Take the coronavirus seriously

Duncan and his own advice

We are not surprised that Damon E. Duncan, chief executive officer of the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority, decided to pack it in and resign after less than a year on the job. His sudden resignation, announced in a press release issued during the evening of Friday, March 20, gives further weight to the claims of housing advocates who for months have questioned the commitment of Mr. Duncan to RRHA and the more than 10,000 people it serves.

The biggest public outcry was last fall when RRHA started the eviction process against 52 residents of Creighton Court in one day in October. Some of the residents were in arrears in their rent by less than $100.

Advocates claimed the evictions were part of Mr. Duncan’s strategy to oust residents to clear the way for a planned multimillion-dollar redevelopment of Creighton Court. They also claimed at the time that he and the agency had left more than 90 apartments vacant in Creighton Court while the waiting list of families seeking housing exceeded 2,000.

The public spotlight and backlash over the harsh treatment resulted in a moratorium on evictions that is to last until May 1, and perhaps longer now that the coronavirus pandemic is threatening the life, health and jobs of people around the globe. RRHA also is offering repayment agreements to tenants who owe money.

Mr. Duncan took the reins nearly a year after former RRHA head T.K. Somanath resigned in January 2018 when dozens of residents in several public housing communities were without heat as temperatures plunged below freezing. Old and decrepit furnaces suffering from a lack of maintenance were broken down, forcing residents to use their ovens and space heaters to heat their apartments. The shameful heating crisis showed how little RRHA and its officials cared about residents.

Now, more than ever, Richmond City Council must act prudently and thoughtfully in appointing RRHA’s Board of Commissioners. The nine-member board – with six of the positions up for appointment – will choose Mr. Duncan’s replacement.

Already, RRHA has undergone six leadership changes in less than a decade. RRHA – and its residents – need a committed chief executive officer who will put the residents’ needs first.

Richmond’s public housing authority is the largest in the state. It has a $78.6 million annual operating budget and manages about 3,800 units of low-cost housing for the city’s low- and moderateincome residents in six public housing communities and roughly 13 scattered sites throughout the city. RRHA also provides housing vouchers for more than 3,200 families who use the subsidies to find housing in the private market.

If the goal of RRHA is to help people, then it must find a leader who is committed to helping those with some of the greatest needs in the city.

In July, Mr. Duncan posted this on his Twitter account:

“Be intentional about the delivery and administration of public service because the people deserve better.”

Too bad he didn’t heed his own advice. Damon E. Duncan

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press Can we handle the truth about coronavirus?

Don’t you already know everything you need to know about coronavirus? What else is there for you to know that you haven’t already heard, you ask?

Every media outlet we turn on and everything we read in the papers inundates us with information about this rapidly evolving coronavirus crisis. On top of that, our “friends” are showing how smart they are by rushing to post every single natural/miracle cure, conspiracy theory and prediction on the end of the human race.

Even people I have known for years have all of a sudden become epidemiologists, medical doctors, scientists and researchers.

Regrettably, we have been done a disservice by both the media, as well as our wellintentioned friends. In spite of the best intentions, these new “experts” promote beliefs and folk remedies that could result in dangers equally as bad as coronavirus infection.

During this unprecedented disruption brought to all of our lives, some people are expressing concern that information was held back from them. Folks were upset because they wanted to hear the truth, or so they thought. Instead of continuing to pass on the mounds of gross misinformation and fear-driven behaviors,

Glenn Ellis

we should all be interested only in the truth.

Well, I’m not so sure we can handle the truth.

Let me share a few “truths”that not only have many of us heard about, but many things are specific to poor people and AfricanAmericans in this country. Call your doctor: For millions of black, brown and poor people in this country, that is not an option. As of 2019, roughly 27.5 million people didn’t have health insurance at any point last year, according to figures from theCensus Bureau. In addition, an analysis from theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention and theKaiser Foundation found that 31 percent of African-Americans and 47 percent of Hispanics don’t have a personal doctor. This “truth” shows that a whole lot of people are left out when the CDC and other officials tell folks who are already hunkered down that if they think they have symptoms, “don’t go to the hospital; call your doctor first.”

Stay in place:This guideline to prevent the spread ofcoronavirusis probably among the most baffling to me.

Some families have people live with them that aren’t related. Don’t forget, the communities with marginalized populations are the places where you find homeless shelters, halfway houses, safe houses and boarding houses. Add to that the many seniors and “sick and shut-in,” many of whom live alone.

The daily challenges in these scenarios means reliance on a variety of support systems in their social network — friends, families, caregivers, neighbors, etc. — as survival tools in everyday living is disrupted or no longer available.

Vulnerable populations: As defined by theWorld Health Organization,vulnerabilityis the degree to which a population, individual or organization is unable to anticipate, cope with, resist and recover from the impacts of disasters.

Billions for Boeing; pennies for people

The development of the $2.2 trillion stimulus package was extremely flawed.

The Republican bullies in the U.S. Senate, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, wrote the bill with absolutely no Democratic input, then suggested that D e m o c r a t s amend their legislation. The first draft of the bill, unsurprisingly, was a goody grab for corporations, with much less for individuals. Initially, the Republican Senate would have given U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin a slush fund of $500 billion to assist troubled industries with absolutely no oversight. The last version of the bill includes both monitoring and an inspector general to look for fraud and abuse.

Republicans would have doled the money out to their cronies. But the Dems, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, stood their ground.

The stimulus legislation is better than the 2008-2009 bailout legislation. It is gratifying to see that the Senate rose above partisanship to get this done. Republicans even conceded that President Trump, his grafter family, other cabinet heads and senior leaders, along with their families, cannot benefit from this stimulus legislation.

It is unfathomable that this provision has to be put in writing, but No. 45, a hotel owner, pushed hard for hotels and cruise ships to get bailout benefits. But some in Congress have apparently peeped No. 45’s hole card. It takes extreme hubris for our nation’s chief executive

officer, who has used the U.S. treasury as a piggy bank, to be as self-serving as No. 45 is. Good for Democrats for recognizing the pattern of double-dealings makes it clear that written prohibition of these shady practices is necessary.

Michigan Congressman Justin Amash, an independent who used to bea Republican, tweeted, “This

Julianne Malveaux

bipartisan deal is a raw deal for the people. It does far too little for those who need the most help while providing hundreds of billions in corporate welfare, massively growing government, inhibiting economic adaptation, and widening the gap between the rich and the poor.”

The legislation, which was approved by the House and signed into law by President Trump last Friday, is hundreds, if not thousands, of pages long. And it has lots of fine print. For example, $17 billion in loan funds are set aside for “businesses deemed critical to maintaining national security.

While Boeing isn’t mentioned by name, the Washington Post quoted a confidential source who said this money is partly set aside for Boeing. This is the same Boeing that manufactured faulty, crashing airplanes. And they’ve imperiously said they will take assistance only on their terms.

Some think the federal government should take an equity stake in companies that get bailout funds. Boeing’s CEO said he wasn’t interested in such a deal.If the feds wanted to play hardball, they’d force Boeing into bankruptcy. Bankruptcy doesn’t mean the cessation of operations; it means the restructuring of debt. Meanwhile, there’s no helpful fine print for ordinary people.Sure, people will get $1,200 checks, plus $500 per child. That’s better than nothing. But compared to Boeing’s billions, it’s pennies.

The ability to get unemployment insurance for extra weeks also will be helpful for those who lose their jobs during this pandemic. More food stamp funds will be available.But there is some confusion over whether gig workers will get the benefit. Instead, it seems that those who have good jobs will get great benefits, while those who have part-time jobs, gig jobs or are unemployed won’t get much.As Congressman Amash said, this stimulus package will widen the wealth gap.

Inequality is at the very foundation of our economic system, so it isn’t surprising that the coronavirus stimulus package reflects the biases that are hardwired into our system. We need committed, vocal, progressive members of Congress, such as Maxine Waters, Barbara Lee, Ayanna Pressley, Bobby Scott, Alezandria Ocasio Cortez and others, to shine a bright light on this inequality and to develop legislation to address some of these inequalities.

On March 23, Democratic Congresswoman Nita Lowey of New York introduced HR 6379, the Take Responsibility for Workers and Families Act, that provides protections for workers and families mostly because the stimulus package does not.

Stimulate the economy if you will, but don’t ignore the people on the bottom. If we are injecting $2.2 trillion into our lagging economy, make sure that some of it trickles down to the poor.

The writer is an economist, educator and author. For purposes of the coronavirus pandemic, this includes those who are elderly, have weak immune systems, chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity, cancer and transplant patients.

It has long been established that African-Americans have the highest mortality rate from all causes and arguably the worst health status ofany racial group in the United States. Just doing some rough calculations, it seems like no stretch of the imagination to conclude that more than half of all black folks in this country are a vulnerable population. COVID-19is real, it’s deadly and it’s going to be with us for possibly the rest of this year. Please continue to pay attention to the information from credible sources.

The writer is an author and research bioethics fellow at Harvard Medical School.

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