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THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

April 29, 2020 - May 05, 2020

Grocer Presses On, Inspires Next Gen

by SAM GURWITT

New Haven I ndependent

Watching his mother operate a grocery store in a pandemic, budding entreprenuer Chiekh Idrissou has learned that the best businesses fit the term “essential.”

Idrissou wouldn’t normally spend so much time helping his mother Loubabtou Harris run her Dixwell Avenue African grocery store. In normal times, he works as an assistant manager in the shoe section of Eb Lens in Milford, and he runs his own photography and videography operation on the side. He is now laid off.

And a wedding he was supposed to photograph was canceled. So, he is helping his mother run Motherland Market.

She needs the help:the store, located at 897 Dixwell Ave. in Hamden, has seen more business since the Covid-19 pandemic began. Idrissou said he thinks it’s because people are home and have less to do than they normally would. “I feel like food kind of soothes people,” he said.

Motherland Market carries imports from all over Africa that are hard to come by anywhere else. Harris, who goes by the nickname Aida, drives to New York or New Jersey multiple times a week to pick up supplies shipped from Africa. Loyal customers drive from all over the state to pick up supplies they can only find there.

Harris, who is from Togo originally, carries products from all over Africa.

Idrissou said he knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur from a young age after he saw both his mother and grandmother run their own stores. Before Motherland Market came into being, Harris’s mother ran a similar store in Lomé, Togo.

Idrissou said he’s mostly interested in

the craft of business. He doesn’t have a strong desire to go into any particular line of the profession. The pandemic, however, has changed his calculation.

“With this whole pandemic, it’s showing me that within entrepreneurship you got to really choose wisely,” he said.

“Helping anybody’s essential need is the best business.”

Now, he said, he realizes that people like his mother who run grocery stores are essential for society to work.

“We tend to neglect our essential workers every day,” he said. “We glorify whatever destroys us.”

All Stocked, Except For Bitter Kola While the pandemic has forced tens of millions of Americans out of their jobs, others have suddenly found themselves risking their lives at jobs that used to be under-appreciated but that are now deemed essential. For instance, grocery store workers in Connecticut are seeking to become designated as first responders by the state. Other states have already made those designations.

At Motherland Market, business continues, but with a little extra help. This week, both of Harris’s sons, Chiekh and Sidy Idrissou, have been there stocking shelves and checking out customers’ groceries. The shelves were fully stocked, and customers wandered in every few minutes.

The store looks mostly the same as it did before the pandemic, save for a few subtle changes. Two white hand sanitizer dispensers are now mounted by the door.

Lines of green tape are spaced six feet apart in front of the cash register to make sure customers keep their distance as

much as possible in the cramped aisle.

Harris and her sons now let no more than five customers in at a time.

They are strict about making sure every customer wears a mask. As Chiekh Idrissou stood outside the store, an unmasked customer approached. Idrissou greeted him in French, and told him he needed a mask. The customer walked back to his car and came back with a mask he had sewn himself from beige cloth.

The man, who declined to give his name, said he had to sew one himself because he couldn’t find one to buy. He is a nurse’s assistant at Yale New Haven Hospital. At work, he said, he sometimes has to reuse his N95 respirators.

Motherland Market relies entirely on imports from Africa. With workers staying home all over the world, food supply chains that would normally keep goods flowing across the Atlantic have slowed, said Idrissou.

But the store is in good shape. Harris said she has enough wares in reserve, both in Hamden and at storage units in New York, to last another five months.

And trade has not stopped; it has simply slowed. She said she is not worried that she won’t be able to continue stocking the store.

The store does not carry paper towels or toilet paper that would now leave a few shelves empty. Motherland Market has seen a run on only one good: bitter kola. Bitter kola is a nut from central and western Africa prized for its medicinal properties, including for respiratory ailments like bronchitis.

“I tell you, we sold out fast,” Idrissou said.

SAM GURWITT PHOTOS Chiekh Idrissou helping out mom at Motherland.

Day 20: I’m A Fighter, Not A Quitter shivers and the sweats, the intense headaches that would not go away not even with Tylenol.

On Sunday, April 5, I received a call from the healthcare agency where I work to inform me that the client I was caring for was hospitalized that morning and tested positive for Covid-19. This is when I knew I was exposed.

So many mixed feelings came to my head, I became angry. How could I let my guard down: I was very concerned about my family, my grandchildren, my husband whose condition is compromised. I prayed to God to overcome this beast that is destroying and killing lives, including my own. I was lost for words!

I said to myself: Covid-19 just attacked my life, my family, and my world!

Two weeks of quarantine life followed, in solitary confinement My husband be-

by WANDA GOMEZ

New Haven I ndependent

April 4 was a regular Saturday morning for me. Getting ready for my part-time job and starting my day.

As a healthcare provider in the front line, I took all precautions necessary as usual to avoid getting Covid-19, including when I arrived home.

Upon my arrival that afternoon I told my husband that I was not feeling well; I felt severe body aches and pain.

At that moment I did not think of the Covid-19. I just felt I have been doing too much around the house. I then went took my shower and went straight to bed.

As the night progressed, I felt the pains and body aches penetrating through my bones and core muscles, making it difficult to lie in a position that was comfortable. Then in a blink of an eye: the

I’m going onDay 20, still fighting the Covid-19. I’m not a quitter. I’m a warrior.

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came my nurse, my caretaker, my doctor.

As the days went by, my symptoms got worse. I could not eat. ,I could not keep any fluids down, including H2O. On April 6 I called my MD and explained my symptoms. She sent me for a Covid-19 test. It took 3 days to get the results — which came back negative.

On Wednesday, April 9, I received the call from the healthcare agency to inform me that the client passed away. A ton of bricks just fell in front of my eyes.

I knew by then I was sick and I couldn’t do anything about it.

By then I had developed new symptoms, including severe diarrhea for seven days. The diarrhea did a number on me! “Let the body takes its course,” I was told in Telehealth sessions.

On Easter Sunday my husband looked at me and said, “The hell with that.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - April 29, 2020 - May 05, 2020

NEW HAVEN SCHOLARSHIP FUND

NEW HAVEN’S GRASSROOTS COMMUNITY RADIO STATION! www.newhavenindependent.org

JOE UGLY IN THE MORNING Weekdays 6-9 a.m.

ADJUSTING TO THE NEW NORMAL

Since its inception in 1959 the New Haven Scholarship Fund has interviewed 10’s of thousands of perspective recipients in one on one, face to face interviews conducted at their high school. Interviewers have been able to assess applicants, not only on their written information but also, their comportment, maturity and depth of thinking. In 2020 this has become impossible because of the COVID virus.

This year, interviewers from the New Haven Scholarship Fund will reach out to students, by phone, or by e-mail to

continue to offer financial assistance to these motivated, hardworking, deserving soon to be graduates of New Haven Public High Schools. Normally, the New Haven Scholarship Fund has an Award Ceremony at Career high school where over 800 family members celebrate the accomplishments of our Awardees. This year we will be acknowledging their scholarship via mail.

In 1959 the founder of scholarship fund Jean Lovell, raised eight hundred dollars which she awarded to 8 or her Hillhouse high school students. This original scholarship award of $100 was enough money for each student to meet the tuition cost

for one year at Southern Connecticut State University. Times have certainly have changed. This past year the New Haven Scholarship Fund celebrated its 60th Anniversary. This year we will be awarding over $300,000 in assistance to 242 applicants and we will pass $10 million in scholarships to over 10,000 New Havens graduates.

In the spirit of its founder, Jean Lovell, the New Haven Scholarship Fund seeks to support students of “great promise who are in financial need to continue their education”. Please visit the Fund’s website at www.newhavenscholarshipfund.org to learn more.

Covid-19 Test Center Opening In Dwight

by PAUL BASS

New Haven I ndependent

A new testing site is slated to open Wednesday on a basketball court in one of New Haven’s Covid-19 “hot spots,” in the Dwight neighborhood.

That news was announced Monday afternoon during the Elicker administration’s daily Covid-19 Zoom press briefing.

The practice of Steven Murphy, a Greenwich doctor who was born in New Haven, will operate the site, which city officials had originally hoped would be located in the Stop & Shop Plaza parking lot.

Murphy, who participated in the press briefing, said the testing site at 1319 Chapel St. — on the hoops court in the park behind Amistad Middle School — will be open on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. People need to make an appointment online here in advance. (Those who lack internet service can call the health department at 203-946-4949 to reserve a spot.) Registration requires filling out several forms, including information on health insurance. Medicaid will be accepted. People without any insurance will still be able to be tested,

at no charge, according to Murphy. No car is needed for the tests, but advance registration is required.

Other highlights of Monday’s briefing: Four more New Haveners have died of Covid-19 since Saturday, bringing the total to 53. City Health Director Maritza Bond said all four were elderly. To date, the ages of New Haveners who have died have ranged from 26 to 99. The number of confirmed cases to date is 1,457.

• The city released updated charts on the breakdowns of the cases.

• The administration has been discussing how to prepare for when the city will begin to reopen, once that time arrives.

Mayor Justin Elicker said several principles have guided the emerging strategy: Reopening will happen gradually. There may be steps back as well as forward if outbreaks reoccur. The city will play a role in helping individual businesses learn about and put in safety measures like plexiglass and takeout windows. It will also help businesses with efforts to be deemed “essential” by the state. It is important for cities and towns throughout the regional to coordinate their gradual reopenings, he added.

City government will also gradually

reopen functions that have closed, as officials learn more about how to keep employees safe. For instance, the city now feels it can protect parking ticketers, who will begin issuing warnings this week and fines the next. The public works department, which has focused on refuse collection in the first weeks of the pandemic, will soon restart its street crews.

“The strategy is slowly inching into this and making sure every step of the way we’re cautious so we have public confidence and we’re keeping everybody safe,” Elicker said.

• Elicker issued a plea to officials at all level of government to de-politicize the decision-making process.

“There’s going to e a lot of pressure understandably to reopen,” he noted. “It’s also a little bit too political in my mind.

Generally more Republican-leaning individuals are pushing for faster reopening than Democrats. That concerns me. We should be deferring to epidemiologists and medical experts on the best strtagey to do this rather than on political pressures. I hope that leaders around Connecticut will have a steady hand when we make these sorts of decisions.”

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

April 29, 2020 - May 05, 2020

COVID-19 Community Fund Grants Reach Hardest Hit Populations Over $670,000 Distributed for Communities of Color, Seniors, Low-Income and High Risk Populations Close to $1.3 Million Distributed From Fund; $2.6 Million Raised in First Six Weeks

April 28, 2020 (New Haven, CT) Three weeks after distributing its first round of grants totaling $600,900, the Greater New Haven COVID-19 Community Fund has released a second round of grants totaling $677,000 to 36 organizations. The Fund is a community-wide effort to raise money for and get resources quickly to Greater New Haven’s nonprofits and the people they serve affected

by COVID-19. It launched on March 20 out of a partnership between The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and United Way of Greater New Haven.

“Our understanding of the depth of the COVID-19 crisis on our community and nonprofits expands daily,” said William W. Ginsberg, President and Chief Executive Officer at The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. “We continually evaluate how to best serve our region in this challenging time, and are deeply concerned at the further widening in health and economic disparities between communities of color and other populations in our region. In this round of grants we are reaching our community’s hardest-hit populations through agencies that have long served these neighborhoods.”

“The racial/ethnic disparities in the COVID-19 pandemic are clear,” says Dr. Marcella Nuñez-Smith, who serves on The Foundation’s Board and is a member of the COVID-19 Community Fund Grantmaking Committee. Nuñez-Smith is Associate Professor of Internal Medi-

cine, Public Health, and Management, and Director of Equity at the Research and Innovation Center & Center for Research Engagement at the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation.

Data from Connecticut’s Department of Public Health as of April 21 show the rate of COVID-19 cases in the state to be higher among African American and Latino residents (two times and oneand-one-half times higher, respectively) than White and Asian residents. African Americans are also experiencing the highest death toll, followed by Whites and then Latinos.

“Intergenerational and structural disinvestment in communities are contributing factors to the disparities we are seeing. Communities of color have limited access to high quality healthcare, are less able to social distance because they are more likely to live in densely populated neighborhoods and households. The jobs they hold are more likely to be low-wage and deemed essential, so they don’t have the ability to work from home. And, they often have greater distrust in institutional messaging,” says Nuñez-Smith.

“The COVID-19 pandemic highlights longstanding challenges across our region with regard to access and equity for communities of color. The data make it clear that a proactive strategy to address these disparities is crucial to building a more inclusive vision of recovery,” says Dr. Khalilah L. Brown-Dean, Associate Professor of Political Science at Quinnipiac University, Chair of The Com-

munity Foundation’s Board of Directors and Chair of the COVID-19 Community Fund Grantmaking Committee. “It was a deliberate action on the part of the Committee to ensure much needed resources are available to African American and Latino-serving nonprofits.”

“The inequities that exist in our community along racial and economic lines have become even more pronounced in the face of COVID-19,” said United Way of Greater New Haven President and CEO Jennifer Heath. “It is critical that we consciously work to address these issues in our COVID-19 response grantmaking, and this round of funding reflects our commitment to the hard work our partners are doing to address this.”

The staff at The Foundation and United Way are in regular contact with Greater New Haven’s nonprofits, gathering information about the region’s needs. Food pantries and soup kitchens are seeing increases in demand for food, and the food crisis has stimulated stronger coordination among a wide and diverse group of organizations. Safety of staff and populations served remains a concern.

Nonprofits with long service to vulnerable communities and trust within those communities are supporting people in new ways, ensuring that basic needs are being met.

For these initial two grant rounds, recipients of The Greater New Haven COVID-19 Community Fund were deter-

mined after staff research and outreach so as not to further burden the already overwhelmed nonprofit sector with a formal application process. Initial focus has been to get resources quickly to the nonprofit basic needs, health and social service providers in the region. Grant recipients are voted on by a volunteer committee made up of current and former Community Foundation and United Way board members. Members of the Committee are Khalilah L. Brown-Dean (bio), Andrew Eder (bio), Judith Meyers (bio), Flemming Norcott, Jr. (bio), Marcella Nuñez-Smith (bio), and Diane Young Turner (bio).

Of the $2.6 Million that has been raised since late March, $500,000 has come from The Community Foundation’s own resources and the balance from individuals, family foundations and businesses.

Nearly $1.3 Million has been granted since the Fund was launched; a complete list of Greater New Haven COVID-19 Community Fund grant recipients and ways to donate to the Fund are at www. cfgnh.org/covid19fund.

“We are grateful to the donors from across the community, with gifts large and small, who have contributed to the Greater New Haven COVID-19 Community Fund to make these early grants possible,” says Ginsberg, who reminds the community that additional financial resources will be needed to continue to address the immediate as well as long term needs that arise.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - April 29, 2020 - May 05, 2020

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

April 29, 2020 - May 05, 2020

Chicken & Rice Warms Up YNHH Shift

by EMILY HAYS

New Haven I ndependent

Efrain Nieves parked a food truck by the Yale New Haven Hospital Monday evening and prepared to dispense Spanish rice, chicken, roast pork, chicken soup and a hearty stew, sancocho for hungry hospital workers.

Nieves’ Wallingford-based Puerto Rican restaurant, Tata’s, has fared relatively well during the Covid-19 public health crisis. Nieves was thinking about ways to help others impacted by Covid when a friend ordered a large delivery for YNHH staffers.

Nieves decided to donate the food rather than accept the purchase.

“I would love to do something for the first responders, because they’re doing a great job out there,” Nieves said. “This is traditional Spanish comfort food - like from grandma’s recipes. I want it to feel like a family member’s cooking.”

Argenis Rodriguez is the nurse at YNHH who first prompted the donation.

His coworkers’ families have been cooking and donating for his department, so the healthcare workers have less to worry about at the end of their long shifts.

Rodriguez noticed that none of the food was Puerto Rican and asked his mother whether she would help him provide his comfort food.

His mother, Lysie Rodriguez, agreed.

Then learned that her son’s department meant 100 to 150 people.

“I don’t know how to cook for that many people!” Lysie Rodriguez told the Independent.

Rodriguez decided to order from Tata’s, through a mutual friend. She was surprised to learn that the order would be free and served from a food truck.

Nieves decided to bring a food truck to keep the food as hot as possible. The rain on Monday further convinced him to keep the menu warm and hearty.

“When you get the food, it’s nice and hot and ready to make you feel good,” Nieves said.

Nieves has a 45 year-long career in cooking. He went to the New York Food and Hotel Management Program and began Tata’s in 2006.

Nieves said that he worried about what would happen to his business when Covid-19 hit Connecticut. He decided to stay open for a week and figure out what to do afterwards.

“The first week was OK. The second week was better, and so on,” Nieves said.

He said that he is committed to paying all of his staff, even if that means going through his savings. He has received a federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) forgivable loan in case business begins to suffer.

Nieves has worked with the same staff

for years and wants to keep working with them after the pandemic subsides, he explained.

In an interview on Monday, Nieves repeatedly thanked God and Wallingford for their generosity. Along with patronizing his restaurant, a few New Haven area neighbors have padded their bills with dollars for the less fortunate.

“I have people that have dropped money off three or four times to feed people who don’t have it,” he said.

The pandemic has taught Nieves to treasure what he has, he said. He constantly tells his children that he loves them.

“Now I appreciate life more. We’re in quarantine and we can’t even hug the people that we love. I’m going to tell

them every day, ‘I love you. I love you. I love you,’” he said.

The YNHH donation kicks off what Nieves is planning to be a weekly event at different hospitals around Connecticut. If other hospitals agree, Nieves plans to bring the food truck to Meriden next Monday and to Hartford the week after that.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - April 29, 2020 - May 05, 2020

Covid Peak Passed; Future Uncertain

by THOMAS BREEN

New Haven I ndependent

Connecticut may now be eight days past its Covid-19 hospitalization peak — but intensive care is as stretched as before and the public needs to keep social distancing and hand hygiene as the near and distant future remains so uncertain.

Yale New Haven officials and clinicians gave that update Wednesday midday during the regional health care system’s latest coronavirus-related virtual town held, held online via the Zoom teleconferencing app and on Facebook Live.

Even if the state is past its peak, they said, the sustained severity of illness for current patients, the inevitability of more new cases throughout the summer and fall, and the likelihood that a reliable vaccine is still at least a year away are significant causes for concern.

The digital press conference was the fifth such question-and-answer session that the hospital system has conducted since the novel coronavirus outreabk made landfall in Connecticut in midMarch.

YNHH Chief Clinical Officer Thomas Balcezak said Wednesday that the state has likely hit its peak in terms of coronavirus-positive patients in hospital beds at any given point in time.

He said that Connecticut hospitals had roughly 1,970 Covid-19 patients in hospital beds throughout the state on April 21. As of Wednesday, that number is down to roughly 1,600.

“We’re seeing this curve fall a little bit,” he said.

“We had been preparing for this since the end of February. We had been modelling what the number of cases would be, and we were veyr well prepared,” he said.

“Our peak did not look anything like

what it could have looked like had there not been social distancing and other measures put in place.”

With that said, Balcezak continued, the state, its residents, and its health care providers must continue to move cautiously in the weeks, and months, ahead.

That means not immediately “opening up” the state’s economy and social life to pre-pandemic levels, and keeping in mind that the virus will continue to be a threat throughout the summer and the fall .. and really until there is a reliable vaccine.

“If we loosen those [social distancing mandates] up at this moment, we will then see our cases continue to climb,” he said.

“A vaccine, by anyone’s guess, is at least a year away,” he said. Guessing when exactly there will be an effective vaccine “is only speculation at this point.”

YNHH President and CEO Marna Borgstrom said that she visited a Covid-19 intensive care unit (ICU) in Smilow Cancer Hospital on on Monday.

“Every bed is full, and the staff are still fighting the battle,” she said.

“The way it feels on these patient care units right now is the way it felt last week and the week before,” even though the state may technically be past its hospitalization peak.

The Covid-19 patients in hospital beds are still “really, really sick right now”; staff are still stretched to near capacity providing the best care they can. She said walking through that unit reminded her why the public can’t let up on protective behaviors like wearing masks, staying home when possible, washing one’s hands frequently with soap and water, and keeping a six-foot social distance

from others when out in public.

“This has been a very challenging illness to treat.”

Borgstrom and Balcezak both said that the hospital is currently trying to model what a second round of coronavirus infections, hospitalizations, and deaths might look like this fall. “We’re trying to figure out what that number is,” Borgstrom said. “We believe that we have got to prepare for that.

“This is going to be a new normal that will include taking care of patients with this virus” even during the summer, when community spread might be relatively low because more people are outside and in less dense gatherings.

Balcezak said people often ask him when hospitals like YNHH will resume normal operations. “I think there is no ‘normal operations,’” he said. “We are entering a new world and a new phase and a new way of doing business. I think this will forever change us.”

• The regional health care system has conducted upwards of 30,000 coronavirus tests since the start of the pandemic in Connecticut in mid-March, said Borgstrom and Balcezak. Borgstrom said that a little over 8,000 of those tests have come back positive.

Balcezak said that the state needs to get to a place where it is conducting roughly 30,000 coronavirus tests a day in order to most effectively identify where the virus is in the community, who needs medical care, who needs to quarantine, and who needs to isolate.

Borgstrom said that she has been in conversations with Yale University partners about ramping up testing in the New Haven region to roughly 10,000 a day.

• Borgstrom also said there are currently over 700 coronavirus-positive inpatients

THOMAS BREEN PHOTO Social distancing sign at downtown construction site.

in beds throughout the regional health care system’s seven hospital campuses in Connecticut and Rhode Island. She said that number is down from a peak of roughly 850 last week.

YNHH Senior Vice President Vin Petrini told the Independent that Yale New Haven Hospital’s two local hospital campuses on York Street and Chapel Street currently have 424 Covid-positive inpatients, which is down by 18 from Tuesday.

One hundred five local patients are currently on ventilators. There have been a total of 136 local coronavirus-related fatalities at Yale New Haven Hospital.

The regional health care system has discharged roughly 1,500 patients who have recovered well enough to return home or to a step-down rehabilitation facility.

• Borgstrom, Balcezak, Petrini, and Lawrence + Memorial and Westerly Hospi-

tals President and CEO Patrick Green all urged residents who are experiencing symptoms associated with heart attacks and stroke to seek out treatment and not avoid the emergency department out of a fear of contracting Covid-19.

“If you have symptoms, if you need care, reach out to your providers. Our emergency departments are open. Our folks are seeing patients,” Balcezak said.

• Borgstrom also reiterated how much of a financial hit YNHH in particular and hospitals across the country more broadly are taking during this pandemic because of the postponement of elective procedures in order to make staff and beds and other resources available for Covid-19 patients.

“The losses that are being experienced in hospital-based healthcare are staggering,” she said. “Ours is no exception.”

New Haven Family Alliance Announces Merger with Veterans Empowering Teens Through Support (V.E.T.T.S.), Launching Full Slate of Services Under the New Name Urban Community Alliance New Haven Family Alliance (NHFA) and Veterans Empowering Teens Through Support (VETTS), today announced the launch of their merger under the new name Urban Community Alliance (UCA). The creation of UCA marks an unprecedented collaboration that brings together Black and Latinx led and staffed organizations, serving communities of color.

This partnership was made possible in part through support from the William Caspar Graustien Memorial Fund and The Community Foundation of Greater New Haven and with strategic guidance of the Greater New England Minority Development Council and Fio Partners.

Since 1991, New Haven Family Alliance has been committed to fostering family well-being by strengthening parents’ ability to provide healthy, nurturing envi-

ronments for their children and youth so that they succeed emotionally, socially, academically, and spiritually. Under the leadership of Barbara Tinney, the New Haven Family Alliance has worked tirelessly to support New Haven families and partner with organizations committed to doing the same. VETTS, founded by New Haven Dr. Maysa Akbar, a leader in urban trauma counseling and training, has supported more than 400 youth and young adults between the ages of 12 and 21. Since 2011, the program has worked to pair honorably discharged veterans with at-risk youth to provide effective mentoring and prepare them for productive futures.

“I don’t think I could be leaving the leadership of the New Haven Family Alliance in better hands,” said Barbara Tinney, former Executive Director of NHFA. “This strategic partnership marries two

organizations with shared values, goals, and objectives. I have been very fortunate to work with a committed and talented NHFA team that has significantly helped better the lives of thousands of our city’s most vulnerable citizens. It is with a great sense of comfort that I can step aside knowing that the principles and beliefs that have sustained and driven the work at New Haven Family Alliance will continue to expand and flourish.”

The merger, which was solidified in March, is uniquely situated to realize the organizations’ shared purposes in supporting and transforming the lives of families of color in New Haven through an array of programming and services.

UCA will integrate the VETTS program with NHFA’s three long-standing pillars of community empowerment: Intensive Family Preservation (IFP), Male Involvement Network (MIN), and Juvenile Re-

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view Board (JRB). These programs will provide services across the spectrum, including intensive in-home support to families involved in child protective services, empowering parents and fathers to be positive role models in the lives of their children, and promoting emotional wellness and prosocial development in youth.

“I’m excited to be able to broker a charitable partnership of sustainability in a time when nonprofits are struggling just to stay afloat given the state budget deficit and federal cuts to important programs designed for underserved cities and communities of color,” Dr. Akbar said. “We are committed to changing and saving lives alongside the most authentic partners. This merger offers an unparalleled opportunity to do that while empowering and supporting families in breaking intergenerational cycles of trauma and forging

promising and restorative futures.”

UCA will be led by Executive Director Shirley Ellis-West, Board Chairwoman Erica G. Bradley and Co-Chairwoman Erica Garcia-Young. The organization’s board and leadership team are completely compromised of people of color committed to supporting the New Haven community. UCA also has immense support from key community leaders, including the Graustein Memorial Fund, the Connecticut Court Support Services Division, the Department of Children and Families, the Department of Social Services, the Yale Child Study Center, and other racial justice advocates and legislators. Under the new name and with a deepened commitment to New Haven Families, UCA is poised to continue a legacy of service to children, youth, and families of color.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

April 29, 2020 - May 05, 2020

Will Small Businesses Get $$ This Time?

by THOMAS BREEN & PAUL BASS New Haven I ndependent

New Haven’s U.S. Congresswoman and the chief of the city’s community bank Tuesday promised to help small businesses get their fair share in the newest round of federal dollars intended to keep the economy afloat amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro made that promise, along with a withering assessment of how the first round of dollars ended up subsidizing large corporations and the wealthiest Americans, in a 45-minute virtual webinar and question-and-answer session hosted by the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce via the Zoom teleconferencing app.

Meanwhile, during an appearance on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program, New Haven Bank CEO Maureen Frank described how her institution is hustling to cut through the bureaucracy and sputtering technology to deliver for New Haven-based small businesses.

Their respective appearances came one day after the federal Small Business Administration (SBA) opened the spigot — then closed and reopened it due to crashed computers — on $60 billion of new Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) forgivable loans specifically earmarked for community banks like Frank’s to deliver to high-risk small enterprises. After the debacle of the first round, officials from the Elicker administration (which has organized help through this “Together New Haven” portal) to other private and public entities are vowing to get the money where it needs to go this time.

DeLauro, who has represented New Haven’s Third U.S. Congressional District for three decades, laid into the myriad problems and loopholes that beset the original $349 billion federal appropriation for the PPP that Congress passed and the president signed into law at the end of March as part of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act. She also provided an update on the $310 billion overall PPP replenishment included in the new interim coronavirus-related relief bill that Congress passed and the president signed into law at the end of last week (which includes the $60 billion earmarked to flow through community banks).

Why did Congress feel the need to pass a new small-business focused relief bill so soon after approving an initial round of support? she asked. “Because so many businesses, so many Connecticut businesses, faced unbelievable difficulties in accessing the program” the first time around.

DeLauro said the PPP program suffered from numerous “difficulties, flaws, and failures.”

Those included an initial underfunding in comparison to actual need of small businesses nationwide. The initial program provided roughly 18,500 loans worth $4.15 billion to Connecticut businesses, she said. But nationwide, the initial PPP appropriations were depleted in just 13 days, with many, many small businesses having submitted applications that have yet to be filled.

PAUL BASS PHOTO New Haven Bank CEO Maureen Frank: Filling in gaps.

She said that large, publicly-traded businesses with expert policy and finance staff were also able to access the initial relief funds much more easily than smaller businesses less well connected to lawyers, accountants, and bankers. PPP low-interest loans are available for companies with fewer than 500 employees, and can be converted into grants if recipients spend at least 75 percent of the money received on payroll.

DeLauro said that the banks charged with distributing the initial round of PPP funds prioritized existing clients, and often existing large-scale clients. NPR reported that banks nationwide earned $10 billion in fees through their distribution of the initial PPP loans.

On top of all that, DeLauro said, also buried inside of the initial CARES Act were tax breaks for real estate investors and hedge fund managers that should result in an average of $1.6 million in savings for some of the wealthiest Americans slated to benefit—which, she said, dramatically overshadows the $1,200 direct cash assistance that low- and middle-income Americans received (or are still waiting to receive) as part of that initial relief package.

“This is obscene,” DeLauro said. “This has nothing to do with the coronavirus.”

“Those flaws generated a need for a second tranche of funding,” DeLauro said. And this time around, she said, Congress made sure to include a variety of provisions and

set asides designed to encourage a more equitable distribution of small-business funds.

The new relief bill includes a total of roughly $310 billion for PPP. That money was made available on Monday (which also saw banks complaining about federal government website crashes because of the sudden influx of small business applications and interest.)

This second round of PPP funding sets aside $30 billion of that money for banks and credit unions with between $10 billion and $50 billion in assets, and another $30 billion for even smaller institutions with less than $10 billion in assets. She said that money has been earmarked for community development institutions, minority depository institutions, and microlenders to distribute in an effort to ensure that small, city-based, minority-owned businesses that may not have been able to access the initial round of funding get a fair shot at securing the low-interest loans-turned-grants.

It also includes $60 million in additional funding for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program, as well as $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion to expand coronavirus testing throughout the country.

If this new round of PPP funding runs out as quickly as the last round did, should businesses expect yet another tranche of small-business focused relief from the federal government? asked Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Garrett Sheehan.

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“Unequivocally, yes,” DeLauro replied.

“I’m hopeful that whatever the difficulties were with the system in opening this faucet, the money is now going to get out to the smallest of enterprises, the minorityowned enterprises, the women-owned businesses.”

But this money will almost certainly run out, DeLauro said, and Congress will act to provide another round of relief.

“My understanding is that if you have applied, you do not need to reapply” for PPP funds, she continued. If businesses get the “runaround” from banks that do not respond to their applications, she said, “let’s hear about it now and scream from the rooftops.” She encouraged businesses struggling to get PPP access to reach out to her office directly for help.

Sheehan reiterated concerns he has heard from local small businesses that PPP only extends through June 30. Will the federal government be providing additional relief to help businesses and workers get through the summer.

“I think that as long as we are struggling economically, you have officials that want to provide what’s needed,” DeLauro replied.

“We want to be able to provide the help that’s needed. The resources, the money.

That is our obligation.”

Sheehan said he has heard from businesses that are concerned that employees might not want to come back to work because of the $600 federal boost to weekly unemployment payments that was included in the original CARES Act. The governor’s office announced Tuesday morning that the state Labor Deployment has begun issuing the $600 supplemental stimulus payments for state unemployment benefits. Connecticut was one of the last states in the country to implement this additional unemployment relief.

“People do want to work,” DeLauro replied. “They do. I think people are going crazy being at home. I think people are very concerned about their economic situation.”

She noted that the unemployment boost only extends through the end of July.

She stressed that this second pot of money may prove to be insufficient as well, even if it has more strings attached designed to ensure that more money gets to actual small businesses.

She called on constituents to reach out to her office and let her know directly what they need from the federal government in order to keep their businesses alive and their workers employed during this crisis.

“This is not just words on a page,” she said. “Our economy is in unspeakable condition at the moment. Providing relief to small businesses and their employees is critical.”

Community Bank Steps Up New Haven Bank is working to include in this second round smaller enterprises that were too high-risk for previous loans, said CEO Maureen Frank.

“We’re doing what we’re best at,” Frank said of the community bank during an appearance Tuesday on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program.

Frank’s team at the bank was able to secure emergency loans for 15 local businesses in the SBA-system-crashing first day of this second round, she reported. The bank is working with another “55 to 60” local applicants.

The group includes barbers and deli owners who didn’t have the paperwork or other tax or quarterly payroll preparation for loans in the first round. To help them qualify, the bank is having them produce ledgers, for instance, to document payroll.

In the frantic first round of PPP lending earlier this month, the bank was able to secure $10 million in loans for 51 New Haven-based small enterprises, Frank reported. The list includes 18 nonprofits, and eight entities previously unconnected to the bank. Among the recipients were EMERGE, LEAP, Taste of China restaurant, Campus Customs, Neighborhood Housing Services, St. Martin DePorres school, and Solar Youth.

“For a bank that has $150 million in assets, that’s a lot of money,” Frank said.

“It’s a natural flow for us” as a community bank with a charge to serve local small businesses.

In some cases, the borrowers came to New Haven Bank (formerly called Start Bank) after larger banks with which they have accounts told them they couldn’t help them because of the crushing load of applications, Frank said. “We were able to get the job done for them.”

The bank’s small size — it has one branch, at Whalley and Sherman; and 21 total employees — in some ways worked to its advantage. Unlike the crew at larger banks, New Haven Bank’s six staffers assigned to the PPP loans were able to be in personal contact with customers who had questions during the frustrating, confusing application process.

“We were able to pivot very quickly,” Frank said, without having to create new systems for hundreds of employees and thousands of customers to use over several states.

A listener to the program, Rodney Williams, asked Frank how many of the borrowers are black-owned businesses. She said she didn’t have an exact number, she said, because the bank by law can’t ask customers questions about race. But she said her staff is “reaching out” to small community enterprises that traditionally get left out of this kind of financing.

“We did the best we could do” on short notice to get federal dollars flowing into New Haven’s economy, Frank said. “There’s no model for this. This is unprecedented.”

Looking ahead, Frank said the bank plans to “work compassionately” with business borrowers to weather the Covid-19-sparked downturn. That may include, for instance, extending the 10-year terms on some loans to 20 years.

Meanwhile, staffers at the bank have all managed to avoid contracting Covid-19 so far, Frank reported. They’re rotating in two shifts, working at home and working in the office, where they have plenty of room over three floors to socially distance.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - April 29, 2020 - May 05, 2020

Black-Owned Newspapers and Media Companies Are Small Businesses Too!

Financial Support is Essential to Delivery of These Essential Services

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior Correspondent

Publishers of Black-owned community newspapers, including Janis Ware of the Atlanta Voice, Cheryl Smith of Texas Metro News, Chris Bennett of the Seattle Medium, Denise Rolark Barnes of the Washington Informer, and Brenda Andrews of the New Journal & Guide in Virginia, are desperately trying to avoid shuttering operations.

On Wednesday, April 29, Rolark Barnes, Andrews, Bennett, and Ware will participate in a special livestream broadcast to discuss how their publications are enduring as the pandemic rages on.

In a heartfelt and straight-to-the-point op-ed published recently, Ware explained to her tens of thousands of readers that The Atlanta Voice has boldly covered the issues that affect the African American community.

“Our founders, Mr. J. Lowell Ware and Mr. Ed Clayton, were committed to the mission of being a voice to the voiceless with the motto of, ‘honesty, integrity and truth,’” Ware wrote in an article that underscores the urgency and importance of African American-owned newspapers during the coronavirus pandemic. Ware has established a COVID-19 news fund and aggregated the Atlanta Voice’s novel coronavirus coverage into a special landing page within its website.

To remain afloat, Ware and her fellow publishers know that financial backing and support will be necessary. Following the spread of the pandemic, many advertisers have either paused their ad spending or halted it altogether. And other streams of revenue have also dried up, forcing Black-owned publications to find ways to reduce spending and restructure what were already historically tight budgets.

With major companies like Ruth Chris Steakhouse and Pot Belly Sandwiches swooping in and hijacking stimulus money aimed at small businesses, the Black Press — and community-based publish-

ing in general — has been largely left out of the $350 billion stimulus and Paycheck Protection Program packages.

To make matters worse, there are no guarantees that a second package, specifically focused on small business, will benefit Black publishers or other businesses owned by people of color.

Publications like the New Journal and Guide, Washington Informer (which recently celebrated its 55th anniversary) and the Atlanta Voice have been essential to the communities they serve — and the world at large for 193 years.

Unfortunately for some publishers, the impact of COVID-19 has brought business operations to a near halt. While none are thriving, some publishers have developed ingenious and innovative ways to continue operations.

“Dear World, the entire planet is feeling the devastation of the coronavirus pandemic,” Cheryl Smith of Texas Metro News wrote to her readers. “We must be concerned about ourselves, as well as others. You may be aware that the media is considered ‘essential.’ So, guess what?

We have a responsibility, a moral obligation to use this status to be a source of information, support, and inspiration, just as we are at all other times,” Smith wrote.

Smith’s statements echo the more than 200 African American-owned newspapers in the NNPA family. The majority of the publications are owned and operated by women, and virtually all are family dynasties so rarely seen in the black community.

The contributions of the Black Press remain indelibly associated with the fearlessness, determination, and success of Black America.

Those contributions include the works of Frederick Douglass, WEB DuBois, Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah, and former NNPA Chairman Dr. Carlton Goodlett.

Douglas, who helped slaves escape to the North while working with the Underground Railroad, established the abolitionist paper, “The North Star,” in Rochester, New York.

He developed it into the most influential black anti-slavery newspaper published

during the Antebellum era.

The North Star denounced slavery and fought for the emancipation of women and other oppressed groups with a motto of “Right is of no Sex – Truth is of no Color; God is the Father of us all, and we are all brethren.”

DuBois, known as the father of modern Pan Africanism, demanded civil rights for Blacks but freedom for Africa and an end to capitalism, which he called the cause of racism and all human misery.

Many large news organizations have begun targeting African Americans and other audiences of color by either acquiring Black-owned news startups or adding the moniker “Black” to the end of their brand. However, it was Black-owned and operated news organizations that were on the front lines for voting rights, civil rights, ending apartheid, fair pay for all, unionization, education equity, healthcare disparities and many other issues that disproportionately negatively impact African Americans.

Today, the Black Press continues to reach across the ocean where possible to

forge coalitions with the growing number of websites and special publications that cover Africa daily from on the continent, Tennessee Tribune Publisher Rosetta Perry noted.

The evolution of the Black Press, the oldest Black business in America, had proprietors take on issues of chattel slavery in the 19th century, Jim Crow segregation and lynching, the great northern migration, the Civil Rights Movement, the transformation from the printing press to the digital age and computerized communication.

With the Plessy vs. Ferguson Supreme Court ruling that said no black man has any rights that a white man must honor, there came a flood of Black publications to advocate for Black rights and to protest the wrongs done to Blacks.

An expose in Ebony Magazine in 1965 alerted the world to a Black female engineer, Bonnie Bianchi, who was the first woman to graduate from Howard University in Electrical Engineering.

It was through the pages of the Black Press that the world learned the horrors of what happened to Emmett Till.

The Black Press continues to tackle domestic and global issues, including the novel coronavirus pandemic and its effects on all citizens – particularly African Americans.

It was through the pages of the Black Press that the world learned that COVID-19 was indeed airborne and that earlier estimates by health experts were wrong when they said the virus could last only up to 20 to 30 minutes on a surface.

Now, it’s universally recognized that the virus can last for hours on a surface and in the air.

“A few short weeks ago, life as we know it, was pretty different,” Ware told her readers. “These are unprecedented times, and we are working around the clock to provide the best possible coverage, sometimes taking risks to keep Metro Atlanta informed.”

Food Assistance Programs Critical for Low-Income Children and Families U.S. Census Bureau, www.ceusus.gov

According to the Census Bureau, of the 13.8 million households that receive SNAP, 6.7 million have children under the age of 18 and 6.4 million have someone living with a disability.

Of all the homes with children under 18, some 18% receive assistance from SNAP, according to the Census Bureau’s 2018 American Community Survey.

Students who qualify for SNAP also get free or reduced-cost school lunches.

Federal nutrition programs are among the many reasons it is so important to respond (and report all children, includ-

ing newborns, living in your home) to the 2020 Census.

Knowing how many children are in an area helps federal, state and local officials evaluate funding for nutrition programs.

SNAP and the National School Lunch Program are just two nutrition programs that use census results to inform planning. Other programs include the National School Breakfast Program (NSBP), lunch programs for people age 65 years and older and meal delivery to disabled and homebound individuals.

The Census Bureau works with state and tribal governments to ensure recipients

of SNAP don’t lose their benefits if they come to work for the 2020 Census.

They are working to get census income excluded so recipients who receive benefits can work as census takers (enumerators) without losing their benefits or eligibility status.

The Census Bureau has partnered with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (which administers SNAP) to exclude income from temporary employment for 2020 Census. While it is ultimately a state decision whether to exempt 2020 Census income earned, a great majority of states have already agreed to this waiver.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

April 29, 2020 - May 05, 2020

With Over 50,000 Dead, Civil Rights Leaders Urge African Americans to Remain at Home

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Contributor

With the coronavirus death toll passing 50,000 during the last week in April, Black leaders in the U.S. have taken to warning their communities of the danger of opening the country back up too soon.

The coronavirus has devastated the Black community in Detroit and all of the fatalities in Richmond, Va. are African Americans. Though the numbers are showing signs of slowing down Black leaders are taking no chances.

On Friday, April 24 a group of civil rights leaders encouraged African Americans to “stay-at-home” shortly after the Governor of Georgia decided to lift the state’s stay-at-home order. The CDC guidelines outline that if COVID-19 stats remain down for 14 days straight the state can re-open. Many Governors are following those guidelines.

Melanie Campbell, President of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, joined a group of Black faith and civil rights leaders and the heads of the largest historically Black religious denominations to encourage African Americans to “stay at home” until there is evidence that it’s safe to go out.

A letter authored by Rev. Al Sharpton (NAN), Rev. Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson (CNBC), Sherrilyn Ifill (NAACP, LDF), Marc Morial (NUL), Derrick

Johnson (NAACP), Melanie Campbell (BWR), Kristen Clarke (Lawyers’ Committee) encouraged people to stay at home.

“We, the undersigned, have joined together to state our unequivocal and firm opposition to the premature effort of governors to willfully re-open their states. The actions of these governors, which demonstrate reckless disregard for the health and life of Black residents, compel us to speak out and take action to protect ourselves,” the letter began.

“We encourage all Black churches and businesses to remain closed during this critical period. The denominations and independent churches represented in this statement, which comprise a combined membership of more than 25 million people and more than 30,000 congregations, intend to remain closed and to continue to worship virtually, with the same dedication and love that we brought to the church. The civil rights organizations represented are working tirelessly to protect our communities from injustice and inequality as this country responds to the pandemic,” the letter added.

Several Republican governors appear to be taking their marching orders from President Donald Trump who is anxious to re-open the country economically while not referencing the over 50,000 dead Americans from COVID-19.

Issues around environmental racism, disparities in health care coverage and

treatment and economic considerations are issues African Americans have to confront more than other communities.

The group Black Millennials for Flint are mobilizing to confront the problem of the continuous lack of clean water in the city after it was revealed that former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder made serious errors during the Flint water crisis.

“On April 25, 2014, a completely dehumanizing decision was made by former Governor Rick Snyder to switch from

the Detroit Water System to the Flint River creating one of the most lethal man-made crises in American History.

Fast forward to 2020, 6 years later, not a single individual involved in this act of genocide has been held accountable for the poisoning of an entire city,” the group wrote.

“To put this in perspective, or to ‘make it plain’ as our elders say, the kindergartners in Flint that started this 2019-20 academic school year have not lived a single year of life without the threat of

unclean drinking water. Their first year of their educational journey has now also been brought to a halt due to COVID-19,” they added. The Flint water crisis continues along with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent journalist for NNPA and the host of the podcast BURKEFILE. She is also a political strategist as Principal of Win Digital Media LLC. She may be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke

$349 billion COVID-19 Small Business Program short-changes businesses of color Federal lawsuits allege systemic lending biases that place 8.7 million jobs at risk

By Charlene Crowell, NNPA Newswire Contributor A $349 billion program created to assist America’s small businesses was launched on April 3 to provide payroll, utilities, rent and more for eligible applicants screened by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). On April 16 – less than two weeks later — this national stimulus enacted in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, ran out of funds. In separate but related legal actions, federal lawsuits were filed, challenging the lack of equitable access to the stimulus program.

On April 19, four class action lawsuits challenged banks’ use of PPP funds.

Filed separately in the U.S. District Court’s Central California office, the lawsuits are against Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, U.S. Bank and Wells

Fargo.

While this legal process unfolds, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) estimated that as many as 95% Blackowned businesses stood no chance of securing a program loan. Other communities of color were similarly likely to be shut out as well: 91% of both Latinoowned and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander-owned businesses were financially shortchanged.

At the same time, businesses of color together are responsible for employing 8.7 million people and represent 30% of all U.S. businesses. Additionally, the combined contributions that these businesses make to the national economy is a noteworthy $1.38 trillion.

Days later on April 21, an additional $310 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was approved by the U.S. Senate and is expected to be quickly passed in the U.S. House. Even so, some reactions to the new funding suggested that it was still too little and needs to better address how Black and other businesses of color can fully participate.

“This bill distributes most of the funding again to large banks that prioritized

wealthier businesses over small ones,” said Ashley Harrington, Federal Advocacy Director with the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL). “Businesses of color were locked out of round one of the SBA PPP, and this Congress proposal fails to assure that they will have fair access to the new $60 billion small business appropriation. Nor does it ensure equity and transparency by requiring data tracking on borrower demographics and loan amounts to be collected or reported.”

“While it is a good and necessary change to include set-asides for community banks to reach more businesses and rural areas, the bill fails to dedicate targeted funds for use by minority depository institutions (MDIs), and community development financial institutions (CDFIs),” added Harrington. “These are the institutions with a strong track record of serving borrowers of color. Both MDIs and CDFIs should have access to this vital small business support.”

The set-asides included in the new appropriations bill allocate monies to institutions based on bank size alone. Since over 98% of banks and credit unions

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fall into the allocation that includes CDFIs and MDIs, it is highly unlikely that these institutions will be able to access the funds – especially as the monies will have run out before these two types of institutions would be able to secure SBA approval.

The new set-asides included in the new appropriations bill allocates monies to institutions based on bank size alone. This provision places CDFIs and MDIs in direct competition with better resourced smaller institutions like community banks for loan funds.

PPP was a federal response that was supposed to supply funds through June 30 to small businesses and nonprofit organizations. It was created as part of a $2 trillion, national rescue plan authorized through the CARES Act. Instead, it is now no longer accepting applications or approving new lenders in the program.

The program’s loans were capped to no more than $10 million and came with an explicit exclusion of businesses based outside of the United States. For six months, loan payments would be suspended and under specific and verifiable conditions, the loans also could be com-

pletely forgiven.

PPP applicants were required to interact with banks and other existing SBA lenders. For communities of color, this specific condition meant beginning, not continuing or expanding financial relationships. Fees paid by the federal government to participating financial institutions were based on the size of loans approved for originating program loans.

For example, American Banker reported recently that on a $10 million loan, bank fees would be $100,000, and fees for a $350,000 loan would be $17,500.

Together, these two program requirements gave larger small businesses quicker and greater access to these loans. Instead of providing needed relief for struggling businesses, the PPP is just the latest iteration of federal funding and resources being systematically withheld from individuals and people of color.

A similar reaction to the exhaustion of funding was expressed by Orson Aguilar, director of economic policy for UnidosUS (formerly LaRaza) that champions rights for Latinos.

Con’t on page 12

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - April 29, 2020 - May 05, 2020

Congressional Black Caucus and NNPA Demand Stimulus Inclusion

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior Correspondent

Congressional Democrats reached an agreement with the Trump administration on an interim coronavirus emergency relief package that provides support and fixes to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), as well as increased funding for emergency disaster loans and grants, hospitals, health care providers and testing.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky), without consulting Democrats, had initially tried to push through a bill that would have increased funding for PPP without providing any critical fixes to the program.

The GOP proposal would have done nothing to aid the most vulnerable small businesses and wouldn’t have provided any additional funding to our health care system or testing.

Thanks to the efforts of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), Democrats have secured $60 billion in new Small Business Administration PPP funding dedicated to small lenders and community-based financial institutions.

They’ve also secured $50 billion for the SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program, which will allow approximately $300 billion in loans to small businesses.

Additionally, in large part because of

Pictured, top row, left to right: CBC Chair Karen Bass (D-CA), Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), Rep Jim Clyburn (D-SC), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), , Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), Rep. Robin Kelly (D-IL), and Rep. Dwight Evans (D-PA).

the efforts of the CBC, Democrats have secured $10 billion for the SBA’s Emergency Economic Injury Grant program, $75 billion in emergency money for our health system, and $25 billion to increase testing and contact tracing capabilities.

The Senate is expected to pass the legislation.

“While this bill does not address all current needs of the coronavirus crisis, it is a major improvement and will help millions of Americans and our frontline workers,” Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), stated on a conference call with the Black Press of America on Tuesday, April 21.

“Under the leadership of CBC Chair

Karen Bass, the CBC has been on the frontlines, and without us, there would be no one fighting for our communities,” Beatty stated, adding that the CBC recognizes that more needs to be done.

They will continue fighting for additional funding for working families and those who need it most in the next coronavirus package.

“Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) made sure that there was a carve-out in this package for small community banks and credit unions, which ensures that there’s an opportunity for them to take care of their customers,” stated Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY).

“The EIDL program will benefit many small and African American businesses as we move forward,” Meeks said.

Rep. Robin Kelly (D-IL) said the Trump administration has “proven time and again that we cannot trust them.”

Kelly said the CBC continues to work to make sure that crucial data that includes race is collected during testing and tracing of the pandemic.

“Through this bill, we do target hospitals in some of the most needed areas, and as we focus on CARES part 2, we need data to make the best policy decisions. Lives are at stake, so we need to act quickly,” Kelly stated.

Rep. Dwight Evans (D-PA) said the CBC has always understood that Blackowned and other small businesses “are the backbone of America.”

“We have constantly worked together to try and make things happen,” he stated.

“Under Karen Bass’ leadership, we all understood that the CBC was not going to leave our constituents out. It’s not possible to conduct business if people are not healthy and safe,” Evans stated.

Journalism Industry Needs Coronavirus Relief Funding Antitrust Settlements with Google and Facebook Could Recover Journalism Rescue Funds

WASHINGTON – In a small win for the journalism industry, the Seattle Times and Tampa Bay Times were each granted a loan that would ensure the publications could avoid layoffs and pay cuts for its staff. The collapse in advertising revenue during the pandemic exacerbated the already perilous financial position of news outlets, who have been decimated by Google and Facebook’s monopolistic actions. The Tampa Bay Times was even forced to cut back to two days a week of printed copies. The forgivable loans will allow these newsrooms to obtain some sense of normalcy but won’t nearly restore the damage done during this crisis.

Seattle Times Co. President Alan Fisco noted that “at least for now, we are putting on the back burner any plans for broad scale layoffs, or cuts to hours worked. There still may be some targeted reductions, but nothing to the extent of cuts we would have had to make without this support.” And while this is an essential step to help news media survive this crisis, thousands of local outlets have been unable to get

these specific loans. Despite being deemed an essential service, newsrooms again have been left out of the recent round of federal relief that doesn’t provide direct assistance for news outlets.

Unlike other industry rescue packages, there is real potential that the government could recoup all or most of the support it provides to news outlets.

Australian regulators recently forced Google to pay licensing fees to news outlets. U.S. federal and state antitrust regulators are pursuing both Google and Facebook in a major investigation.

Google and Facebook have siphoned off tens of billions in ad revenue from news publishers through their exploitation of the digital advertising market. That revenue used to sustain the journalism industry and part of any antitrust settlement can be used to repay the relief package.

John Stanton, laid-off former D.C. Bureau Chief at BuzzFeed and cofounder of the Save Journalism Project, Access to these loans is helpful to

keep these outlets afloat, but a drop in the bucket for an industry that has already been crushed by Google and Facebook, and now the coronavirus.

More than 33,000 reporters and staff at news outlets have been forced out of their jobs or subjected to pay cuts during this crisis. What we need is a specific funding pool for news outlets to ensure that the money goes directly to the local outlets that need it, rather than the private equity vultures who are preying on the industry. News publishers have already been bled dry by big tech. What they need now is the government to help them survive this crisis or else the local news business may be completely wiped out.

Journalism in America is facing an existential threat from the monopolistic control of tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Apple. Big tech’s dominance over the digital advertising market and their unrivaled capacity to monetize its platforms are having drastic effects on journalism as a whole.

11

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

April 29, 2020 - May 05, 2020

“Telemedicine Can’t Weigh The Baby”

by LISA REISMAN

New Haven I ndependent

Marlena Santos brought her newborn son to a 40-foot converted school bus occupying two spaces in the ShermanTyler Parking Lot near Ella T. Grasso Blvd. There, an advanced practice registered nurse weighed and measured him, checked his heart rate, and listened to his lungs.

“There’s only so much doctors can do looking at babies through MyChart video, and it doesn’t feel safe going to the hospital right now, so this was something nice,” Santos said during the inperson visit Monday evening.

The converted school bus is a mobile medical clinic known as the Community Health Care Van. Created by Dr. Rick Altice, an infectious disease specialist and professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine, the van has been traveling directly to New Haven’s poorest neighborhoods since 1993, offering free care and community outreach to people impacted by HIV/AIDS, substance use disorders, homelessness, and mental illness.

Now, in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, the van has a repurposed mission: In addition to its overall objective of using community outreach to distribute facial coverings and educational materials, it is providing crucial postpartum visits for mothers and their infants, according to Altice.

It’s the first such mobile clinic in the state focused on the care of mothers and newborns.

Altice said that Leslie Sude, a Yale pediatrician, contacted him in the third week of March.

“She’d been working tirelessly to figure out how mothers and babies could safely get medical care while practicing physical distancing in the postpartum time period,” he said.

The issue of delivering maternal-infant care amid a pandemic had been weighing on Sude’s mind from the time the virus bore down on New Haven.

“A third of our patients rely on public transportation or ride sharing services to bring them back and forth, and I was concerned what that might look like in terms of trying to prevent continued viral contact exposures and viral transmission throughout the community,” Altice said.

Soon she and her colleagues, she said, “were hearing from some patients that they were anxious about coming to the hospital and were willing to forgo or skip these clinic visits out of their concerns for Covid.”

Telemedicine was available, but “telemedicine can’t weigh the baby,” Sude said. “These early visits are important because we sometimes see issues post-

The crew of the Community Health Care Van, repurposed for post-partum visits during Covid-19 in the Sherman-Tyler lot.

natally with weight gain or poor weight gain or jaundice that need to be identified early to prevent complications.”

For mothers, “blood pressure checks might show hypertension as a complication of pregnancy which can have adverse effects on long-term cardiovascular health and mood screens can detect postpartum depression,” she said.

At the same time, Marietta Vazquez, a pediatrician and infectious disease specialist who also runs the Yale Clinic for Hispanic Children, was having the same concerns.

“We needed to think about contagion, about transportation, and about the reality which is that many of these mothers were very scared to leave their homes,” she said.

Together with Sude, she convened a virtual meeting that included, she said, “the well-newborn nursery, OB-GYN, leadership in the primary care center, our core team in pediatrics, and” the Visiting Nurse Association (VNA).

Home visits by visiting nurses agencies seemed a possible course, but some nurses were being barred access to their patients’ homes due to concerns about coronavirus, they learned.

Then someone from the VNA suggested a mobile clinic.

“They said if we could have a van that would provide a neutral, easily sanitized, and safe place outside the home, perhaps we would be more effective,” Sude said.

Enter Altice. With the services provided by his Community Health Care Van sidelined as a result of the pandemic, he’d already been approached by colleagues at Yale Medical School’s Department of Internal Medicine to spearhead a community outreach program to give out masks and sanitizer as well as educational materials on the disease.

A zip code analysis showed Covid-19 hot spots in New Haven overlapping with the neighborhoods of the mothers facing challenges getting back to the clinic. The Department of Internal Medicine and the Yale New Haven Hospital Fund were amenable to combining the community outreach with the motherinfant care.

“It seemed to be the perfect storm to make things work,” Altice said.

He previously had a van equipped with examination and counseling rooms, and engineered to communicate with YNHH’s medical record system, Epic, and a “very experienced, bilingual, bicultural staff,” as Altice put it.

The staff includes Sharon Joslin and three community outreach workers: Angel Ojeda, also a phlebotomist and certified nutritionist; Rolo Lopez, an outreach case manager; and Rolo Lopez, Jr., a licensed commercial driver.

Migdalia Williams, who does scheduling and community harm reduction, works off-site.

“People know us as a trusted place to get services,” Altice said. “We don’t require insurance and don’t report people if they’re undocumented, we just take care of them.”

Still, there were administrative and bureaucratic snafus about billing and insurance. There was no financial support from either Yale University or the City of New Haven. Funding ultimately came from the YNHH Physician Fund and the March of Dimes, and would only be enough to maintain services for a month.

Altice wasn’t about to wait. “This is an epidemic,” he said. “That’s why we’re doing this without sustained funding.

It’s absolutely critical to get out there and get people services.”

While his hope, he said, “is to keep

12

this going, for now I just wanted enough money to get us through the epidemic hump and if we get started maybe people will become invigorated and maybe even expand it further as the community needs grow.”

The protocols, reviewed by an infection prevention specialist, are strict.

Visits are by appointment only and are limited to collecting physical data to coordinate with telehealth visits, as well as assessing breastfeeding and formulafeeding practices, and other issues that need attention, according to Sude.

The driver is separated from the main exam areas, with providers wearing PPE, and cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting procedures performed in between each visit. A “bouncer” stationed outside the van ensures passersby maintain safe distancing.

“By shining a light on all of our vulnerabilities, Covid is showing that we need to be much more open to rethinking traditional models of health care services,” said Vazquez.

As with mobile clinics affiliated with Boston Medical Center and Dell Children’s Hospital in Austin, Texas, that bring care to underserved communities, “this program flips around the traditional model of the patient going to where the health care is,” she said.

“It’s showing us how we can overcome traditional medical care barriers and decrease inequities in access to health care by bridging the gap to link patients to medical services in their own communities.”

The set-up seemed to work well for Marlena Santos and her infant son on Monday.

“I felt very safe there,” she said. “It was nice to have something like the van for first-time parents at a time like this.”

Con’t from page 10

8.7 million jobs at risk

“We know that many companies did not benefit because they do not have banking relationships and that is a requirement,” said Aguilar.

Through the assistance of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, 111 organizations across the country, including CRL, jointly told Congress their collective concerns over the exclusion of relief to communities of color in the federal pandemic response.

“Communities that have already been marginalized by structural barriers to equal opportunities and who have low levels of wealth are particularly vulnerable during this current emergency,” wrote the civil rights advocates in an April 16 letter. “While many working people have been sidelined, many others are still providing essential services during the crisis – working at our grocery stores, delivering mail and packages, and providing care to vulnerable people – putting their lives at risk, often at reduced hours and wages, to keep our country running.”

“The ongoing crisis has laid bare the structural racism and barriers to opportunity that are entrenched in our society, and our collective actions now must not worsen them,” concluded the coalition.

CRL identified specific ways in which the COVID-19 federal response can become more inclusive. Its PPP recommendations include: • Dedicate 20% of all new funding to businesses of color; • At least $25 billion in funding for MDIs and CDFIs; • Provide an alternative PPP loan of up to a $100,000 that can be forgiven and better fits the needs of very small businesses; • Adjust program rules to serve more small businesses and ensure equity and transparency by requiring all lenders to provide both borrower demographics and loan amounts; • Expand outreach and enrollment assistant through community development corporations and community-based organizations.

“The Great Recession drained communities of color of a trillion dollars of wealth that they have yet to recover,” concluded Mike Calhoun, CRL President. “They should not be excluded from one of the largest COVID-19 relief programs. We cannot allow that to happen again.”

Charlene Crowell is a Senior Fellow with the Center for Responsible Lending. She can be reached at charlene. crowell@responsiblelending.org.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - April 29, 2020 - May 05, 2020 INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Inc seeks:

NOTICE

NEEDED

Phone: 243-2300 HOME INC, on behalf of860Columbus House and the New Haven Housing Authority, Email: tom.dunay@garrityasphalt.com is accepting pre-applications for studio and one-bedroom apartments at this develWomen Minority Applicants are New encouraged to apply income limitations apopment & located at 108 Frank Street, Haven. Maximum rmative Action/ Opportunity Employer ply.Affi Pre-applications willEqual be available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday Ju;y 25, 2016 and ending when sufficient pre-applications (approximately 100) have been received at the offices of HOME INC. Applications will be mailied upon request by calling HOME Reclaiming, INC at 203-562-4663 during those hours. Completed preGarrity Asphalt Inc seeks: applications must be returned to HOME INC’s offices at 171 Orange Street, Third Reclaimer Operators and Milling Operators with current licensing Haven, CTbe06510. andFloor, cleanNew driving record, willing to travel throughout the North-

Part Time Delivery Needed

One/Two Day a Week,

east & NY. We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits

NOTICIA

Contact: Rick Tousignant Phone: 860- 243-2300

Email: rick.tousignant@garrityasphalt.com VALENTINA MACRI VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDES DISPONIBLES Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/deEqual Opportunity Employer HOME INC, en nombre la Columbus House y de la New Haven Housing Authority, está

Must Have your Own Vehicle

If Interested call

aceptando pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de un dormitorio en este desarrollo ubicado en la calle 109 Frank Street, New Haven. Se aplican limitaciones de ingresos máximos. Las pre-solicitudes estarán disponibles 09 a.m.-5 p.m. comenzando Martes 25 Tractor Trailer Driver for Heavy & Highway Construction Equipjulio,Must 2016have hastaacuando se han recibido suficientes pre-solicitudes ment.

CDL License, clean driving record, capable of(aproximadamente 100) en las oficinas HOME INC. Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadas operating heavydeequipment; be willing to travel throughout the por correo a petición llamando&a NY. HOME 203-562-4663 horas.Pre-solicitudes deberán remitirse Northeast We INC offeralexcellent hourlydurante rate &esas excellent benefits a las oficinas de HOME INC en 171 Orange Street, tercer piso, New Haven , CT 06510 .

Union Company seeks:

Contact Dana at 860-243-2300

Email: dana.briere@garrityasphalt.com Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

HELP WANTED:

NEW HAVEN

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES

DELIVERY PERSON

Construction Equipment Mechanic preferably experienced in Reclaiming and Road Milling Equipment. We offer factory training on equipment we operate. Location: Bloomfield CT We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits VALENTINA MACRI RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE Contact: Tom Dunay

(203) 387-0354

Town of Bloomfield

Vehicle Mechanic Technician/Fleet Services (Non-CDL)

Large CT guardrail company looking for Laborer/Driver with valid CT CDL Class A license and able to get a medical card. Must be able to pass a drug test and physical.

Compensation based on experience. Email resume to dmastracchio@atlasoutdoor.com AA/EOE M-F

242-258 Fairmont Ave 2BR Townhouse, 1.5 BA, 3BR, 1 level , 1BA

Request for Proposals Hearing Officer Services The Housing Authority of the City of New Haven d/b/a Elm City Communities is currently seeking Proposals for Hearing Officer Services. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https:// newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on Wednesday, April 29, 2020 at 3:00PM.

Dispatcher

Galasso Materials is seeking a motivated, organized, detail-oriented candidate to join its truck dispatch office. Responsibilities include order entry and truck ticketing in a fast paced materials manufacturing and contracting company. Must be available to work nights and/or days. We are willing to train the right individual that has a great attitude. NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE. Reply to Hiring Manager, PO Box 1776, East Granby, CT 06026. Galasso Materials is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employmentwithout attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.

Centrally Located Construction Company in Connecticut has positions

available for experienced project managers, laborers and truck drivers.

This company is an Affirmative Action / Equal Opportunity Employer M/F. Females and Minorities are encouraged to apply.

Please fax resume to ATTN: Mike to 860-669-7004.

Centrally Located Construction Company in Connecticut has a position available for experienced Full-Time Office assistant / Bookkeeper. Job Support A/P, A/R Payroll. QuickBooks experience required, MS Office, Internet / Emails. Salary depending on experience.

This company is an Affirmative Action / Equal Opportunity Employer M/F. Females and Minorities are encouraged to apply.

Please fax resume to ATTN: Mike to 860-669-7004.

$29.59/hourly (non-CDL) Invitation to Bid: 2nd Notice $30.49/hourly (CDL) Tri-Axle Dump Truck driver needed with min. 2 years’ experience. Reliable, Pre-employment drug testing. AA/EOE. SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE honest, and respectful a must. Class B, valid medical card, Osha 10 card, clean driv-

For Details go to www.bloomfieldct.gov All new apartments, new appliances, new carpet, close to I-91 & I-95 highways, near bus stop & shopping center

ing record, Old Saybrook, CT pass a drug screening, and have reliable transportation to and from work.

The job is full time, Monday thru Friday (some OT and night shifts), hourly pay. A (4 Buildings, Best 17 Units) Buy Premium Fuel & Trucking LLC is a New Haven based company and an Tax Exempt & Not PrevailingEqual WageOpportunity Rate ProjectEmployer. Email resumes to nancytomassini@yahoo.com

Pet under 40lb allowed. Interested parties contact Maria @ 860-985-8258

New Construction, Wood Framed, Housing,CITY Selective Demolition,Seeking Site-work, CastOF MILFORD qualifi ed condidates to fill numerous vacancies to include, Director ofSiding, Operations Milford Landing Marina, Recreation Director, and more. in-place Concrete, Asphalt Shingles, Vinyl Invitation to Bid: information and detailed application instructions, visit WWW.ci.milford.ct.us Flooring, Painting, Division 10 Specialties,For Appliances, Residential Casework, Bayonet Street Apartments Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Protection.

St. New Haven, CT 433 Bayonet Street This contract is subject to state set-aside and contract compliance requirements.

State of Connecticut New London, CT Office of Policy and Management (2 Buildings, 64 Units) Bid Extended, Due Date: August 5, 2016 Project documents include but not limited to: Demolition, site-work, paving, concrete, landscaping, gypsum underlayment, Anticipatedmisc Start: AugustThe 15,State 2016of Connecticut, Office of Policy and Management is recruiting for Sealedrough bids&are invited by thewood Housing Authority ofmetal the Town of Seymour metals, finish carpentry, trusses, insulation, roof panels, gutters & downspouts, vinyl siding, EPDM, doors,available viaanftpInformation Project documents link below: Technology Technician, a Leadership Associate, and a Fiscal and Program Policy Section Director position. until 3:00 pm on Tuesday, August 2016 atglazing, its office at 28 bearing Smith Street, frames and hardware, storefronts, vinyl 2, windows, non-load steel framing, drywall, flooring, painting, louvers, http://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage signage, postal specialties, toilet & bath accessories, knox box, residential appliances, casework & countertops, window blinds, Seymour, CT 06483 for Concrete Sidewalk Repairs and Replacement at the Further information regarding the duties, eligibility requirements and elevator, HVAC, fire protection application instructions for these positions are available at: Smithfield Gardens Assisted Living Facility, 26plumbing, Smith Street Seymour.and electrical.. Fax or Email Questions & Bids to: Dawn Lang @ 203-881-8372 dawnlang@haynesconstruction.com CT. Unified Deacon’s Association is pleased to offer a Deacon’s Certificate Program. This is a 10 month program designed to assist in the intellectual formation of Candidates in response to the Church’s Ministry needs. The cost is $125. Classes start Saturday, August 20, 2016 1:303:30 Contact: Chairman, Deacon Joe J. Davis, M.S., B.S. (203) 996-4517 Host, General Bishop Elijah Davis, D.D. Pastor of Pitts Chapel U.F.W.B. Church 64 Brewster

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY

Bid Due Date: May 12, 2020 @ 5pm

HCC encourages the participation of all Veteran, S/W/MBE & Section 3 Certified Businesses https://www.jobapscloud.com/CT/sup/bulpreview.asp

or Email Questions & Bids to: Estimating @ 203-881-8372 estimating@haynesct.com Haynes Construction Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, CT 06483 ?R1=200420&R2=7602FD&R3=001 A pre-bidFax conference will be held atProject the Housing Authority Office 28 Smith is Tax Exempt. No Wage Rates.

Street Seymour, CT at 10:00 am, on Wednesday, July 20, 2016.

AA/EEO EMPLOYER

Link to access plans and specifications: http://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=bayonetstapartments available from the Seymour Housing Authority Of-

https://www.jobapscloud.com/CT/sup/bulpreview.asp ?R1=200422&R2=1585MP&R3=001

Bidding documents are fice, 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 (203) 888-4579.

This contract is subject to state set-aside and contract compliance requirements.

The State of Connecticut is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and strongly encourages the applications of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities.

HCC encourages the participation of all Veteran, S/W/MBE & Section 3 Certified Businesses Construction Company, 32 Progress Seymour, The Housing Authority reservesHaynes the right to accept or reject any orAve, all bids, to CT 06483 AA/EEO EMPLOYER

reduce the scope of the project to reflect available funding, and to waive any informalities in the bidding, if such actions are in the best interest of the Housing Authority.

https://www.jobapscloud.com/CT/sup/bulpreview.asp ?R1=200422&R2=5989VR&R3=001

13

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

April 29, 2020 - May 05, 2020

CDC’s Prescription: Individual Housing for People Experiencing

Homelessness During COVID-19 and Beyond

Washington, DC –The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated their official guidance on COVID-19 to include sheltered homeless populations, stating, “Depending on resources and staff availability, non-group housing options (such as hotels/motels) that have individual rooms should be considered for the overflow, quarantine, and protective housing sites.” The CDC’s guidance for unsheltered populations already emphasizes that “Unless individual housing units are available, do not clear encampments during community spread of COVID-19.” The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (the Law Center) is grateful for the CDC’s guidance, and hopes governments will use it as a baseline to build upon.

This new guidance comes as new stories of widespread asymptomatic spread at congregate homeless shelters in San Francisco, Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles and other cities are emerging. The Law Center has pushed the effort to house people experiencing homelessness in hotels, motels, and/or RVs for the duration of the crisis, and to make sure they never have to return to the streets after the crisis is over.

“We call on hotel owners—and especially those who have been helped with our public dollars through the federal relief package—to act in the public good and make it easy for communities to follow the CDC guidance to quickly place people experiencing homelessness into

their vacant rooms for the duration of the pandemic,” stated Maria Foscarinis, Executive Director at the Law Center.

“We also urge elected officials to use vacant federal, state, and local properties for emergency housing and as a space to help transition people experiencing homelessness into permanent housing after COVID-19.”

The CDC also emphasizes that communities should “plan for how to connect clients to housing opportunities after they have completed their stay in these temporary sites.” Elevating conversations on housing services post-COVID-19 allows us to step back and think

about the long-term solutions we need to end homelessness.

“Given what we now know about the aerosolization of COVID-19 and asymptomatic spread, it is inexcusable for communities not to be moving people into individual housing units as quickly as safely possible,” said Eric Tars, legal director at the Law Center. “And to prevent the next wave of COVID-19, we need to make sure we are building the capacity so that once people are off the streets or out of shelters, there are permanent places for them to stay, and no one ever returns to the streets. Housing is healthcare, and both are human rights that need to be guaranteed to all, for all of our good.”

The CDC Guidance is available here: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019ncov/community/homeless-shelters/ plan-prepare-respond.html The Law Center’s recommendations and other best practices from across the country are available here: https://nlchp. org/coronavirus/.

The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (the Law Center) is the only national organization dedicated solely to using the power of the law to prevent and end homelessness. With the support of a large network of pro bono lawyers, we address the immediate and long-term needs of people who are homeless or at risk through outreach and training, advocacy, impact litigation, and public education.

14

COPING WITH COVID-19 IN MONTH 2 Brain Health Expert Shares Why Evolving Mental & Physical Health Strategies is Crucial for Sustainability

by Aneesh Chaudhry, brain health expert It’s been nearly one month since the firstshelter-in place order was announced and today, 80% of Americans have hunkered down, quarantining themselves to their homes. We have learned to adapt to isolation in many ways. We’ve upped our hygiene game, we wear face masks, and we’ve become pros at Zoom video chat.

But now that we are in the second month of isolation, we find ourselves encountering new issues. Last week the death toll was higher than ever and as the grim news continues, it’s easy to lose motivation, letting grief, frustration, and boredom turn our vigilance into complacency.

According to Brain Health Expert Aneesh Chaudhry, in order to continue these practices long term, our coping strategies must be ever-evolving.

“What motivated us to maintain mental and physical health in the first few weeks, may not be the same thing that works now and that’s okay. The important part is that people recognize that and adjust their strategies...” ...says Chaudhry, who has devoted his career to researching physiology and the brain-body connection. As the death toll rises, many people find themselves losing steam and motivation. Death is never an easy thing to cope with especially now

that we must grieve in isolation. According to Chaudhry, the only way to process this trauma is to move through it, working to change the brain in a positive way to deal with it.

“The emotional toll of COVID-19 is even more threatening as time goes on. Thankfully, the brain is a resilient and malleable structure that can rebuild itself through neuroplasticity...” ...says Chaudhry. As the founder of SoulPhysio Lifestyle, a brain health clinic and integrative healthcare network, Chaudhry, along with a team of physicians, psychologists, and other health care professionals, work to improve mental and physical wellness through lifestyle modification that addresses the mind, body, and spirit.

We have been given loads of advice for maintaining physical and mental health in quarantine; (from understanding proper hygiene practices, cooking and eating nutritious foods, staying active by taking walks, dancing, doing yoga, or exercise videos, to mindfulness activities like journaling and meditating, establishing daily routines, and limiting 24/7 news intake.

We also know that “staying connected” and maintaining relationships is key to avoiding emotional isolation.) According to Chaudhry, this advice is still relevant, but over time we must pivot because having purpose and direction is key.

Aneesh Chaudhry is sharing why evolving mental and physical health strategies is crucial for sustainability in month 2. He has brain-based tips and actionable advice people can use to cope with grief while in isolation and improve mental and physical health during the pandemic.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - April 29, 2020 - May 05, 2020

SOCIAL DISTANCING As a public facility, this establishment is actively encouraging Social Distancing 6 Feet

To support public health, please maintain a minimum distance of 6 feet from others during your visit.

For more information and the latest updates about COVID-19 in Connecticut, please visit: Portal.CT.Gov/Coronavirus If you have any questions regarding the Novel Coronavirus, you can call: 833-ASK-YNHH (833-275-9644) 15

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

April 29, 2020 - May 05, 2020

When staying home is important, staying connected matters.

Whether you need to check in on family, video-chat with coworkers or just take a minute to relax with your favorite shows and movies, Xfinity has you covered with fast, reliable Internet. We’re now offering contactless service visits and equipment drop off to have you up and running quickly and safely. Plus, our simple digital tools will help you manage your account online from the comfort of your home.

Get started with Xfinity Internet

$39 99

a month/ 12 mos.

Enjoy the best in-home WiFi experience

No-contact equipment delivery available

Equipment, taxes and other charges extra, and subj. to change.

See details below.

Go to xfinity.com to learn more.

Offer ends 6/15/20. Restrictions apply. Not available in all areas. Limited to Performance Pro Internet 100 Mbps Internet service for new customers. Equipment, taxes and other charges extra, and subject to change. After promo, regular rates apply. Actual speeds vary and not guaranteed. For factors affecting speed visit www.xfinity.com/networkmanagement. All devices must be returned when service ends. Call for restrictions and complete details. Š2020 Comcast.

All rights reserved. NPA231210-0001 NED AA Q2 CVDPP V10

137107_231210_0001 W COVID ad 9.25x10.5 New Haven Inner City V10.indd 1

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