03 18 2020

vol. 17 issUE 10

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MArch 18 - 31, 2020

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2 // St reet SenS e Me di a / / Ma rch 1 8 - 3 1, 2020

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DIreCtOr Of DevelOPMeNt Maddie cunnigham

WrIterS GrOUP ArtISt-IN-reSIDeNCe Willie Schatz

OPINION eDItOrS (vOlUNteer) rachel brody, arthur delaney, britt Peterson

eDItOrIAl INterNS avi bajpai, ben cooper, julia Pinney, Sahda Polonko, Katherine randolph

DeSIGN INterN camille rood

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StreetSenSeMedia.org

NEWs In attempts to slow the spread of the coronavirus that causes COvID-19 and avoid overwhelming our health care system, the Centers for Disease Control have recommended limiting public gatherings. Most events and meetings are canceled or postponed, so Street Sense Media has replaced our traditional community calendar with an introduction to the reporting on the following pages.

graPhic courteSy oF the centerS For diSeaSe control

As of March 17, there were 31 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the District.

D.C. Health continued to advise that coronavirus risk in the District of Columbia is low. The agency is “actively analyzing our community risk for exposure and infection,” which includes “tracing” known infections by investigating who else someone confirmed to have the disease interacted with and who it was transmitted to them from.

CDC recommendations to slow the spread of the virus include washing your hands with soap and water for at least 20 second; cleaning and disinfecting surfaces frequently; and avoiding close contact with people by keeping a distance of approximately six feet away. To abide by that last guideline, many businesses have been ordered to close and many government operations have been moved online or are to be conducted by phone.

If you suspect you may have the virus, you should call your health care provider to ask for their advice (don’t just go to the doctor’s office, call first).

In the absence of a health care provider, call 911. You’ll be transferred to the Nurse Triage line to assess your health and determine next steps.

Important changes to be aware of for public resources, including homeless services, include:

• • • • • • • •

D.C. Public Schools are closed, switching to distance learning. Meals are available at pick-ups sites for all students (tinyurl.com/dc-spring20-school-lunch) D.C. Public Libraries are closed Shelters will operate 24/7 until the health emergency passes, providing meals and services on-site.

District daytime service programs for people experiencing homelessness are closed.

The city is providing quarantine locations for people experiencing homelessness in the event anyone is recommended to self-quarantine but needs somewhere to go.

Homeless service providers may contact the Department of Human Services for assistance obtaining critical cleaning and sanitation supplies if they have exhausted all other options.

There is a moratorium on evictions and utility shutoffs.

D.C. Council passed emergency legislation to provide financial relief, including expanded unemployment insurance and cutting sales tax. (tinyurl.com/council-covid-relief)

// 3

iN ThE coMMUNiTy

Separating fact from fiction

Compiled By lilAh Burke // Volunteer

MytH: “You need a mask to protect you from the new coronavirus.” fACt: Masks are most effective for helping to contain droplets from a sick person. if you are healthy, a mask would only strongly benefit you if you are interacting with someone who is suspected to have the coronavirus.

A mask does not make a significant protective difference when simply walking around. Masks are only effective when combined with frequent hand washing or use of hand sanitizer. (Source: World Health Organization and The Guardian) MytH: “This is just like the flu! No big deal.” fACt: the new coronavirus is Much WORSE than the seasonal flu. It is more contagious and some estimates suggest it is over 10 times more deadly. unlike the flu, there is not yet a vaccine for the coronavirus. because it is a new virus, it has the potential to overwhelm the health care system. (Source: Vox Media) MytH: “Only Asian or Chinese people can get or die from the virus. It is dangerous to interact with Asian or Chinese people.” fACt: the virus started in Wuhan, china, but that’s just geography. every single person is at risk of being infected. While everyone should be practicing social distancing and staying 6 feet away from others, there is no reaSon to avoid people with chinese ancestry or any other ancestry. (Source: DC Government) MytH: “The virus can't be transmitted in really hot weather or really cold weather.” fACt: the coronavirus can be transmitted in all areaS, regardless of climate. hot weather or cool weather doesn't make a difference, neither do hot baths or hand dryers.(Source: World Health Organization) MytH: “If you can comfortably hold your breath for more than 10 seconds, you’re probably not infected.” fACt: While shortness of breath is one of the main symptoms, you cannot selfdiagnose by holding your breath. this misinformation was popularized by a viral Facebook post, was further shared by Fox news correspondent geraldo rivera, and even appeared on a “test” distributed by a local property management company to its tenants. clinicians are still struggling to understand the virus and it is not helpful to try to test yourself.

(Source: Mother Jones)

the Bowser Administration will be hosting a “telephone townhall” to provide an update on coronavirus (COvID-19) for Community leaders on Wednesday, March 18 at 5 pm.

Dial-in: 844-881-1314 *No Passcode required* rSvP: TinyUrl.com/serveDC-covid-call

BIRTHDAYS Patty Smith March 19 ARTIST/VENDOR

Joe Jackson March 24 ARTIST/VENDOR

Charles Armstrong March 26 ARTIST/VENDOR

ANNOUNCEMENT The Street Sense Media offices and lounge will remain open for the foreseeable future. however, effective March 18, we will curtail our hours to open at 10 a.m. and close at 3 p.m. this will allow time for recent additional cleaning protocols and for everyone to rest and keep their immune systems strong.

This list is not comprehensive.

For details and additional updates, visit coronavirus.dc.gov

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NEWs

DC service organizations to stay open amid coronavirus-related closures

By Avi Bajpai and Ben Cooper avi.bajpai@streetsensemedia.org ben.cooper@streetsensemedia.org

A

s cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continue to be detected across the District, at least 25 community service organizations that provide essential services to D.C.’s homeless population have said they plan on staying open.

There have been 22 confirmed COVID-19 cases in D.C. as of Monday, March 16, prompting Mayor Muriel Bowser to declare a state of emergency on March 11 and announce the closure of all public schools and libraries for at least two weeks, starting March 16. Metro is planning on reducing transit service starting the same day. While worstcase projections for the spread of the disease in the U.S. are dire, public health officials agree efforts to slow transmission by reducing contact with others and canceling public gatherings can make a huge difference.

Several organizations serving the homeless community told Street Sense Media they had begun implementing such “social distancing” practices, as recommended by the D.C. Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The measures include reducing or canceling volunteer shifts, limiting staff-to-visitor contact and making meals takeout-only.

At Miriam’s Kitchen in Foggy Bottom, staff members are restructuring programs in a way that limits large gatherings of people in enclosed spaces but still maintains “a continuity of services,” CEO and President Scott Schenkelberg said.

To that end, guests may no longer use the dining room and are instead receiving carry-out containers during daily breakfast and dinner service. As of Thursday, March 12, the kitchen adjusted its hours, serving breakfast from 7 to 8 a.m and dinner from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., which is a half-hour reduction in morning service.

The organization is canceling all volunteer shifts, which will mean losing between 12 to 15 volunteers per food service. That will not affect the quantity of food the kitchen is able to provide, but will instead mean “simplifying the menu” and reducing the “variety and complexity of dishes,” Schenkelberg said.

Miriam’s is also preparing to shift all of its operations outdoors to a courtyard adjoining the church building it is based in. The courtyard will include a trailer with bathrooms and tents for food service and case management, and is expected to open on Monday, March 16, Schenkelberg said.

On any given day, Miriam’s Kitchen welcomes approximately 400 visitors, which includes guests, staff members and volunteers, he said. Since Thursday, when the limited hours first went into effect, Schenkelberg estimated that number had fallen to roughly 200 visitors per day.

Over the coming weeks, Miriam’s Kitchen could see up to a 50% reduction in staff capacity across all of its programs, Schenkelberg said. In cutting its hours of meal service, Schenkelberg estimated the kitchen may have missed out on serving up to 50 additional customers on Friday morning.

“That’s why we were so reluctant to go to this new model that we knew might be missing people,” Schenkelberg said.

“We’re very much aware that this isn’t ideal by any stretch of the imagination.”

The Father McKenna Center in Northwest D.C., which provides services to men to aid them on their “journey through homelessness” also has no plans to close but is taking preventative measures. CEO and President Kim Cox said that the

Guests line up at Miriam’s Kitchen on March 16, the first day services were moved to outdoor tents in an attempt to reduce possible transmission of the novel coronavirus.

Photo by Benjamin Burgess // KStreetPhotographyDC.com

center will remain open unless unforeseen circumstances occur.

“If the men in the shelters are quarantined in place, then we would no longer have any clients — that would be the only situation, as far as I can tell, that we would close,” Cox said.

“If my entire staff comes down with coronavirus, then I would have to close, but I don’t anticipate that being a problem.”

Cox said that between 75 and 90 people pass through the center on a daily basis and that they haven’t seen a dropoff in the number of men in their program since the arrival of COVID-19.

The center has taken extra precautions with sanitation, wiping down door handles and water fountains at least twice a day in accordance with CDC guidelines, among other preventative measures. Cox said the center has several volunteers who are over 80 years old, all of whom have been told not to come in.

As for the center’s staff members, Cox said that each desk has hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes and that the focus has been on educating employees about COVID-19.

“We’ve been really high on education with the staff in terms of what are the symptoms of the coronavirus so that they themselves will stay home or if they are living with someone who starts to be symptomatic that they know what to do and to self-isolate,” Cox said.

The center usually welcomes students from Gonzaga College High School two days per week to help serve lunch and work in the pantry, but due to the school’s closure to minimize potential spread of the virus, that program has been suspended until at least April 14. In the same vein, the Father McKenna Center had three “immersion trips” planned where students from universities would sleep in the center and work with different programs. Two of them have canceled.

Another local non-profit, Martha’s Table, announced on Friday it will continue providing groceries, pre-packaged meals and other essential resources at its Northwest and Southeast D.C., locations. The organization’s education centers at those

locations will be closed from March 17 until April 3.

“We are doubling down on our mission to support strong children, strong families, and strong communities,” President and CEO Kim R. Ford said. “Many of our neighbors will face financial challenges as our local economy suffers from the outbreak. Next week, Martha’s Table will roll out an unprecedented level of support for our families.”

Those measures will include providing every family with a child enrolled in a Martha’s Table education center with a weekly stipend as well as gift cards to grocery stores or food delivery services worth $15 per day during the period the centers are closed. The weekly stipends will “put more than $300,000 directly in the hands of local families,” Ford said.

Not all organizations have been able to sustain operations, however, and churches in particular have had to shut down in order to prevent community spread.

After deliberating on its situation throughout the week, Foundry United Methodist Church announced Thursday it would be “temporarily closing” its building to the public until March 25. The closure came a day after hundreds of Episcopal churches across D.C., Maryland and Virginia suspended worship services or closed altogether until March 25.

Reverend Ginger Gaines-Cirelli, the senior pastor at Foundry, said the decision was “truly unprecedented” and a “very difficult” one to make. By Thursday, it had become clear that keeping the church open was not going to be a safe option, she said.

In the interim, regular Sunday service will be streamed online on Facebook and the Foundry website. The church’s social justice ministry, which includes cooking and feeding programs, will continue to function alongside its community partners, Gaines-Cirelli said.

The program changes made at Miriam’s Kitchen and 29 other nonprofit service providers are listed on the next page.

streetsensemedia.org

Because the situation is developing rapidly, we encourage you to call ahead when possible before visiting a service provider. Street Sense Media will be maintaining an up-to-date version of this guide at tinyurl.com/resource-pg-COVID. Academy of Hope CLOSED 3/17 - 3/31. Expecting to reopen for staff only on 4/1.

Service changes: Students will engage in distance learning 3/17 - 4/2 and are scheduled to return for school at the start of the spring term on 4/20. Spring break will occur as scheduled.

Bread for the City SE Center CLOSED 3/16 - 4/1.

NW Center OPEN 3/16 - 4/1 from 8:30 am - 12 pm.

Resources needed: Monetary donations to pay for extra groceries, diapers, and sanitary supplies. Providing medical clinic appointments for pre-screened patients.

Grocery pick-up for patients only (pre-packaged bags will be distributed).

Service changes: Representative Payee Program checks can be picked up at the front of the building. Casework management and behavioral health visits will be done via telephone. Will continue legal services until/unless court system closes.

Calvary Women’s Services Open Resources needed: Meals need to be delivered. Bag lunches for 40 women or a meal that Calvary’s staff can plate and serve for 40 women. We also need low sodium canned soups and other nonperishable items. For more information about how to assist with that, people can contact Stacia Frederick at sfrederick@calvaryservices.org or (202) 678-2341 ext. 233.

Service changes: On-site volunteer program has been suspended.

Therapy, mental health support and relapse prevention support will continue to be available. Employment and education programs will continue to offer activities virtually through teleconferencing.

Catholic Charities Operations unaffected at this time.

Central Union Mission Open Resources needed: Hand sanitizer, isopropyl alcohol, Clorox wipes, Lysol, boxes of tissues or N95 masks or bleach.

Charlie’s Place Building CLOSED until at least March 29.

Resources needed: Bag lunch distribution continues daily.

Volunteers to assist us in making bagged sandwich lunches with bottled water from their homes. Contact Reggie at rcox@stmargaretsdc.org or (202) 486-0618 if you can help.

Service changes: No breakfast service.

Bag lunch distribution Mon-Sat while supplies last.

Christ House Open Resources needed: Monetary donations to help cover costs would be appreciated.

Church of the Epiphany (The Welcome Table) CLOSED until at least March 29.

Church of the Pilgrims (Open Table Ministry) Closed Service changes: Several people will be serving our neighbors this week through our Open Table ministry. We will be serving our guests with gloves, not passing food, using to-go containers and

encouraging both hand washing and eating in the garden. We will be making weekly decisions about Open Table, mindful of the needs of our neighbors as services are being disrupted in various ways.

N Street Village Open Resources needed: Purell, cleaning supplies

Community Family Life Services CLOSED the week of March 16.

Plans for reopening or having a skeleton crew for resource distribution the following week are TBD. Service changes: Staff working remotely the week of March 16. There will be no food or clothing distribution on Tuesday March 17, Thursday March 19, or Friday March 20.

Patricia Handy Place for Women Open Resources needed: Purell, cleaning supplies

Community of Hope Medical, dental, and emotional wellness services remain open.

Service changes: We advise all patients to call our call center at 202.540.9857 before coming to any location if they are having the following symptoms: fever, cough, or shortness of breath.

Covenant House of Washington Open Service changes: Revising intake process to include recommended questions from the Centers for Disease Control. Setting aside quarantine space in the event a youth manifests COVID-19 symptoms.

DC Coalition for the Homeless Operations unaffected at this time.

Father McKenna Center Operations unaffected at this time.

Food and Friends Open Resources needed: Volunteers.

Foundry Methodist Church (Social justice ministry) CLOSED until 3/25.

Service changes: Conducting virtual worship services on 3/15 and 3/22 at 11:15 a.m. Discipleship and family ministry classes will meet virtually through online platforms. ID ministry and cooking and feeding missions will continue operations.

Georgetown Ministry Center Drop-in center CLOSED at least through March 29.

Resources needed: Hand sanitizer, face masks Service changes: Continuing limited street outreach with their partners.

Jobs Have Priority Operating status and plans unconfirmed.

Unity Health Care Operations unaffected at this time.

Martha’s Table Educational Centers CLOSED 3/17 - 4/3.

All other programs uninterrupted.

Resources needed: Canned goods, sandwiches, trail mix. Accepting healthy and willing volunteers should check website for opportunities.

Service changes: Remote learning online for children.

Miriam’s Kitchen Open Service changes: Volunteer shifts canceled. Adjusting hours: breakfast from 7 to 8 am; dinner from 4:30 to 5:30 pm.

My Sister’s Place Open Resources needed: Tissues, paper towels, Clorox wipes, hand sanitizer, etc. Otherwise normal needs: diaper, wipes, towels, pillows, blankets Service changes: Operating normal hours with essential staff.

Non-essential staff teleworking most days.

// 5

Samaritan Inns Operations unaffected at this time.

Loaves and Fishes Operating status and plans unconfirmed.

Samaritan Ministry of Greater Washington CLOSED 3/16 - 3/27 Service changes: The program team will be working remotely.

Participants may contact their caseworker(s) either by email or by leaving a message for them at our main number 202-722-2280.

Sasha Bruce Youthwork Open Resources needed: Monetary donations.

So Others Might Eat Open Resources needed: Monetary donations Service changes: Postponing all client-facing volunteer opportunities at 71 O Street NW until further notice, effective Saturday, March 14, 2020. Several behind-the-scenes volunteer opportunities will be offered beginning March 17 and posted to VolunteerHub. St. Luke’s Mission Center Operating status and plans unconfirmed.

Friendship Place Drop-in Center closed Thrive DC Open Resources needed: Snack items (granola bars, protein bars), hand sanitizer, gloves, tissue, antiseptic wipes Service changes: Moving to distribution-only model — providing takeout items. Providing sandwiches and salads instead of hot meals, starting March 18. No programs running except for meal/pantry programs: Meal/Pantry programs 8:30 am - 9:30 am - Mon, Wed, Fri ( sandwiches, salads, etc distribution) 11 am Thurs - clients can come to get an emergency pantry bag until supplies run out Washington Legal Clinic Open Service changes: Community-based intakes have been suspended, and we have moved to a phone intake model.

Beginning Tuesday, March 17, Legal Clinic staff will telework, and our office will be closed. This means we will not be holding in-person appointments or meetings.

Our main phone line, 202-328-5500, will continue to be monitored, and community members who have legal issues with which we may be able to assist will be scheduled for a phone intake with Legal Clinic staff and volunteers. We will announce any further changes on our website and social media channels.

Whitman-Walker Health Open Service changes: Discouraging outside visitors and community groups who use their space from visiting and canceling volunteer nights Information collected by Avi Bajpai and Ben Cooper.

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NEWs

DC neighbors step up to help each other as coronavirus-related closures and anxiety increase

By Natalie Delgadillo natalie@dcist.com

This story was first published by DCist.

E

ver since the District’s first confirmed case of COVID-19 was announced on March 7, the city has gotten quieter and its residents more uneasy.

An increasing number of offices are implementing mandatory work-from-home policies, Metro rides are dropping, schools are closing, and the number of cases is growing exponentially — right on track with the spread in Italy and other areas that have seen a dramatic spike over short periods of time.

But as anxiety and uncertainty mount, some D.C. residents are resisting the urge to panic and turn inward. An increasing Empty shelves at a Walgreens pharmacy in DC, where flyers have been posted featuring basic health information about the novel number of people in communities across the city have — in coronavirus and a four-per-customer policy has been implemented for sanitizing wipes and related cleaners. Photo by Eric Falquero ways both large and small — begun trying to find ways to help their more vulnerable neighbors. look like during this time when people have to be pretty In several wards, organized offers of help and mutual aid isolated?” Peeples says. groups started sprouting up in mid-March, as it became clear About 40 people have so far signed up to help and to ask that D.C. was facing the possibility of a dangerous outbreak for help (many do both at once), Peeples says. She hung flyers that could devastate the local economy. around her neighborhood over the weekend to let people know The idea of mutual aid is simple: You agree to lend assistance Ward 1 Neighborhood Mutual Aid, except Mount Pleasant the resource is available for them to use. to others, and they agree to help you, too. “We are in a situation To volunteer: tinyurl.com/DC-MA-Ward1 There are other mutual aid programs being organized in where people are panicking, and understandably so,” says Contact: Natacia Knapper, 202.590.1805 Mount Pleasant and Petworth. April Goggans, an organizer Natacia Knapper, an organizer and activist in D.C. who has with D.C. Black Lives Matter, has set up a taken charge of setting up a mutual aid Ward 1 neighborhood Mutual Aid, citywide mutual aid Facebook page. program in Ward 1, including a GoFundMe. in Mount Pleasant Many Languages One Voice, an activist “We are trying to figure out what are the To volunteer: tinyurl.com/DC-MA-W1-volunteer organization that works with immigrant needs in terms of the physical items people communities in D.C., is also setting up a need, ” says Knapper, “But also thinking Ward 2 Neighborhood Mutual Aid mutual aid program, as are students and about having money that we can provide to To sign-up: tinyurl.com/DC-MA-W2-sign-up others at George Washington University. people who feel unsafe going to their job.”

Contact: Charley Goldman, 301-706-6322 The Table D.C., a church network in the Knapper points out that many people city, is organizing a web of people across who are especially vulnerable to COVIDWard 3 Neighborhood Mutual Aid To volunteer: tinyurl.com/DC-MA-W3-volunteer the city who are able to help with grocery 19, which tends to present more severely Contact: Jack Klein, ward3.mutualaid@gmail.com runs and other errands for people over 60 in older people and those with preexisting or who are otherwise particularly vulnerable conditions, have jobs that don’t allow them Ward 4 Petworth Helping Hands for Covid-19 to the coronavirus. to work from home. She is trying to pool (Neighborhood Mutual Aid) In Capitol Hill, The Church of the enough money to help people who would To volunteer for outreach to seniors and those in Resurrection is opening up its “Rez911” be seriously risking their health by going need: tinyurl.com/DC-MA-PW-volunteer service to everyone in the neighborhood. to work, she says. Other offers from the You do not have to be a member of the network she’s building include help with Ward 5 Neighborhood Mutual Aid church to participate. You can request (or childcare during the day, grocery runs and To volunteer: tinyurl.com/DC-MA-W5-volunteer Kelly Griffin offer) help with errands, childcare, and food delivery, and periodic check-ins for If you need support: ward5.mutualaid@gmail.com The Church of the Resurrection emotional support via the form on their site. seniors and other vulnerable neighbors.

Ward 6 Neighborhood Mutual Aid “We debated a lot whether this was an “People feel like there is a real lack of To volunteer: tinyurl.com/DC-MA-W7-volunteer overreaction,” says Kelley Griffin, a member of the church. substantive communication and just a lack of real urgency [from “But one of the things is, by the time it feels like the correct the government] over what could potentially happen,” she says.

Wards 7 and 8 Hotline (Neighborhood Mutual Aid) response, it’s kind of too little, too late.”

Volunteers are setting up a mutual aid station in Columbia To volunteer: Contact Alexis, 202-826-3873 In addition to the mutual aid groups, some neighbors and Heights Civic Plaza on Saturday, Knapper says, providing If you need support: 202-630-0336 businesses are offering small kindnesses when they can. On nonperishable foods and sanitizing products. They’ll also

Mutual Aid in All Eight Wards

“We debated a lot whether this was an overreaction. But one of the things is, by the time it feels like the correct response, it’s kind of too little, too late.”

be providing a one-pager with information about the new coronavirus and COVID-19, the disease it causes. She plans to continue the stations, though she says it may eventually be safer to switch simply to delivering products to people’s doors.

Ria Peeples is setting up a similar mutual aid program in Takoma, where she’s been sending out a form allowing people to offer resources they can share, including meal preparation, picking up prescriptions, making doctor’s appointments and offering childcare, spare beds, and emotional support.

“What does it look like to be social when we can’t actually be around each other? And what can mental health services

March 12, Medium Rare in D.C. delivered nearly 30 meals to elderly people trying to isolate in their homes so they don’t catch the virus. Local bookstores like Politics and Prose and Capitol Hill Books are offering free shipping for people quarantining at home and in need of a book to pass the time.

“In times like these, people really do want to help,” says Peeples. “And it’s so important to push back against the isolation and turning inward and selfishness that can come in times like these if we don’t remind everyone that we have everything we need to support one another.”

Support for people in D.C. with disabilities To volunteer: tinyurl.com/DC-MA-disability This information is exceprted from a spreadsheet assocaited with the “DC Mutual Aid Network” Facebook Group that was organized by April Goggans. There were 17 groups listed on the document when Street Sense went to press.

Group: tinyurl.com/WeKeepUsSafe Spreadsheet: tinyurl.com/DC-Mutual-Aid-Spreadsheet

StreetSenSeMedia.org

// 7

As coronavirus outbreak worsens, street papers and their staff respond Confirmed active cases of COVOID-19 around the world as of 7 p.m. on March 17. This still image was taken from an An interactive web-based dashboard to track COVID-19 in real time that was developed by Ensheng Dong, Hongru Du, and Lauren Gardner. It was first published on Feb. 19. View the dashboard at tinyurl.com/johns-hopkins-dashboard.

By tony ingliS International Network of Street Papers (INSP.ngo)

W

orldwide, 197,000 cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) had been confirmed by late March 17. The panic and health considerations around the outbreak have already begun to threaten the well-being and livelihood of street paper vendors, as well as people experiencing homelessness and poverty.

To combat the spread, and in response to unease over a sharp rise in deaths, the Italian government recently placed the entire country into lockdown, effectively quarantining all citizens.

This worsened an already precarious situation for Milan-based street paper Scarp de’ tenis, which is distributed in several cities across the Italy.

Updating the International Network of Street Papers (INSP) about the situation, the magazine’s editor, Stefano Lampertico, who is working from home along with all other Scarp de’ tenis staff, explained that vendors are no longer able to sell the magazine. There have been no sales in March, and they have decided not to print their April issue.

“The impact of the virus is terrible,” he said. “This week, all services are closed. The number of sick people is increasing day by day. We are all living in the red zone. We can’t move.

We can’t travel. We are all staying at home.”

In more hopeful news, Lampertico added that Scarp de’ tenis was able to raise 5,000 euros from online sales and has been distributing that money to vendors, though that has proven tricky in the middle of the shutdown. Staff – who are all healthy – continue work on other projects that will benefit those who work as street paper vendors in the meantime. Though the Italian government says the restrictions will only last until April 3, there is no real sense of how long the current situation will go on.

Meanwhile, in the far northern Italian region of South Tyrol, where the street publication zebra. is based, the shutdown is having a similar impact. Lisa Frei, the magazine’s editor, told INSP that streets are bare, as the normally bustling area is no longer teeming with tourists. Schools have been closed, nixing an opportunity to present zebra.‘s recently printed annual school edition to its target audience. Scarp de’ tenis and zebra. are in close communication and are able to share ideas about how to tackle the current crisis for their vendors (which number 140 and 60 respectively) who face weeks without the chance to sell the magazine on the streets of their cities.

“We are working on and want to start a solidarity campaign and call for donations towards vendors via local media,” said Frei. “We have 13,000 magazines that cannot now be sold, but we hope that the situation will calm down soon so we can sell them in April. So far, no one in our region has died due to the virus, and all vendors are doing well.” After Frei was

interviewed, the first death from COVID-19 in South Tyrol was confirmed on March 12.

As INSP previously reported via The Big Issue (UK), now that COVID-19 is being taken seriously in western countries, attention has turned to how people who sleep outside and other people experiencing homelessness may be disproportionately affected by the safeguards being put in place and the medical advice being dished out by health boards and governments.

People living on the street, many of whom are street paper vendors, are not able to easily access bathrooms or hygiene products, and others have no choice but to live in homeless encampments and shelters, making self-isolation – the ideal method of preventing viral spread and contamination – extremely difficult. Carrying out the seemingly simple task of thorough hand-washing, as has been advised, is not a given for many living in this situation. In the UK, with some members of the general public panic-buying products like hand wash, poorer families are being pushed out, if not priced out.

In the U.S., street papers and their staff have begun to take measures to help the most vulnerable people in society, especially as the official response to the outbreak has been criticized.

The West Coast is where coronavirus is making its presence most felt. INSP spoke to several street paper staff members in that part of the U.S. for an update on how the pandemic is affecting them and those living on the streets. The homelessness crisis in the western U.S. is particularly fraught and visible.

“Here, we are as yet unaffected [by the virus], but homeless encampment sweeps are continuing unabated,” said Quiver Watts, editor of San Francisco street paper Street Sheet. “Our big service fair [an event, run by Project Homeless Connect, that centralizes services for unhoused people to easily access for a day] was cancelled to prevent any possible transmission, so folks are needing extra support.”

In a city where over 1,000 people are on a waiting list for shelter, and during a declared state of emergency, it is unacceptable, Watts says, for city officials to continue disrupting homeless people as they go to great lengths to adapt their behaviour to safeguard against infection. “Given the crisis we are facing, we need an immediate moratorium on sweeps so that people in encampments can stay in touch with health outreach workers, have consistent access to hygiene stations, not be forcibly deprived of medications and survival gear that protect people, and can get enough sleep to keep their immune systems up.”

Street Sheet put together a thorough resource titled “What if you can’t stay home?” outlining steps that homeless organisations can take to help those who need assistance and making demands of local government in San Francisco to do more.

Paula Lomazzi, director of Sacramento street paper Homeward Street Journal, explained to INSP how the transactional nature of their services and selling street papers is making everyone second guess their behavior.

“As the virus spreads more widely, breaking [through] the quarantine measures, I have concerns about it entering the homeless population and spreading throughout areas such as community meals and shelters,” she said. “Of concern to our office will be contact with money that is exchanged between staff and vendors [and vendors and customers]. You can’t fist bump money.”

Portland’s Street Roots has been engaging its vendors to inform and facilitate them in overcoming all obstacles that the virus may pose.

A poster created by Street Roots informs vendors how best to protect themselves from the coronavirus outbreak.

At their most recent weekly meeting – which occurs on Fridays, upon publication of the new edition of the street paper – staff discussed the best ways for vendors to stay as healthy as possible and how to interact with customers during the pandemic. Other vendors are being proactive.

“We talked about bringing hand sanitizer with them, and using it each time after handling money,” said Kaia Sand, executive director of Street Roots. “But also, using the hand sanitizer ostentatiously to visually assure customers.”

Sand said there had been no marked difference in sales, but they have been telling vendors that a change in circumstances in the area could mean a dip. They are also working with local partners to come up with other ways to ensure the health of vendors. “We are creating health packets for vendors to have and share with other people on the streets. We have been coordinating with a local group of volunteer physicians called ‘Portland Street Medicine,’ too. Our effort is to get people accurate information and other supplies (particularly hand sanitizers and soap). Because of the shortage of hand sanitizer, we have crowd sourced alcohol and aloe vera, and our volunteers are making a ‘home brew.’”

The worst-hit region in the U.S. is Washington state, which currently bears the highest number of confirmed cases and deaths. With streets and buildings half-empty, and public health officials recommending that the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions stay inside and people work from home if possible, it is expected it will have an effect on Seattle-based street paper Real Change.

“Different vendors are so far having different experiences,” said the street paper’s founding director Tim Harris. “Some are, fortunately, unaffected, while others, like those selling in a now empty downtown area, are having a tough time.”

Street papers are attempting to come up with creative ways to continue facilitating vendors to earn an income, including selling online versions of their usually printed magazine, and engaging in other social projects that they run parallel with the publication. The effect of the outbreak for street papers is two-fold: on an organisational and sales level and in terms of protecting vendors.

8 // St reet Sens e Me di a / / Ma rch 1 8 - 3 1 , 2020

NEWs

Are hospitals in the region, and across the U.S., ready for Coronavirus?

By Annie Waldman, Al Shaw, Ash Ngu, and Sean Campbell ProPublica

T

hough the U.S. health care system is projected to be overwhelmed by an influx of patients infected with the novel coronavirus, the pressure on hospitals will vary dramatically across the country. That’s according to new data released by the Harvard Global Health Institute, which for the first time gives a sense of which regions will be particularly stressed and should be preparing most aggressively right now. The maps we’ve created based on the data show why public health officials are so intent on “flattening the curve,” or slowing the spread of infections over a longer period of time, like 18 months instead of six.

In most scenarios, “vast communities in America are not prepared to take care of the COVID-19 patients showing up,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, who led a team of researchers that developed the analysis.

Under the researchers’ best-case scenario, Americans will act quickly to slow the spread of the virus through social distancing, and the infection rate among adults will remain relatively low at 20%, or 49.4 million people over the age of 18, less than twice the number of people who get the flu each year.

Though the United States has only several thousand confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of March 17 and China hit only 80,000 this year, epidemiologists said the 20% estimate is conservative based on the infection rates that have occurred in prior pandemics. The numbers of infections reported by China and other countries, they said, are surely underestimates since not all infected people are tested or have serious symptoms.

The H1N1 swine flu pandemic of 2009 infected about 60 million Americans over the course of a year, according to federal estimates, with no efforts at social distancing or containment. Scientists are still working to understand exactly how contagious the novel coronavirus is, but current data suggests it appears to be more contagious than the swine flu.

Even in a best-case scenario, with cases of coronavirus spread out over 18 months, American hospital beds would be about 95% full. (This assumes that hospitals don’t free up already occupied beds or add more beds, as some elected officials have called for.) Some regions would have the capacity to handle the surge in hospitalizations without adding new beds or displacing other patients.

But in most other scenarios where the virus spreads faster or infects more people, hospitals would quickly fill their available beds with patients, and they would be forced to either expand capacity, limit elective surgeries and other non-necessary treatments, or make life-and-death decisions about care, similar to what has happened in the worst-hit regions of Italy, where some doctors have received guidance to only treat patients “deemed worthy of intensive care.”

In the Harvard team’s moderate scenario — where 40% of the adult population contracts the disease over the course of a year — 98.9 million Americans would develop the coronavirus, though many will have mild or no symptoms, and will not have their diagnoses confirmed by tests. Slightly more than a fifth

of all cases will require hospitalization. (That’s roughly the average number of patients requiring hospitalization in other countries.) To treat all hospitalized patients over that time, the country would have to more than double available hospital beds by freeing up existing beds or adding new ones.

If that moderate estimate holds, about a fifth of hospitalized patients, or nearly 5% of those infected, would become critically ill from COVID-19 and would need intensive care, such as the use of a ventilator.

If all existing ICU beds are freed up for COVID-19 patients, the total capacity would have to be increased 74%. And even then, hospitals may have a limited supply of ventilators and specialized staff who can care for extreme cases.

In the researchers’ worst-case scenario — if 60% of the population falls sick and the virus spreads within six months — the nation would require more than seven times the number of available hospital beds that it currently has.

“Our model gives hospital leaders and policy makers a clear sense of when they will hit capacity and strategic information on how to prepare for rising numbers of patients,” Jha said. “If people wonder ‘Why am I social distancing?’ and ‘Why am I isolating myself?’ this data makes that real. People should look at this data and make sure their community has a plan.”

To be sure, models are based on the best available information and can change over the course of time. And Jha’s model doesn’t take into account the ability of hospitals or states to add additional beds.

Greater Washington, D.C. As of 2018, Washington, D.C., had 5,060 total hospital beds, of which about 68% were occupied, potentially leaving only 1,600 beds open for additional patients. The bed count includes 600 beds in intensive care units, according to data from the American Hospital Association and the American Hospital Directory. Intensive care units are best equipped to handle the most acute coronavirus cases.

The region has a population of about 2.8 million residents; 14% are over the age of 65. The experience in other countries has shown that elderly patients have significantly higher hospitalization and fatality rates from the coronavirus.

In the moderate scenario, in which 40% of the adult population contracts the disease over 12 months, D.C. would be among the regions that would need to expand capacity.

It is estimated that about 8% of the adult population would require hospital care. In a moderate scenario where 40% of the population is infected over a 12-month period, hospitals in the District would receive an estimated 180,000 coronavirus patients. The influx of patients would require 6,000 beds over 12 months, which is 3.8 times the number of available beds in that time period. The Harvard researchers’ scenarios assume that each coronavirus patient will require 12 days of hospital care on average, based on data from China.

Intensive care units in the region would be especially overwhelmed and require additional capacity. Without coronavirus patients, there are only 220 available beds on average in intensive care units, which is 5.9 times less than what is needed to care for all severe cases projected in the model.

A portion of ProPublica’s visualization of Harvard Global Health Institute’s models for hospital capacity in the United States for various projected rates of coronavirus infection. Not pictured are the maps modeling 80% of the population contracting the virus over 18 months, 12 months, and 6 months.

For the analysis, Jha and his team selected various rates of infection and modeled hospital capacity for each over three time periods, six months, 12 months and 18 months. The infection rate scenarios are based on estimates from leading epidemiologist Dr. Marc Lipsitch, head of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, who made the projections of how many people globally would be infected. (Read more about the methodology here.)

By modeling the data over the three time periods, the scenarios illustrate how much the nation could “flatten the curve” with social measures to ensure hospitals have greater capacity to care for coronavirus patients.

streetsensemedia.org

president of The Commonwealth Fund, a health care think tank. runs the largest hospital in Minot, said in an email that the Hospitals in more urban communities will likely be more facility is prepared. “We all work with our health care partners stressed, given the vast populations they serve, but these larger across the region and depend on the system as a whole to hospital systems may also have more flexibility to stretch their respond to the needs of any of its parts.” resources by shifting patients around and freeing up beds. For Dr. Lewis Nelson, a professor and chair of the Department example, hospitals in eastern Long Island, which includes of Emergency Medicine at Rutgers University New Jersey the counties of Nassau, Suffolk and parts of Queens, would Medical School, believes that part of the reason we’re likely need eight times their current available capacity if they don’t to see such stark hospital bed shortages is because so many rearrange or displace their other patients. But if they freed up hospitals have closed in recent years. The bed shortages, he all of their existing beds, which are 88% full on average, they said, could force critical care doctors to bend the accepted would significantly increase their capacity. standards of care.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has also talked about the “We will have to make these hard decisions,” he said, such as need to open up additional hospital beds and has called for the whether some patients receive high-level treatment and others construction of field hospitals to handle the influx of patients. don’t. “They will be personal decisions and they run counter “You will have people on gurneys in hallways,” Cuomo said to how health care is practiced in this country.” at a press conference on March 16, later adding that New York would need up to 110,000 total hospital beds, around twice the Building capacity number it currently has. “That is what is going to happen now if we do nothing.”

When doctors at the University of California, San Francisco, Not all communities will have the depth of resources to began to see their first cases of COVID-19 in February, draw on. administrators quickly recognized that they might not have On Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Salisbury is one of the the resources to treat all the patients they were likely to see. communities at the highest risk of being under capacity, even According to the Harvard scenario where 40% of adults in the if it frees up all of its beds for coronavirus cases, according to country contract the disease, about half a million people in the our analysis of the Harvard researchers’ data. The researchers San Francisco region may get infected, with more than 100,000 estimate that in a moderate infection scenario, the community residents requiring hospitalization. If the infections occur over will have about 149,000 a 12-month period, the city coronavirus cases. would need three times the If the community is able number of available hospital to spread infections over 12 beds and ICU beds it has. months, it would have to add “We realized that we did not about 880 beds to treat all have the capacity to put all the adult coronavirus patients, suspected patients into private either by building new beds or rooms,” said Dr. Maria Raven, discharging existing patients, chief of emergency medicine which is more than four at UCSF and vice chair of times its current capacity of the emergency medicine 187 available beds. Even if department at Zuckerberg San it released all of its existing Francisco General Hospital. In patients and replaced them the past, “on occasion we had with coronavirus cases, it to have folks out in hallways Dr. Ashish Jha would still need to nearly with masks on.”

Harvard Global Health Institute double the number of beds.

Within a week of the first Fran Phillips, deputy confirmed infections in the secretary for Public Health Services for Maryland’s Department city, the hospital erected two temporary medical tents to screen of Health, said at a March 16 press conference that her office is and treat potentially infected patients. The goal is to keep the working to nearly double the capacity of the state’s hospitals number of patients seen at the hospital to a manageable level. to meet the expected surge in patients.

“Seeing what’s going on in other countries, we are all The hospital system in Santa Cruz, California, only has preparing for a potential tidal wave of patients,” said Dr. Jeanne 22 intensive care unit beds, of which on average only 30% Noble, an emergency care physician in charge of coronavirus are available on any given day. To care for all critically ill response at UCSF. “We feel like we’re teetering on the edge coronavirus patients over a 12-month period without kicking of a cliff.” out other critically ill patients, the hospital system would have For hospitals with fewer resources, there are measures that to increase its ICU capacity by 2,133%, or 128 more beds, can be taken to counter bed shortages. Hospitals can limit according to the analysis. elective surgeries and discharge healthier patients earlier.

Dignity Health, which manages four nonprofit hospitals in Hospitals can also screen patients before they enter the hospital the Bay Area, including Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz, to decrease the risk of spreading the disease. Critically, staffers said in an email through spokesperson Felicity Simmons that also need to stay healthy, so they can continue to treat patients the company is continuously updating its capacity procedures instead of taking up the needed beds themselves. to meet patient demands. The company has considered adding The experts and health workers that ProPublica spoke with medical tents outside of the hospital for additional triage and fear that the U.S. is only two weeks behind Italy’s infection treatment, and patients could “also be transferred to our sister rate and will be faced with the same tough decisions. A paper facilities or to other nearby health systems.” published in the Lancet last week highlighted Italy’s Lombardy Some hospital systems, particularly those in more rural or region, where a flood of patients is overwhelming the intensive unpopulated communities, may have greater capacity to deal care system. with the influx of patients, according to the model. In Minot, “I can’t imagine being in that position, and none of us want North Dakota, 9,300 adult residents would likely be hospitalized to be in that position,” said UCSF’s Raven. “The reality is that if 40% of the population is infected over a 12-month period. you can’t create unlimited hospital beds and ventilators. We Unlike most other regions, its current supply of hospital beds have what we have, so we really have to hope that it’s enough, should be enough to care for all patients. But hospital capacity and that we’re prepared enough.” is not all that matters, Jha said. For example, remote facilities Caroline Chen contributed reporting. This article was produced by may have less experienced staff and less specialized equipment ProPublica and republished under a Creative Commons license. See to care for complex cases. more of their work at ProPublica.org.

Karim Tripodina, a spokeswoman with Trinity Health, which

"If people wonder 'Why am I social distancing?' and 'Why am I isolating myself?' this data makes that real. People should look at this data and make sure their community has a plan."

Graphic analysis courtesy of ProPublica, republished with permission Data via Harvard Global Health Institute, Hospital Bed Capacity & COVID Estimates

“The way to permanently stop new cases from setting off long chains of transmission is to have each case infect considerably less than one case on average,” Lipsitch said.

“The numbers will go down. There will still be little outbreaks, but not big ones.”

Other U.S. communities The data reveals stark regional differences in hospital capacity.

Some communities are significantly less equipped to handle surges in medical need.

“A serious epidemic in Grand Forks, North Dakota, will be much different than in Boston,” said Dr. David Blumenthal,

// 9

1 0 // S t reet Sense Me di a / / Ma rch 1 8 - 3 1, 2020

opinion

What’s needed is an outbreak of kindness

By Brian Carome

The mission of Street Sense Media asks us to stand beside those that society has cast out. I am in my fourth decade of work within the sphere of homeless services, and never has the imperative of that mission felt more vital. Not since the influenza epidemic of 1918 has the U.S. faced a public health challenge on the scale of COVID-19. Everyone is being asked to do their part to contain and limit the spread of the virus. We are being bombarded by quickly changing information gleaned from lessons learned. Often advice about best practices is conflicting.

Some among us are surely panicking – for instance, hoarding household supplies in ways inconsistent with genuine threats. Yet, in some instances, what looks like panic one day reveals itself as wise foresight the next. Certainly, the swiftness and fluidity of the evolving pandemic and uncertainty about its future impact can instill a profound sense of vulnerability.

Vulnerability is a double-edged sword. It can cleave us into isolation and fierce tribalism. It can divide and separate, ostracizing whole groups of people as “others” who pose a threat to our health and the health of our family.

Vulnerability can also bring us into a deeper sense of kinship with our community. Just as COVID-19 is an historic threat to public health, it is also perhaps the greatest opportunity our lifetime will present to rebuild community. COVID-19 is bipartisan. It infects regardless of ideology, ethnicity or class. But make no mistake, unless we face this together, those among us who were vulnerable before this threat emerged will suffer the most.

And so, what we need now is an outbreak of kindness. We need to look beyond the very real and disruptive inconveniences our family is facing. We need to focus on those among us who are most vulnerable – the college student in foster care with no alternative housing when dorms are shuttered; the elderly and others for whom COVID-19 is a genuine threat to life; the person who is homeless, was shunned before the outbreak, and has a compromised immune system and nowhere to isolate and recover.

Here at Street Sense Media, we’re committed to continuing full operations, especially the publication of Street Sense and the distribution of newspapers to our vendor community. For many of our vendors, selling papers is their sole source of income. It allows them to survive. As more workplaces, businesses, schools and families take precautionary socialdistancing measures, we’re anticipating a significant drop in newspaper sales. This means less money in vendors’ pockets and a disruption in their hard work to lift themselves out of homelessness and extreme poverty.

Luckily, you can help. If you have a relationship with one of our vendors, or even if you don’t, please consider making direct payments to vendors through our mobile smartphone app. (StreetSenseMedia.org/app) One hundred percent of these payments reach the people we serve directly.

During a period of economic and medical hardship for our community, supporting our vendors through the app will make an enormous difference.

Even more, many vendors fall into high-risk categories that make the COVID-19 virus a pressing threat to their health and lives. Many of these people are disconnected from support systems and health service providers.

It is essential that our case management team is on site and at the ready to help those who become sick get the help they need. We are deeply grateful to the Episcopal Archdiocese of Washington that provides the space out of which we operate. Despite the Diocese-wide shut down, we’ve been allowed to continue full operations. We’re here to stand with our colleagues. They need us more than ever.

The fabric of our community is being tested right now. How will you respond?

Brian Carome is the CEO of Street Sense Media.

In public health emergency, housing is (still) healthcare

By Jesse Rabinowitz and Lara Pukatch

Yesterday, Mayor Bowser declared a state of emergency in the District. Rightly so.

Experts agree that social distancing now can prevent deaths from the quickly spreading the COVID-19 coronavirus. But what does a state of emergency look like for people already in crisis?

For individuals experiencing chronic homelessness, who are already in survival mode, the risk of COVID-19 is layered atop existing health challenges. In 2019 alone, 81 members of the homeless community passed away. The average age of somebody experiencing longterm homelessness is 55, with a life expectancy only in the mid-60s. This is an older population struggling with challenges like hypertension, diabetes, and respiratory diseases — the exact conditions putting people at greatest risk of dying from the coronavirus.

While local government and nonprofits are coming together in powerful ways to address the urgent needs of our homeless population, we are reminded of something that has remained true for the entire 37-year history of Miriam’s Kitchen: Housing is healthcare and housing saves lives. Thanks to investments in proven solutions like the Permanent Supportive Housing Program, D.C. has connected thousands of individuals to housing that is improving the health and well-being of some of our most vulnerable neighbors.

Now more than ever, we need to continue to invest – and significantly scale up — solutions we know work to end homelessness and keep our residents healthy and safe. That’s why we are calling on Mayor Bowser to invest $71.2 million in her upcoming budget to end chronic homelessness for 1,800 households, prevent 2,150 individuals from entering long-term homelessness, and fully fund D.C.’s robust homeless street outreach program.

At Miriam’s Kitchen, we are driven by the strong belief that ending long term homelessness is possible. Our collective response to the coronavirus illustrates that when city, state, and federal governments work together toward a unified purpose, change can happen quickly.

The same drive, dedication, and resources can also be harnessed to end homelessness. We commend Mayor Bowser for tapping into D.C.’s Contingency Cash Reserve to address COVID19. Imagine what could be possible if the same heightened urgency was used to invest in ending D.C.’s homelessness crisis.

An illness as communicable as this coronavirus reminds us that we are all connected, and that our entire community’s health is impacted when just one of our neighbors is unwell.

For the over 6,500 people experiencing homelessness in D.C., staying healthy is a challenge all year round, year after year. And in the face of a pandemic like COVID-19, it’s even harder.

It’s hard to wash your hands if you don’t have a sink. It’s difficult to rest when you don’t have a bed. And it’s hard to keep away from others if you’re living outside or in shelter. Simply put, you can’t “stay home” if you don’t have one.

In this time of increased awareness and uncertainty, we may feel powerless, but there is so much that we can do. In addition to taking care of yourself, you can donate to organizations working on the front lines. Or join our advocacy movement, The Way Home Campaign, to raise your voice and ensure city leaders invest in housing that saves lives. Providing our neighbors with the housing they need will make all of D.C. healthier. Today, like every day, housing is just what the doctor ordered.

An illness as communicable as this coronavirus reminds us that we are all connected.

Jesse Rabinowitz is the advocacy and campaign manager and Lara Pukatch is the director of advocacy at Miriam’s Kitchen.

Join the conversation, share your views - Have an opinion about how homelessness is being addressed in our community?

- Want to share firsthand experience?

- Interested in responding to what someone else has written?

Street Sense Media has maintained an open submission policy since our founding.

We aim to elevate voices from across the housing spectrum and foster healthy debate.

Please send submissions to opinion@streetsensemedia.org.

streetsensemedia.org

Where has coronavirus hidden the recovery meetings?!

By Wendell Williams

Are those of us who are friends of Bill W not first responders? Since 7 a.m. on March 13, I’ve been calling around in search of a mutual-aid meeting to talk about staying sober. What I’ve heard confuses me.

I understand the concerns but not the overwhelming fears associated with panic thinking and decisions. I’d hope those of us who have found freedom from the lash of addiction would understand the importance of keeping our meetings open for that person who today decides, “I want to stop and I’ve heard this is the place to go.”

But it seems some of us are just like the people who are buying everything off the shelves at Costco. It’s stated that canceling in-person meetings is being done to save lives. But who will be there for the newcomers these next weeks to help them save themselves as others helped us?

I remember that 400 men and women ran into buildings during the September 11th terrorist attacks while everyone else was running out.

Like them, aren’t we first responders in a different way?

If we shut down, where are the suffering to go? Will the disease play fair and shut down too? I think not.

Keeping our meetings open with volunteers who clearly understand the risk during this period, in my opinion, shows that we are truly serious about our 12-step work.

Wendell Williams is an artist/vendor with Street Sense Media.

Fixing the mental health system should be DC’s top priority

By Anthony White

I am writing in response to Street Sense Media CEO Brian Carome’s piece in The Washington Post’s Sunday publication in January, titled “What we can learn from Alice Carter’s death.” In it, he wrote about the mania of the city’s mental health crisis and how both the criminal justice and mental and behavioral health systems are under-funded and under siege.

Fixing this broken system must be at the top of the city’s agenda. The lack of support for people who are struggling at this intersection, despite the city’s community mental health court, creates a spell of illusion for city officials and peril for residents. As it did for Alice Carter.

I, too, am homeless. And I, too, have experienced this limbo between health and justice systems that provides neither safety nor security. Four days before Brian’s article was printed in the Post, I was released from St. Elizabeths psych-ward after courts claimed I wasn’t “fit to stand trial.” Prior to being held there a month, I was held at the Department of Corrections’s city jail for two months. All this for what should have been a weekend hold. Finally, I was deemed “competent” and released back to the grimy streets without shelter or a path for upward mobility.

What makes this troubling is I have no prior mental illness or criminal background. Yet, here I am to tell you there are gaping holes in the law and character flaws in those authorized to enforce it. My heart weeps for the onslaught of individuals who get caught up in the criminal justice and mental health systems without any real recourse for getting back in the community as productive members of society. We need a third-party arbitration system that works for those whose voices too often are silenced through shame, ignorance, and the imbalance of power between the law and the people.

Like Alice, I was arrested on minor, nonviolent offenses: three unlawful entry cases in a two months span. And like Alice, I am full of potential and creativity.

What I need is opportunity. What we all need is a better health care system and a new path forward in revamping the criminal justice system of America.

Anthony White is a D.C. resident.

/ / 11

Temporary housing is the best approach for our public health to protect homeless people from coronavirus disease

By Maria Foscarinis

Given close quarters, compromised immune systems, and an aging population, people experiencing homelessness are exceptionally vulnerable to communicable diseases — including the current outbreak of the coronavirus that causes COVID19. My colleagues at the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty and I anticipate that this virus will not only greatly affect the health of our most vulnerable community members, but also focus public attention on their rights and safety — or lack thereof. What form this attention takes will be critically important.

People living without adequate, permanent and stable housing lack regular access to a sink for frequent handwashing, a toilet and shower for personal hygiene, and a place to launder clothes. And homelessness itself threatens the immune system: sleep is cut short; nutrition is lacking; sanitation is scarce; health and dental care are nonexistent or put off until too late for fear of medical bills that cannot be paid.

Housing ends homelessness, and the implications of not ensuring it are now more obvious than ever: the current crisis makes crystal clear that ensuring stable housing not only helps the people most directly affected, it also benefits entire communities.

At the same time, immediate attention to the health and safety of homeless people is essential, with guidance from public health experts. But I worry that the coronavirus crisis will not only harm the health of people experiencing homelessness, but that it will also lead to even more stigma and criminalization.

President Trump’s narrative about people experiencing homelessness — including claiming without evidence that police officers are getting sick from their interactions — is extremely harmful, and his administration has already considered policies that would raze homeless encampments and force people experiencing homelessness into megatent shelters, under the guise of public health and safety. However, criminalization of homelessness and sweeping encampments disrupts homeless people’s access to social and health services, leading to worsened health and increased vulnerability.

In addition, by forcing people to move to other locations — the inevitable result when no indoor alternatives are available — may increase exposure to illness, not only for residents but also for the community at large. Perhaps in belated but still welcome recognition of this interconnection, some cities are halting enforcement of sweeps and criminalization practices. Several, including the District, have also issued moratoriums on evictions,

helping to prevent homelessness. We call on all cities and all states to ensure the safety and well-being of their neighbors by following their lead.

Forcing people experiencing homelessness into close, congregate facilities such as large scale-shelters is a recipe for rapid spread of disease. The best public health approach communities could take would be to offer to temporarily house people experiencing homelessness in hotels or motels, at least for the duration of the crisis, as some have done. This would allow people experiencing homelessness full access to adequate sanitation and to effectively maintain social distancing.

Alternatively, while encampments are not a longterm solution, preserving individuals’ ability to sleep in private tents instead of mass facilities through repealing — or at least pausing enforcement of — ordinances banning camping or sleeping in public would ensure people can more safely shelter in place, maintain social distancing, and reduce sleep deprivation. Encampments should be provided with preventative solutions — like mobile toilets, sanitation stations, and trash bins — to further reduce harm.

We also call on the U.S. Congress to follow the lead of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Sherrod Brown to amend the emergency coronavirus relief now being considered to include emergency rental and evictionprevention assistance, as well as financial assistance directly to homelessness service providers, housing authorities, and housingassistance providers. Congress should also put into effect a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions. At a minimum, the eviction moratorium should apply to federally subsidized housing, including public housing and HUD housing, during the crisis.

Treating people with respect and human dignity is the first step in a health crisis — everyone is deserving of health and housing. Both are basic human rights. The current public health crisis demonstrates that we are all linked together, and our collective health is only as strong as its vulnerable parts. This should spur us not only to immediate action but long-term, preventative reforms. It is in the public’s best interest to address the housing needs of this country, as housing is health. Housing provides stability for a functioning immune system, the infrastructure for handwashing and sanitation, and the safety for rest, sleep, proper nutrition, and social distancing. Housing is the next step to mitigating coronavirus.

Forcing people experiencing homelessness into close, congregate facilities such as large scale-shelters is a recipe for rapid spread of disease.

Maria Foscarinis is the founder and executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty.

1 2 // S t reet SenSe Me di a / / Ma rch 1 8 - 3 1, 2020

ArT

Treading the Waters, Part 26 By gerAld AnderSon Artist/Vendor

A National Debt clock ad at a bus stop on 20th street NW, taken Feb. 13.

When we were last with Gerald, he was running the streets of New Orleans with his friend, Minew, who was talking to Muscles, a woman who was also involved with a major operator, Sam Skully...

Photo by Shuhratjon ahMadjonoV

The US debt should be central in our elections

By ShuhrAtjon AhmAdjonov // Artist/Vendor

The U.S. national debt reached $23,277,035,000,000 on Feb. 12. I saw it displayed on a “debt clock” at a Metro bus stop. That broke down to a debt of more than $70,683 per U.S. citizen at the time.

The 45th president, Donald Trump, did not say anything about the state of the U.S. public debt in his annual State of the Union address on Feb. 4.

However, Mr. Trump predicted in an interview with the Washington Post on April 3, 2016, that he could rid the United States of its $19 trillion debt in two terms as president. At a campaign stop in Wausau, Wisconsin, he warned that the U.S. is “sitting on a bubble right now that’s going to explode.”

Our country’s debt should be one of the top issues in this year’s presidential election.

On Jan. 20, 2017, the day on which President Trump took office, the U.S. public debt was $19.9 trillion. So, according to the clock, it has increased by 4 trillion. Trump could not reduce the public debt but has increased the economic bubble, which can really explode on one beautiful day.

According to World Bank estimates, a country’s national debt is considered problematic when it equals 77% of the state’s annual GDP. The U.S. national debt was equal to 105.4% of the annual U.S. GDP in 2019.

The U.S. has the largest external debt in the world. We spend $300 billion a year on interest payments for our securities. And it continues to rise.

A further increase in U.S. public debt poses a great danger to the country’s citizens due to a possible default in a few years. After all, such an increase in public debt cannot last forever.

The largest U.S. debt is owed to China. China holds $1.121 trillion of Treasury securities. The most common (10-year) longterm obligations now bring 2.68% per annum. China, with the help of interest premiums, receives more than $30 billion in interest from the United States and is developing rapidly. It turns out that Americans are working for the development of China.

Americans must elect a president on Nov. 3, 2020, who can actually suspend a further increase and begin to reduce the U.S. public debt.

Any presidential candidate should have a clear program to drastically reduce public debt.

I support the Democratic Party. If the Democratic Party of the United States wants to win the presidential election, it is obliged to develop a specific program to reduce public debt without causing financial damage to U.S. citizens.

One night, me and Minew was in the car and he was telling me about he maybe creep in New Orleans east to the hotel. I said, “Hotel?”

He said, “Yeah”. He said, “I want you to drop me there. O’ girl gonna meet me there in the room.”

Muscles. And she was getting big with them, with Sam Skully. So I knew things was getting heavy.

So I was saying to myself, “Man, we gotta get some more artillery, because I know this n**** about to come at us. I know he going to find out.”

A little time pass by, they get a little deeper into they stuff.

Minew told me Sam had work. Sam trying to find me, you know, like Minew ain’t workin’ no more.

So I said, “You thinking… What it about?”

He said, “Man, fuck it. I ain’t workin’, you ain’t workin’.”

I had told Sam myself, I said, “Man, what happened to my man?”

Sam said, “Man, don’t worry about what

happened to that n****. F*** that n****! That n**** think he run s***.”

I said… Like, I already know what this is about. I said, “Man, I ain’t gonna fuck with that, I ride with my man.”

He said, “N****, I’ll demote you then. That **** out of his damn mind!”

So when Sam said that I told Minew, “Man, you oughta heard with that n**** talking to me, he’s low down and dirty.”

But I’m full of the dope at the same time. So the dope telling me to go get him.

But if I smash him, I gotta get outta that city.

Cause he got plenty of power.

So I’m like, “Minew, like… Man, f*** the n****, we just gonna go. F*** this n****. I ain’t tryin’ to get into that.”

We stayed on Forth and Charles, St. Charles Avenue. Sam stayed on Johnson and Third. Sam like six block away. And they got a powder shop, a coke shop. They run from 9 in the morning to 10 at night.

I’m saying to myself, “F*** him, man.”

Then we seen Sam pass. He pass by. And we see his car at Charlie Connor’s bar.

So we lookin’ at the bar, we lookin’ at the car.

N****in the hood.

So we start reachin’ out.

I said, “Man, f*** it.”

To be continued. Anderson’s first book, “Still Standing: How an Ex-Con Found Salvation in the Floodwaters of Katrina,” is available on Amazon.com.

once you see the culprit Whatever it is, say to yourself: “Now know this!

People are first That is a human’s Right.

A being is a person A person is a part of people and People are human.

Therefore, it is understood in our world that Economic Compassion is a must in a democratic society, based on barter trade and soulless Wall Street.

One person can make a difference.

And the right time is anytime Like today.

If you do not Speak, who will hear the silence within?

PS .VOTE

By Angie WhitehurSt Artist/Vendor

This was originally written as part of a presentation for The National low Income Housing Coalition and is modified. The basic message is to lead even while being led. Protests, rallies, marches, sit-ins and oral and written testimonies are a part of our Constitutional right to free speech. And all are important to assure hearing, understanding and receiving a message loud and clear.

StreetSenSeMedia.org

// 13

Be the River By mAttheW joneS Artist/Vendor

you lookin' at me?

By leveSter green // Artist/Vendor

I enjoy sharing Street Sense with all of our readers old and new. The new ones, especially.

I frequently am asked why I am homeless. I’m an educated white man. Well, every person has their own circumstances. I’ve been homeless 3 times for a few months or a year but for different reasons. The first time was about 15 years ago. I was dating a wealthy woman who gave me a job and a trailer home. Wonderful. But after a while, we started to argue and one day I said, F$%# You! So, now I immediately have no home, no job, and no girlfriend. One helluva bad morning the next day. She had the cops come to evict me for trespassing in the trailer home. She owned it, so it’s sort of legal. I’m just devastated.

So I’m really depressed. Not suicidal, but close.

For advice, I consulted Curtis the Homeless Wino, as he’s known by me and others. Curtis lives behind the church on the corner. He was passed out early in the morning in the gutter of the church parking lot on the edge of the woods. He can’t sleep in the woods because it’s city property. He is a friend. I buy him wine if I have a few bucks sometimes and he is one of the happiest people I have ever met. (RIP Curtis.) He’s dressed like a bum but wearing brand new Walmart work boots. I kicked the soles of his new boots to wake him up. This was not easy, he’s hungover. Eventually, he woke up and said, “Hey, Matt. Wassup?”

“Curtis, I need your help,” I said. “Heather dumped me. I only have a few bucks, and I need to leave the trailer. I am so sad that I’m feeling like suicide might be an option. I might need to share your spot here in the parking lot. Curtis. Why have you not killed yourself yet? Why are you always so #$@% happy? For real, dude? Why should I want to live?”

What he said changed my life.

“Matt, you gots to be the river. What does the river do when it hits a boulder? Does it stop? No. It keeps going. The river will go around it, over it, and under it. The river will tear it down and wash that boulder downstream. It’ll make that boulder a pebble. Matt, you gots to be the river.”

I have since learned that this is an old sermon. I heard it in church recently. But Curtis said it better than any preacher could hope to. He lived it. He inspired me to survive. To ignore obstacles. To know that downstream there is a better future if I want it.

I come from a family of five: two brothers, my mother, my father, and myself. My parents came from South Carolina in ‘57. Both of them worked so I stayed with my grandmother a lot. I had a great upbringing.

But around the age of 10, I began to smoke weed. At first, my smoking was OK. I worked at the Safeway carrying bags for people on the weekend. I was also given an allowance every week. Back then, $5 would get you about 15 joints.

By the time I was 12, I started to break into washing machines. I loved to play sports and was good. But my having started smoking weed meant my life went from good to bad.

By the time I was in junior high, my whole life had changed. I never thought weed would change one’s life so much.

See, by the time I was 14, I got my first charge. By now, I was selling weed. And

No disguise, but here I am in my demise.

I fit the bill so I fulfill, resize.

Surprise! I’m the prize!

Behold! It is I! L-J-G, double I Roman numeral less than π.

Still not to be denied my slice of life.

By FrAnklin Sterling Artist/Vendor

You haven’t been seeing me selling Street Sense for the last month as a cluster of medical problems have befallen — but cannot fell — me, Vendor #214. Two operations are soon to happen. Thy support is my margin of survival (bills), so I thank you sincerely for your concern. I’m still at my poetic tasks as I proceed through these difficulties.

Thanks always, Franklin

Look, man, I survived!

Still trying 2 live like I’m alive!

Remembering “Dr. Shine” By jAmeS gArtrell Artist/Vendor

My Life, Part 1 By dAn hookS Artist/Vendor

I used 2 be a private guy; Now I take pictures like I’m a private eye with an eagle eye.

My Absence

because I was selling it, I was introduced to other drugs. By the next year, I was smoking PCP and dropping acid even though I was a good student in school.

Soon I was using cocaine and heroin. So I was now spending anywhere from $70 to $100 a day just to get high.

In 1982, I got nine to 32 years. I was now 22 and had a two-year-old daughter. So now I’m not going to be there for her. This was not a good time to be locked up in Lorton, VA. I saw a lot of people getting hurt and killed for nothing. The best thing that happened while I was locked up was I got my GED and went to UDC. I now had a new outlook on life. But once I came home, after doing nine years, I was right back to getting high off the same drug I had been using since I was 10. So I kept going back to jail for getting high. I have been to more than 10 jails. If I had it to do all over again, I would never get high because it’s the cause of my life going back and forth to jail.

To be continued.

Hello, Street Sense readers, fans, and supporters! I’d like to dedicate this article to a great and inspiring man that many of you probably knew. His name was Bernard Gray, a.k.a. Dr. Shine. And some of us that really knew him called him Boo! Bernard passed away. To me, he was a legend who had survived both prosperity and adversity — staying strong with a smile on his face and telling jokes the whole time!

If you saw or knew him you would agree. It’s heartbreaking and sad how he left!

However, it was his time to leave and go to a better place with the Creator almighty.

He will be missed with plenty of love from all of us that knew him and, maybe now that you know of him, by you, too. He showed me what it is like to have strength as an individual being.

Boo was a Viking, a soldier, and a good man that worked to earn a living every day until the end of his time. Everybody around the restaurants and clubs on 19th, 18th, and M streets NW respected him for his talent and was enraptured by his attitude and behavior.

Dr. Shine’s life and death shows just how hard it is for individuals like us who strive every day to take care of ourselves and our families. While we’re dealing with poverty and adversities, there are other individual beings sitting on the sidelines. They watch and judge the average person who asks for help, support, guidance, or motivation during depression!

Since Bernard Gray’s death, I have seen no family member step up to recognize him.

Only the people that have been around him through hard times have mourned him — his family on the street. We, as a community, cannot continue to neglect people when times get tough. With that negative approach, homelessness will only continue to exist.

The rich get richer, while the middle class stay the same or inch closer to homelessness themselves. While the poor will be poor and die, with no remembrance!

Ask yourself, is this what you want in life? Would you want to show your family and children how you really feel towards the less fortunate? To enjoy excess while others could not take care of themselves? Think about it. It’s time to step up, citizens, and be your brother and sister’s keeper! God bless in heart and soul!

1 4 // St reet Sen se Me di a / / Ma rch 1 8 - 31, 2020

Answers

Sudoku #6 3 2

Intermediate Sudoku by KrazyDad, Volume 20, Book 1

Sudoku #1 Sudoku #2 8 3 6 5 9 4 2 7 1 1 4 9 3 Intermediate Sudoku by KrazyDad, Volume 20, Book 1 7 5 1 3 2 6 8 9 4 3 5 2 1 9 4 2 7 1 8 5 3 6 8 6 7 9 1 6 3 2 4 7 9 5 8 5 2 4 6 9 8 6 5 4 8 9 6 5 3 1 2 7 5 2 7 1 8 9 4 6 3 7 3 1 8

By Marcus Green Artist/Vendor 6 9 8 4 3 5 7 1 2 4 7 8 2 3 1 5 8 7 2 6 4 9 2 9 3 7 In my eyes, things like good 2 7 4 9 6 1 3 8 5 6 1 5 4

5

Stay safe

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© 2019 KrazyDad.com

Fill in the blank squares so that each row, each column and each Sudoku 3-by-3 block contain all of the digits 1 thru 9. #5

SUDOKU: Fill in

8 7without 1 5 6 9 squares If youthe useblank logic you can solve the puzzle guesswork.

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so that each row, 6 a9 4 order 8 to3solve 1 puzzle.

5 7 the Need a little help? The hints page 2 shows logical column andsquare you should solve. Or use the answers page Use iteach to identify the next 5 3 1 9 4 2 7 8 6 if youeach really3-by-3 get stuck. block contain all of the 7 5 4 6 9 1 3 8 2 digits 1-9.

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Last edition’s Puzzle solution >>

6 3 5 9 3 2 8 7 3 2 8 7 4 4 9 5 1 2 6 1 7 9 3 8

Sudoku #7 9 2 1 7 5 3 7 9 4 6 8 5 2 7 4 8 1 9 6 4 3 8 5 6 8 4 9 1 6 5 3 2 7 1 2 3

4 8 6 2

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Zounds! I was never so bethumped with words since I first called my brother's father dad.

-- William Shakespeare, "King John"

1 9 6 3 5 2 4 #3 7 Sudoku 6 3 2 5 7 4 8 1 7 2 9 6 247 4 1 9 7 8 6 2 3 66 8 1 4 5 3 7 4 3 1 5 9 74 5 3 8 5 6 3 7 2 5 6 8 9 4 1 8 9 6 4 7 1 5 9 5 1 9 8 42 336

hygiene come from the home.

Please cover your mouth when you cough, yawn, etc. Germs Sudoku #4 get airborne. I’m wearing 2 7 gloves and washing8 my3 hands six times a day. 1 9 4 6 It’s sad this virus is spreading 5 6 7 4 so fast around the world. The 2 at8risk3 of 1 elderly are the most serious danger if they 1 6 it. 2 7 catch I just hope and pray that they 4 5 9 3 come up with a vaccine. It’s 2 they 8 5 urgent. Canada has3 said have one in the works.

9 4 5 8 My hygiene level has 6 7 1 9 changed. I’m getting as much sleep as I can and consuming more raw garlic, ginger, and tea.

Sudoku #6 Once again, cover your mouth 1 9 2 your when you cough and3 wash hands thoroughly.6Those 5 8are 4 your germs. Please contain 4 7 9 6 them. I’ll contain mine. We 8 9 2but 3 can all make a difference, we have to act deliberately.

1 6 7 5 Take care of yourself and 5 3 4 2 family and think hygiene and 9 4 3 1 safety, always.

God Bless.

7 1 6 8

2 8

5

7 5 8 6 2 8 6 9 4 7 2 4 3 1 5 3 9 1 7 8 1 7 2 3 4 // Artist/Vendor 4 2By6Joe5 Jackson 9 6 3 5 9 1 am concerned about the coronavirus because you don’t know who you 5 1 Yes, 4 I8 6 can catch it from. Where I live some residents are scared when they see people 9 8 7 2 3

Keep your hands clean

1 3

2 5

wearing masks, even though the masks keep the germs down a little. Make sure you wash your hands and keep them clean with hand sanitizer. Watch what you touch because people can be nasty and thoughtless about many things when they are afraid. So, be extra careful out there. I guess when we are at our last 9days 5 all4 types 6 of things happen.

5 8 6

9 4 8 7 6 1 7 2 4 3

8 2 1 3 9 4 9 7 3 5 8 2 6 1 9 7 4 6 1 3 8 2 5 7

8 4 7 2 3 1 3 5 4 1 6 8 9 2 6 7 8 2 5 7 3 4 9 7 9 6 1

Sudoku #8 4 7 6 5 5 8 1 2 2 9 3 4 6 5 7 8 1 2 4 3 8 3 9 1 3 1 5 6 7 4 2 9 9 6 8 7

5

6 7 1 9 2 8 7 5 3 4 9 1 8 6 5 2 4

3

8 2 9 3 9 3 7 6 4 7 6 1 5 8 2 9 3 4 1 6 5 9 8 7 4 7 6 2 5 8 2 4 7 9 5 1 8 3 6 3 4 5 1 2 1

Author Gene Weingarten is a college dropout and a nationally syndicated humor columnist for The Washington Post. Author Dan Weingarten is a former college dropout and a current college student majoring in information technology. Many thanks to Gene Weingarten and The Washington Post Writers Group for allowing Street Sense to run Barney & Clyde.

streetsensemedia.org

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Angela Pounds-Bennett, Street Sense Media artist and vendor, dies at 54 By juliA pinney julia.pinney@streetsensemedia.org

A

ngela Marie Pounds-Bennett of Washington, D.C., died on the morning of New Year’s Day..

Her death at 54 was due to a drug overdose, likely heroin or fentanyl, according to her husband, Fred Bennett. It was a shock to him because she was due to start a treatment program just a few days later.

He said it was hard to know the extent to which Angela was using drugs during their marriage but throughout the marriage she had been attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings. “She seemed to have some kind of control over it and I should know better that there’s really no control over those substances,” Bennett said.

This May would have been their fourth wedding anniversary.

Their marriage was defined by looking forward and enjoying their time together rather than dwelling on their respective pasts, Bennett said. “We [weren’t] digging back. We were trying to move forward with our lives and do some traveling and like that,” he recalled. “We had traveled to my home in South Carolina, to Emanuel AME Church, and [spent] time with my lifelong buddy, ate crabs, met good people, met my first cousin, and we just enjoyed ourselves. That’s what we were looking forward to doing, that sort of thing. We would go on trips to shows and to the casino. We were trying to enjoy the time we had left.”

Bennett described Angela as very personable and social and said this was one of the reasons that she enjoyed working at Street Sense Media. “Angela enjoyed people and one of the things she would talk about is the people that she met, and the people she saw on a regular basis,” Bennett said. “The people that she sold papers to, she didn’t just sell them a paper. They would have conversations.”

Lissa Ramsepaul, the Clinical Director at Street Sense Media, was one of Angela’s regular customers at her “spot” on Connecticut Avenue near Politics and Prose Bookstore. When they met, Ramsepaul wasn’t yet working at Street Sense but was familiar with the organization. They bonded in their first conversation, Ramsepaul said. “She was always very well dressed for work and took a lot of pride in her appearance. She commented on my appearance and complimented me and felt I was really very pretty. We just sort of struck up a conversation, and because I knew that that was her spot, when I was in the area I would look for her to buy from her,” Ramsepaul said.

Ramsepaul would continue to see Angela after she began working for Street Sense and Angela came to the office to obtain copies of the paper to sell. She also contributed two poems to the newspaper. Angela also came to Street Sense from time to time for FACE, a group organized by some of the newspaper vendors and contributors whose premise is to empower its members; FACE is an acronym for “Focus, Attitude, Commitment to Excellence.”

Reginald Black, a Street Sense Media vendor and poet who co-leads FACE said Angela was a mentor in the group.

He noted that having lived in D.C. for most of her life, she had a rich knowledge of the city’s history and knew about programs that could aid group members. “She was able to give her experience in the city with different things and be able to mentor people through different processes,” Black said. “She was kinda like our ship’s counselor, in a way, at the times she was here. I think that [it] was very insightful, [her] being able to validate some of the vendors’ feelings and be able to share her own about how things should run and how things should go and what we can do to improve the situation.”

Angela began using cocaine when she was 16 and dealt with her addiction to drugs for her entire life, according to her mother, Gwen Pleasant, who was just 15 and using drugs when she had Angela. She struggled to take care of

her daughter, who was born with fetal alcohol syndrome.

Pleasant said this diagnosis wasn’t common in 1965 and she wasn’t able to access resources and treatment for her daughter. As a result, Angela had difficulties in school both emotionally and academically, according to Pleasant. “She didn’t even complete junior high school because she got with the bad crowd in junior high school and she smoked PCP, tripped out and was never able to regain any sense of stability.”

Pleasant said her daughter spent a few years in a residential treatment facility during her teen years and did well there. But when she turned 18, she signed herself out.

Angela spent the next few years living on the streets and working as a prostitute, according to Pleasant. She said Angela was not only using drugs again but was dealing with major depression with psychotic features that, when left untreated, can cause hallucinations. “She wouldn’t stay on the medication, so she never got better because she never gave herself a chance,” Pleasant said.

Her mother said that in her 20s, Angela spent time living at the Center for Creative Non-Violence. She said it was there that Angela began smoking K2 and was gang-raped by a group of men one night at a party.

Pleasant said Angela was married to a few different men during her 20s but only for short periods of time. She said Angela never had a divorce because all the men died from their alcoholism or addictions.

Angela had run-ins with the law throughout her late 20s and early 30s, primarily due to possession of PCP and rent disputes with landlords. She spent a few years in jail after being caught with a weapon, her husband said. According to D.C. Superior Court records, she was placed on probation in 2003.

Bennett also said Angela spent some time in Baltimore where she reconnected with her father, Samuel Pounds. He added that she talked about trying to go to nursing school there. But being in Baltimore also fueled Angela’s heroin addiction, according to her mother, as Angela’s father was also addicted. Pleasant said Angela passed out one day and was raped by one of her father’s best friends. She ended up living on the streets in Baltimore for a few years before coming back to the District, her mother said.

Court records show that Angela’s issues with the law stopped in 2012. It was around that time that she began working with the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters as a paid protester, Bennett said. She was paid to be a presence on picket lines protesting against companies that used cheap labor rather than hire union members.

It was in this job that she met Bennett, who was a supervisor.

He said it was difficult to know all the issues Angela dealt with throughout her life. “She wasn’t a person that you could easily get close to because she was always being protective of herself.”

Her mother said Angela tried to address her issues on her own and carried a lot of hatred from the abuse she had experienced.

“Angela really tried,” Pleasant said. “But she had been traumatized so much that she really wasn’t consistent in her efforts to get

Angela Pounds at the 2014 Street Sense Media holiday party.

Photo by jane caVe

better because she really wouldn’t accept the help that was needed.”

What Bennett said he will always remember about Angela is the way she made him and others feel.

“She had a good heart. I see her, as broke as she was, giving money to people on the street,” he said. “Somebody looked down on their luck, she would give them money and things. More than that, she would give them conversation. I guess the bottom line was in the end I just knew how she made me feel. It was just good. It made me feel good to be with her and be around her.”

Thank you for reading Street Sense!

From your vendor, MArCH 18 - 31, 2020 | VoluMe 17 iSSue 10

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