quit trying to use the toilet because his legs couldn't handle the stairs. He was defecating in a pot and throwing out the window in his side yard. Someone reported him was the story.

Next I heard from his nephew was he was in care facility after gis legs were amputated. Soon after I was attending his funeral.


To your question...

As long as the government is not involved I will guess a person could live unmolested. Once a social worker is involved the Geni is out of the bottle.

Ben
 
You might want to google it to see who’s responsible for the county. Here it’s a town thing first, but I don’t think that applies to you.
Any Karen can start something against you. You might also want to find out what they can and can’t look at.
Also, you’re not NY but other states probably also have some kind of laws where guns and supplies can be seized “for safety”.
I hope you have some support, someone to help you out. Not a good situation even in the best of circumstances. Good luck.
 
I know it varies some from state to state. I also know the health department is who generally starts an investigation. I also know that county / state building officials can condemn a structure along with the heath department.
 
Please don't guess, and if you feel compelled to guess please state it is a guess. I am questing to know what department, and maybe "sub-department" can decide someone's living conditions meet some regulatory standards.
I'm not going to guess because there multiple 'correct' answers.
Even at the local level, if someone calls in a complaint, the sheriff deputies will pay you a visit for an 'inspection'.
IE: "his kids are always running around with no clothes gaah".
But you put "government" in the the thread title so that would be the DHHS (department of health and human services, known today as the HHS).
Here is their "Laws & Regulations" page:
https://www.hhs.gov/regulations/index.html
Good luck reading any of the regulations, because they are buried under mountains of liberal 'happy-spew'.:mad:
A peek:
The Regulatory Flexibility Act, 5 U.S.C. 610, directs HHS to periodically review regulations that have a significant economic impact upon a substantial number of small entities (“SEISNOSE”).
 
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It depends on who it is and to whom it is reported. If children are involved it is DFYS but the police or Troopers probably are involved in some way. The court system is probably in the mix. The government likes to gang up on you.
 
In my city Code Enforcement can make an official determination regarding a structure. Depending on the size of your local govt, you could also have Social Services and/or the Health Dept available for welfare checks.
Our Code Enforcement doesn't just walk into a residence to do a random inspection though. Lately they've been cracking down on houses that have enough exterior neglect to justify a full inspection. If you have concerns about somebody, I would talk to whatever your version of social services is. They should be able to do a welfare check that gets them in/around the home, which could lead to a forced inspection, which could lead to forced eviction if there are enough violations.
 
I do hope that this is one of your hypotheticals, Sourdough, but it can be a reminder to all of us that no matter how well prepared we are or where we locate, there can be that unexpected visit from “the authorities “ and we might hear either ‘ We need to look around’ or ‘You need to come with us’ for whatever reason.
We had a middle of the night visit. Can’t exactly call it a SWAT team, but they were prepared. Stupid teen prank level incident, but there wasn’t any corner unturned. We had nothing to hide, and were supportive. A night to remember. Being uncooperative might delay, but you know it ain’t over till they say it’s over.
 
In my area (which is rather rural) nobody's going to bother you unless there is some kind of complaint; provided there is no other person involved in the scenario. So, if you live out in the middle of the woods and you enjoy being detached from family and friends and you have several STAY OUT signs, you could probably stink up the place with your rotting corpse for years before anyone would come looking, as long as you were far enough away from neighbors to cover the stank. However, if you have regular mail deliveries, power bills, social interactions, etc.,.....then someone might have the audacity to actually call local law enforcement to do a welfare check. Sooner or later when the taxes stop getting paid, someone will eventualy find out you're dead as they try and confiscate your home or land.

As others have stated, it depends upon the situation and (I would assume) the state in which you live. If it's an individual welfare issue and family members are concerned, they can initiate court proceedings to attempt to gain power of attorney and forceably have you placed somewhere. So, it may not be a gov agency you need be be weary of, but your own family members. I've seen it happen. If it goes to court, there's some hoops you'd have to jump through in order to remain in your home b/c at that point, the family will probably have involved which ever agencies they feel can help them move forward with their agenda whether it be community mental health, the health dept., the sheriff's dept., etc. Every situation is different.
 
Yes, it varies from state to state, but it's always some branch of that Biggest Big Brother of government agencies, the Department of Health and Human Services. Sometimes they act directly, and sometimes through local health departments and local DHS offices. People can go to DHS and apply for assistance like food stamps, and that gets them into the system by their own action; otherwise they usually get involved due to someone filing a complaint. Sometimes it's someone who is truly concerned for a neighbor, other times it's just busybodies who want to impose their own ideas on someone else.
The response will often vary depending on the severity of the alleged complaint, how it was submitted, and to whom.
It can run the gamut; a SWAT team showing up, breaking down the door, and removing all firearms because someone used a red flag law and the poor schmuck can be disarmed and hauled in to be psychoanalyzed - or a civil discussion to make sure someone is ok and get them in touch with meals on wheels, or a local church that can help. And many things in between.
Back in the day I used to work at a local health department, and instead of being a despot, I saw my role as helping folks cope with government demands. We often had complaints come in, and I did my best to treat them wisely. One was a woman who drove past a small rural dwelling where the two adults living there had an outhouse. And they weren't Amish! How dare they! That must be stopped! The people were clean, the home was well kept, they both had jobs, they just simply preferred to use the outhouse. I was able to simply close the complaint. Another was upset that a family was staying in an office portion of a pole barn while building their house. I thought that was a smart way to save money. I was able to keep the government out of people's lives quite a few times; however when it came to the children playing in the pond of sewage while waiting for the school bus, yeah, that one I had to take action on.
So really it will vary tremendously not only be location and what face of the DHHS gets involved, but also the attitude and thought process of the government minion who has the complaint land on their desk.
I hope you're just wondering, and not caught up in such drama!
 
I hope you're just wondering, and not caught up in such drama!
A large part of prepping is accurately assessing my current reality, looking for weak points, and getting educated while there is time to get educated. When you get old the probability of instant negative realities grows.
 

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