I'm gonna apologize in advance for how long this is going to be. I currently live in an area that is 99% student housing near my school (kind of a "student ghetto"). Most resident have sold their homes and moved out, since the area can be loud and isn't very well-kept. The only non-student is a man that lives across the street from us. The guy is nice enough: overly friendly, very talkative (to the point where if he says hi to you, you will for sure be locked in conversation for the better part of an hour), and he even lets me park in his drive way. He is probably in his mid to late 40s, and lives with his mom, presumably because she has some kind of illness or disability. I always assumed it was a disability because, after 3 years of living here, I have not once seen her outside of the house. A few weeks ago, during another conversation that was going on for much too long, he mentioned that sometimes if she accidentally turns on the TV she freaks out because the voices in it convince her that there are people in the house trying to kill each other, and that she freaks out if the phone rings. This led me to believe it was a mental illness and not a physical one, but it really wasn't my business so I didn't give it much thought. A few days later, he walked out of his house looking incredibly stressed out and mentioned that she had had an accident and he has spent all day cleaning up after it. Again, I didn't think much of it and just assumed incontinence and didn't ask any questions. Another thing I should mention: although the curtains are always pulled, you can still see through some glass panes by the door and between the curtains, and the mess inside the house frankly makes the unabombers cabin look like it was designed by Martha Stewart. From what my housemates and I can see, these are not exactly ideal living conditions.
So today, while doing some reading on the porch, I saw the mother for the first time. She had opened the main door, but there seemed to be a chair in the way that was keeping her from opening the screen. She was trying to move the chair, but she is a very small woman (like, 4 ft I would say) and was having a really hard time doing it. My gut instinct was that the chair had been used to keep the door closed (the man always leaves the house through the side door anyway), and she had pushed it to the side, opened the door about 45 degrees, but couldn't move it all the way..or at least enough to allow her to move to the screen door and open it. I just told myself that I was jumping to conclusions (and I may very well have been) and went inside.
Later on in the day, I was thinking about it and it just dawned on me that no matter what kind of illness she had--physical or mental--it's still not kosher to lock someone inside a house all day. I had assumed for the past few years that she was disabled and couldn't leave the house, but today she was definitely on her feet so I think that possibility is almost completely ruled out. Whatever she may be suffering from, she would probably benefit more from being in a facility where they can take care of her. I just found it so disturbing and inhumane that he did this, but again just told myself I was overreacting and nothing that weird was going on.
Anyway, earlier tonight my housemate and I were sitting on the porch, and she noticed that the door across the street was open (but not the screen door), so told her about what I saw earlier. She also agreed that it was odd. Then, coincidentally, we saw the guy walking down the street. Normally, he would stop off at our porch, talk to us for like four years, and then go to his place. But this time, he made a beeline across the street directly and he was visibly angry. I'm assuming that he noticed the door was open and that's why he reacted that way. He walks in, shuts the door behind him, and starts yelling at her (presumably, because she is the only other person that lives there). This yelling went on for a constant 20-25 minutes, and it was so loud that despite the closed door and closed windows, we could clearly hear it from across the street. We couldn't understand what he was saying because it was in another language, but from the glass part of the door you could tell that he was bending over constantly as he was doing this (as in, bending over completely, 90 degrees). It was all very bizarre, and we both obviously felt really bad for the person being yelled at. After that, he looked through the window at us a few times, but we pretended not to have noticed anything and just kept talking as usual.
Anyway, I'm not really sure what to do now. Does anyone have any experience with this, or any advice? Is this technically abuse? Am I just overreacting? Should I call someone, and if so, who? Do I even have any grounds to call someone? I would feel really guilty if I reported it and nothing was going on. I would really appreciate any opinions or advice about this and what I should do.
So today, while doing some reading on the porch, I saw the mother for the first time. She had opened the main door, but there seemed to be a chair in the way that was keeping her from opening the screen. She was trying to move the chair, but she is a very small woman (like, 4 ft I would say) and was having a really hard time doing it. My gut instinct was that the chair had been used to keep the door closed (the man always leaves the house through the side door anyway), and she had pushed it to the side, opened the door about 45 degrees, but couldn't move it all the way..or at least enough to allow her to move to the screen door and open it. I just told myself that I was jumping to conclusions (and I may very well have been) and went inside.
Later on in the day, I was thinking about it and it just dawned on me that no matter what kind of illness she had--physical or mental--it's still not kosher to lock someone inside a house all day. I had assumed for the past few years that she was disabled and couldn't leave the house, but today she was definitely on her feet so I think that possibility is almost completely ruled out. Whatever she may be suffering from, she would probably benefit more from being in a facility where they can take care of her. I just found it so disturbing and inhumane that he did this, but again just told myself I was overreacting and nothing that weird was going on.
Anyway, earlier tonight my housemate and I were sitting on the porch, and she noticed that the door across the street was open (but not the screen door), so told her about what I saw earlier. She also agreed that it was odd. Then, coincidentally, we saw the guy walking down the street. Normally, he would stop off at our porch, talk to us for like four years, and then go to his place. But this time, he made a beeline across the street directly and he was visibly angry. I'm assuming that he noticed the door was open and that's why he reacted that way. He walks in, shuts the door behind him, and starts yelling at her (presumably, because she is the only other person that lives there). This yelling went on for a constant 20-25 minutes, and it was so loud that despite the closed door and closed windows, we could clearly hear it from across the street. We couldn't understand what he was saying because it was in another language, but from the glass part of the door you could tell that he was bending over constantly as he was doing this (as in, bending over completely, 90 degrees). It was all very bizarre, and we both obviously felt really bad for the person being yelled at. After that, he looked through the window at us a few times, but we pretended not to have noticed anything and just kept talking as usual.
Anyway, I'm not really sure what to do now. Does anyone have any experience with this, or any advice? Is this technically abuse? Am I just overreacting? Should I call someone, and if so, who? Do I even have any grounds to call someone? I would feel really guilty if I reported it and nothing was going on. I would really appreciate any opinions or advice about this and what I should do.
