{"id":5977,"date":"2020-09-11T19:26:47","date_gmt":"2020-09-11T19:26:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/pandemicbook\/?page_id=5977"},"modified":"2021-11-13T17:24:39","modified_gmt":"2021-11-13T17:24:39","slug":"09-11","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/pandemicbook\/09-11\/","title":{"rendered":"09-11"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Friday, September 11<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUS Cases 6.45 million
US Deaths 193,153<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Sep 10: Trump says<\/a> that his public downplaying of the dangers of COVID was a sign of him showing strength.<\/p>

Sep 11: Two senior officials at HHS, Michael Caputo and the head of SAMHSA, Dr. Elinore McCance-Katz,\u00a0criticize<\/a>\u00a0the continued coronavirus lockdowns on Caputo\u2019s podcast,\u00a0The Learning Curve<\/a>. Catastrophic fires<\/a> continue in California and Oregon. Trump-brokered peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban begin<\/a>. Fauci warns<\/a> that we will have to “hunker down” for the fall and winter. The CDC says eating at restaurants<\/a> is the most likely way to be exposed to COVID-19.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tFrom the Cutting Room Floor ...\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

A welcome letter arrives from my friend, the poet, Chrystos, who lives in Tacoma, Washington. (We’re putting these in their original, beautiful form in the “Exhibits” section of this museum.) \u201cI\u2019m calmer now because our lawyer, Elizabeth, has gone after the abusive landlords at our trailer park who are trying to evict us\u2026 \u201cWhy are you trying to evict these women?\u201d Elizabeth asked. Since homophobia, racism, and misogyny are answers, they\u2019ve gone silent.\u201d This is good news after her earlier letters described the landlords\u2019 tearing up of their yard. I still worry for her and her partner Sunny.<\/span> …<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNearly every aspect of the public response to COVID-19 simply does not work for the homeless population,\u201d writes Gavin Jones, from Philadelphia. If you think about it, everything that we have done to mitigate this virus has required that you have a home. \u201cThose without housing cannot obey a shelter-in-place order,\u201d Gavin reminds me, \u201cand maintaining social distancing in a homeless shelter is nearly impossible,\u201d He sighs. \u201cTesting also presents problems for the homeless; those without a permanent address or even cellphones lack a reliable way to receive their results.\u201d Shelter is its own basic need, but in a society where communication and distribution of resources are centered around a permanent residence, those without housing are dangerously marginalized. The state of Pennsylvania has set up a program to provide rental assistance to those who need it, but restrictions on application and other issues with the program meant that only half of the allocated funds were actually given away.[1]<\/a><\/span>
[read_more id=”1″ more=”Read more” less=”Read less”]<\/p>\n

The problem of housing in cities like Philadelphia is not just one of construction or temporary shelter, but of community autonomy and gentrification. The Philadelphia Housing Authority, a federally funded city authority that acts as a landlord to many low-income residents, owns many houses that sit vacant throughout the city. Over the years, they have sold many of these properties in bundles to developers, even as over 40,000 residents have been sitting on a waiting list for public housing since 2013.[2]<\/a> Protestors allege that this disparity is a result of an intentional pattern of gentrification, as the city allows its properties to decay, seizes the surrounding homes through eminent domain on grounds of blight, and sells them to developers who build university dorms. This is a story that is playing out all in cities all over the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

The pandemic has made the experience of homelessness even harder than it was before. Paula, a homeless woman in Savannah, Georgia, remembers how, in the first few weeks of the lockdown, \u201cit was impossible to get stuff that we need. You know, we use hand sanitizer all the time because, well, you\u2019ve got no real way to wash your hands out here. We live by the stuff\u2026 Toilet paper! We need it too. Just the panic overall really affected us because everybody was only thinking about themselves.\u201d[3]<\/a> Frank, in New York, suddenly had no access to public bathrooms, the free meals from the church nearby, and the subway, which closed from 1AM to 5AM. Tiffany, who has a job as a necessary worker cleaning medical equipment in a hospital in Milpitas, California, could not get to a shower after her shifts ended, despite handling materials that had been used on Covid patients. If housing is a human right, then we have failed.<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

Notes<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Hurubie Meko, \u201cWhy Is the Pa. Rental Assistance Program Closing with Millions of Unspent Dollars?,\u201d LancasterOnline, n.d., https:\/\/lancasteronline.com\/news\/local\/why-is-the-pa-rental-assistance-program-closing-with-millions-of-unspent-dollars\/article_e3874c96-0290-11eb-99e6-8bca8d943472.html.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Philadelphia Housing Authority, \u201cPHA Auction of Vacant Properties Yields $8.4 Million,\u201d June 25, 2019, http:\/\/www.pha.phila.gov\/pha-news\/pha-news\/2019\/auction-2019.aspx.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, \u201cCovid\u2019s Invisible Victims,\u201d https:\/\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org\/howardcenter\/covid-homeless\/audio\/index.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[\/read_more]<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tDocuments\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t