Laura Kiesel

Most times I've requested a reasonable accommodation for my disability--whether of an employer or a landlord--it has been met with immediate hostility and retaliation. They treat the term like an act of war. Why? #DisabilityRights

Snapping Turtle Found in Dead in Watertown from Rodent Poison watertownmanews.com/2025/08/29/sna… via @cbreitro

I've been fed up w/Musk's Twitter for awhile. If you're on BlueSky, follow me there instead! I am at: bsky.app/profile/lakies… I also made an account for my nonprofit, Save Massachusetts Wildlife: bsky.app/profile/savema… So long!

I'm not on here often anymore but am thrilled to share the news of my book deal w/@IslandPress, announced today on Publisher's Marketplace. Many thanks to my awesome agent @sarahkkhalil for believing in me and this project.

Today I unveiled this video my nonprofit has been working on to spread awareness about rodenticides and the harm they do: youtube.com/watch?v=YE9OgI…

This is one of the few wildlife rehabbers that works with raptors in the state! Raptor Tales Needs a Rescue Vehicle! gofund.me/bb101371

@Lost_Nickel I don't even like using the stove top when it gets this hot, and oven is completely out pretty much most of the summer.

@CitizenSnipps1 @this1wierdgirl @ahouse4all Not all help looks the same and yet you are pushing a blanket regimen that doesn't work for many (if not most) people. The "camps" you keep promoting are simply not accessible for disabled folks like me, for instance. Housing IS healthcare, including mental healthcare.

@SurvivalWriter @this1wierdgirl @ahouse4all Laura. I was raised by mentally unwell violent people, was pregnant homeless, teen runaway, lived in every nook and cranny this west coast has to offer in search of safe place for my family. I believe the state can/should provide housing for all, but not all help looks the same.

It's crazy that in all the discussions about the creep towards fascism people aren't bringing up how unhoused people are being criminalized. It is ILLEGAL for them to sit outside if they're not paying money to a landlord. Repeat that sentence and let the insanity sink in.

@CitizenSnipps1 @ahouse4all You don't want to give unhoused people actual homes because you're worried about them setting fire to them? But you want unhoused people to go to "a camp in the forest"?

@SurvivalWriter @ahouse4all We could, but the concern is … do you remember the apartments that were set on fire by an unwell person in goose hollow last year? Right. So. Since the state has refused to properly fund mental health resources the last 40 years, we are left with fewer options.

@CitizenSnipps1 @ahouse4all Or IDK, maybe we could give them actual housing/apts instead?

@ahouse4all With a free bus that goes to and from town every day? Free camping in maintained campgrounds? With mental health counseling and food pantry? Yeah..🥴 concentration camp… for ants lol

@BostonGlobe bostonglobe.com/2024/02/21/met…

@BostonGlobe I wish this article would have also covered that studies and lawsuits repeatedly show Boston area brokers illegally discriminate in their gate-keeping roles for the rental market & that these fees become a way to exclude lower income and BIPOC renters.

With the housing market facing low inventory, high prices, and a plethora of college students, rental brokers are swamped with transactions. trib.al/cSwkvPN

@quichwe10 @Logicalleft @ahouse4all Meanwhile, that "temporary band-aid" you call rent control has kept my very low income family securely housed since the early 1970s across three generations and potentially will for another half-century. Not really too temporary for us.

@SurvivalWriter @Logicalleft @ahouse4all I guess, what is your position on this? Mine is that rent control is only a short term band-aid that doesn't address the fundamental issue of not enough housing, particularly low-income housing, and therefore we need to build more, especially housing units for low income people.

That there is physically already enough housing for everyone and more, but because some people own it all and hoard it and because it's built to squeeze the most profit possible (and not for people) 600,000 people have to sleep and die on the streets.

@quichwe10 @Logicalleft @ahouse4all What is instead happening is a bunch of high end market rate housing gets built where maybe (but not always) a tiny % is deemed "affordable" and even those usually are set at AMIs often not attainable to lower income people or voucher holders. It becomes a red-lining proxy.

@quichwe10 @Logicalleft @ahouse4all I lived in so-called affordable housing and was paying 100% or more of my income to rent (had to skim my modest savings) because "affordable" is defined by an AMI of the area, and as that grows with more luxury condos put in even the definition of affordable becomes stretched.

@quichwe10 @Logicalleft @ahouse4all Of course we need to build some more low income housing, but that isn't what is happening and even lower income housing can become unaffordable if the AMI of the area ratchets up too much due to speculation and building too much luxury style condos (which is what is mostly built)

@quichwe10 @Logicalleft @ahouse4all I'm a voucher holder BTW. So I have to understand things like payment standards and AMI and real world implications of these policies on that, not supply/demand theories that have never panned out for low income folks.

@quichwe10 @Logicalleft @ahouse4all That is not how that works. The high end market housing sends a price signal throughout the whole area so landlords nearby increase rent and it hypes up speculation. I have LIVED it. Studies have shown it. Look @ this: vice.com/en/article/y3w…

@quichwe10 @Logicalleft @ahouse4all Yep, it's relevant to the discussion. And NYC rent control is why we weren't homeless and why my brother still has that roof over his head. Which maybe doesn't mean much to you. What is your income range?

@SurvivalWriter @Logicalleft @ahouse4all Are you? Lived there as a kid, before we moved out to Minnesota.