Claudia Plunkett doesn’t regret saving her sister’s kitten from a trip to the animal shelter, but the law of unintended consequences is already making her kindness pay.
There’s the vaccinations. The cost of spaying the kitten, who has now grown into a fertile cat. And heaven forbid it ever gets sick or injured.
“It’s like having another kid,” Plunkett said.
As a resident in Schenectady’s public housing, Plunkett’s money is tight. But when her sister moved into a private apartment where cats are not allowed, Plunkett willingly took on the burden of her 4-month-old kitten. She’s not sure how to afford the cat — but now that it has formed a bond with her 2-year-old son, she has to find a way to pay for the next 15 years of its life.
The housing authority is trying to help families like hers to save money and eventually gain independence. But many public housing residents take on pets, an additional responsibility that their financial counselors worry could push impoverished tenants over the brink with unexpected emergencies.
In New York City, the housing authority recently tightened its rules on dogs, banning any dog that weighs more than 25 pounds. (Previously, the limit was 40 pounds.) The goal is partly to reduce damages and minimize the risk of attacks on humans. But there’s also the financial risk to tenants who are least able to handle the costs.
Schenectady already limits dogs to 20 pounds and allows only one pet per apartment. The Schenectady MHA has no plans to restrict it further, Executive Director Richard Homenick said, even though financial counselors urge MHA tenants to think through such decisions carefully.
Matter of choice
In the end, Homenick can’t tell people how to live their lives.
“Is it a luxury? You could say that about their choice of a cellphone or a television. They just don’t realize when they’re making a choice that’s adverse to their financial situation,” he said. “We don’t regulate people’s choices.”
Sunmark Federal Credit Union counselors do discuss the impact of nonessential purchases in an effort to help residents save up for independence.
No one tells them to avoid all luxuries, senior business development executive Rachel Zimolka said.
“To all audiences, one of the first points I make is they need to figure out what’s important to them — what’s their priorities? For me a priority is my children’s education. To some it might be a pet,” Zimolka said.
Once priorities have been determined, she preaches the ease of saving.
“Everyone can save at least a dollar a day, if not a week,” she said. “I pick on people with coffee in their hands — rather than have coffee five days a week, why not have it three days a week?”
Savings are essential, she says, to avoiding financial disasters.
“People who are in a state of frugality, it’s always an unforeseen expense,” she said.
Plunkett sees her point. That is why, she said, she’s decided not to get a dog, despite her children’s pleas.
“They do cost money,” she said. “That’s what we’re trying to teach our kids. They have to have their shots. They have to be taken outdoors.”
But she thought a cat would be easier. Now she’s not sure how she’ll afford its annual vet visits.
Other residents at Yates Village have taken on even more expensive pets — a neighbor just a few doors down has two dogs, a violation of the housing authority’s policies. Others are feeding several cats.
Special bond
Plunkett doesn’t support that, but she argues there are intrinsic benefits from having one, small, fairly inexpensive pet.
She loves her cat — as does her son, who toddles over to the food dish with refills when it’s not even empty.
“They have a special connection. When he’s crying, she always comes to smell him,” Plunkett said. “When there was that shooting out back last summer, she heard it and ran upstairs, smelled all three boys, and then waited by the door until my husband came home. I tell her she must have been a dog in her last life.”
Other residents have decided to postpone their pet adoption plans because they’re eager to move out of public housing this year.
“We decided to get a pet, but not right away, because we might be moving soon,” said Latoya Carmon.
Her 4-year-old son is puppy crazy. Every time he sees a dog, he calls out to it. He asks for a puppy almost every day. She wants very much to give in.
“Puppies are friendly, they’re cute, especially when you have kids — they want something to play with,” she said.
But she tells him that the family can’t afford a dog yet.
“I say, we save a lot of money, we get a good pet,” she said. “We’re trying to save up.”
Categories: Schenectady County
