The Broken Chair Syndrome

When we stepped in to help, the inspection hadn’t been done in over two months. We did it in two days.

That’s not a typo.
Two months → two days.

And while we were at it, there was another problem that was hard to miss.

The broken office chair.
It sounds trivial.
It wasn’t.

When families are waiting, landlords are waiting, and a program is falling behind, “we’ll get to it” isn’t a strategy.

And this isn't the first time I've walked into a housing program and seen the 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐧 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐫 𝐬𝐲𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐞. The questions I use on repeat:
- Is there a plan?
- Are there metrics and timelines?
- Is there urgency in action?
- Who owns the outcome?

𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐬.
𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦.

Sometimes you have to fix the system.
Sometimes you have to fix the chair.
Usually, it’s both.

Housers, let’s stop normalizing broken things.