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Homelessness
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2022-03-28T08:40Covid the Great Destabilizer
My personal experience -
05/26/2020Judy Cherniak Oral History, 2020/05/26
Judy Cherniak discusses how the COVID pandemic changed life for her during the opening months of the pandemic in Toronto, Canada in 2020. She touches on family life, her job loss, the local economy, news media, fake news, isolation, mental health, homelessness, and how she filled her time at home in isolation. -
2020-03-20
The city does sleep
At the start of the pandemic, I was facing home insecurity and was living in a shelter for three months and special housing for 6 months. The city was the most empty I have ever seen it. Ive seen so many people, homeless people, because of the pandemic and it was devastating. It isolated people. -
2021-04-23Yang Not Getting LGBTQ Support for NYC Mayor
People in the LGBTQ community feel that the former Democratic Presential nominee is not out for their best interest but instead is just using them for their vote. They feel like he should push more for homelessness, housing, healthcare, and other issues important to the LGBTQ people but Mr. Yang says he loves and supports the community. He is running for New York City mayor and is the former nominee of the democratic party. -
2021-04-23Difficulty set to hard
This is based on my personal experiences. I started off 2020 by having just separated from my wife, such that we were both looking for divorce. This can lead to many difficulties even in a normal setting, but it took the normal difficulty of the things I was going through and turned it up a few notches. I started the year off without a job, car, or place to live. I was able to move in with my mom and take care of the housing situation temporarily by living in her front room. I then had to start looking for jobs. I found a job through a temp agency to get me back on my feet. Eventually, it became time for my to find a more permanent job better suited to the path forward I wanted in life. My last day of work at the temp job was right before spring break. I had planned on taking care of life things during spring break, before looking for another job shortly thereafter. There were no jobs. So many businesses closed during and after spring break, that the number of people desperate to get money for rent and necessities, took all available jobs almost instantly. I spent nearly 2 months looking for another job. Eventually I was forced to cave, simply because what should have been adequate amounts of money while looking for a job, was used up in the wait. I not only had to take another temp job, but the only ones available were jobs with a high rate of people leaving them. So I worked at one of the worst jobs I have had the displeasure of working. In that process, there was an instance of covid starting to spread through the factory. So this factory with over 1000 workers, made a mandatory covid test for it's workers, and sent us all home for a week. Anyone who's test came back positive, had their id rejected at the turnstyle when we resumed work. Unfortunately my body couldn't take the hours required for this job. And so I was forced to leave it also. And in doing so, I was no longer able to stay with my mother. So for the second time in a year, I was jobless and homeless. And this time, the root cause was covid. I went to stay with my aunt. But my grandmother and grandfather are particularly elderly and vulnerable, so everyone there was on high alert and wary about covid. So I was quarantined for an entire week to one room so that I would be able to be monitored for any symptoms. Shortly thereafter I was back on the hunt for a job that would help me progress forward in life. But yet again, even in a completely different area of Oklahoma, there weren't any jobs to be had. I was only able to push myself like that for a month before I looked for another solution. I had a friend, who would lend me his couch even on a permanent basis if needed. So I took him up on that offer. And I moved from Oklahoma to California. That drive was more or less the most impactful part of covid to me. I had seen the roads get empty on my way to/from work as people had stopped non-essential travel. But Oklahoma didn't have an enforced mask mandate. We could still go to the store, or pay for gas for our car, without being required to wear a mask. Many businesses still had indoor dining even. But in that trip, the realization of the impact of covid, hit me. It was at the only gas station for 20 miles in either direction in the mojave. I walked up to the door to go in and pay for gas. And for the first time that year, I saw a sign saying masks were required to enter. After that, every other location I stopped at was the same. There were no more places I could go without a mask. Covid, was having a real and significant impact on other things in the world than just jobs, and people's financial struggles. After having made it to California, in a particularly populated area with plenty of jobs, I was still unable to find a job for two months, simply because of how the rest of the year had gone for me. Simply by requiring a stable work history, I was no longer able to apply for most jobs. Finally I did get a job. I got one in the food industry. And the impact of covid hit hard there too. After having finished my training, and worked for about a week, the state mandate came that closed both our indoor dining. A month later, outdoor dining followed suit. We weren't allowed to take drinks back to add things we may have forgotten, and instead had to remake them entirely, because of covid safety precautions. I've had my temperature taken every single work day since I started, which was unheard of in times before covid. Twice, we've shut down the store because a partner tested positive for covid, and everyone that worked with them was placed in a mandatory two week quarantine. The impact is so strong, that the company is even providing 2 hours paid time for both doses of the vaccine, as incentive to get vaccinated. It's clear to see, covid has had an incredibly strong impact on life, and turned the difficulty level of many peoples lives up beyond manageable levels. -
2021-04COVID conditions for the homeless
This is a news story about some of the solutions to homelessness that people are trying in Phoenix. The specific solution covered was tenting for homeless people as a way to provide more protection and layers during COVID. It's especially important that this was a solution done in Phoenix considering how hot it gets here. With tents being the main way to "help the homeless" during COVID it shows a continued general disregard for homeless people and their health and safety. The article goes on to discuss broader criticisms and issues people have taken with the COVID-19 response specifically for homeless populations. I wanted to include this source because it shows a general disregard for homeless populations especially in the face of a pandemic that they are the most vulnerable population for. -
2021-04-17The Crisis in a Crisis
This news article is about how COVID and homelessness have disproportionately affected families and especially black women. These are the two groups who are most likely to be benefitting from the rent moratorium right now. And as a result, they will be the groups most in danger of losing their housing once the moratorium expires. I wanted to include this story because it provides a perspective on homelessness that goes beyond people currently experiencing homelessness. People who are taking advantage of the moratorium are essentially on the verge of homelessness because they have no way to pay back that rent. This story highlights the fragile housing market and the economic situation that COVID placed many families under and the long-term economic consequences that come from this situation. -
2021-03-01Homeless Vaccines
This is a blog post about the current struggles states are having with getting homeless populations vaccinated. The article focuses on how shelters are the most common points of contacts for homeless populations to be reached. -
2021-02-26CDC COVID Homelessness
This is an article of the CDC FAQ on homeless as it relates specifically to COVID and the unique impacts that homeless populations are facing as a result of COVID. -
2021-01-11Trying to Sell Girl Scout Cookies in a Pandemic
The one thing people seem to know about Girl Scouts is they sell cookies. What people don't know is that the profit from the cookie sales is how troops pay for their activities and service projects. My daughter has loved selling cookies since she started Girl Scouts in kindergarten. For the past three years, she has sold over 1,000 boxes a year, which is a crazy amount of cookies to sell! Of course, having a mom who has an entire high school student body to sell to, and a dad who has an entire college campus to sell to doesn't hurt. This year, both her parents are working virtually, which means her customer pool has shrunk considerably. The Girl Scouts, knowing how important cookie sales are to the girls, moved the sale online. To try and drum up sales, my daughter created an online sales pitch to send to friends and family, and post on our social media along with her personalized link to sell her cookies. We are all completely shocked that she has managed to sell over 500 boxes through this platform. I am so proud of her, and all our girls who have worked to achieve their two profit goals: first, to buy supplies and fund activities for another troop in our area that is run out of a local rescue mission and serves girls experiencing homelessness, and second, to go horseback riding. -
2020-12-09
covid vs homelessness
Unfortunately most to all homeless people do not have health care meaning if for some reason they got infected by covid, they would not be able to get tested nor treatment to due the lack of insure . Homeless people often use others peoples belongings for survival leading to many homeless people contracting the disease without the correct medical care which became fatal to their lives. -
2020-10-01Marcellus Morris, Community Organizer and Diversion Counselor
Marcellus Morris is a community organizer and diversion counselor in Hempstead, NY. Through Reign 4 Life and other initiatives, he works with at-risk youth toward -
2020-09-02Experts fear pandemic could spur dramatic spike in homelessness
PHOENIX – For more than three decades, André House just west of downtown has provided food, showers, temporary housing and other services to Arizonans experiencing homelessness or poverty. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of families seeking such services has almost doubled, said Ash Uss, the faith-based nonprofit’s coordinator of advocacy and partnerships. “We have had families who show up and say, ‘I was just evicted,’ or ‘I’m about to be evicted,’ or ‘We’re living out of our car,’” Uss said. “The need is greater than it ever was.” On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention implemented a nationwide temporary eviction moratorium through the end of the year to help stop the spread of COVID-19. Under the order, landlords cannot evict renters who meet certain conditions: “exhausted their best efforts to pay rent, seek Government rental assistance, and are likely to become homeless due to eviction,” according to a statement from the White House. However, the latest efforts may have little impact for those already struggling to secure housing. A July report from University of Arizona researchers suggests the spike in people seeking homeless services at André House and elsewhere in metro Phoenix may be just the beginning. Researchers found the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic shutdown could increase the state’s homeless population – about 11,000 as of January – by 16% to 42%. “I think everybody needs to take this very seriously,” said Claudia Powell, associate director of the university’s Southwest Institute for Research on Women and co-author of the report, which put the number of at-risk renters at 365,000. “It will be a bigger crisis than we can imagine if we don’t act soon.” -
2020-09-01‘We all need to brace ourselves’: Experts fear pandemic could spur dramatic spike in homelessness
By Jessica Myers | Luce Foundation: Southwest Stories Fellowship -
04/19/2020Don Sawyer Oral History, 2020/04/19
Don is a 57-year-old African American man. He works for a marketing research company and also makes films. He had COVID-19 at the time of the interview and discussed the symptoms he experienced. Don discusses how COVID-19 impacted his job. He talks about how Trump and the federal government handled COVID-19 and governors governed their states throughout COVID-19. He remarks on the shortage of PPE, ventilators, and the lack of COVID-19 tests. Don was unable to get a COVID-19 test unless he was hospitalized due to the shortage. -
2020-06-02A Rising War
Boredom in a war feels more like a prison than a nation. My story is just about my time during my freshman year and how it was cut short due to this virus of 2020. -
2020-03-29Miller Hall to house homeless during COVID-19 pandemic
The Suffolk Journal, Suffolk University's student run newspaper, reports on Suffolk's efforts to help the community during the pandemic -
March 28, 2020Locked down India struggles as workers flee cities
Millions of homeless people and migrant labourers have been left in the lurch after India announced a 21-day lockdown in a bid to contain the spread of coronavirus in the country. With factories and construction sites closing down, many have expressed fears that they would starve to death. -
04/01/2020Social distancing for the homeless: Las Vegas, NV vs. Lima, Peru (Meme)
Meme compassion and care for vulnerable (ie homeless populations) in Las Vegas vs. Lima Peru. Some of the discussion on the Facebook page indicates that this meme oversimplifies income inequality and CoVid19 care.