Whose Lives Matter
“Why don’t we let this wash over the country” (the COVID19 virus) Donald Trump asked and Dr. Fauci replied, “People would die.” Now 24,000+ Americans have paid the price and died. But are the deaths of seniors and others without homes factored into the equations? Who is to blame for their deaths? Mayors, governors and other leaders have allowed more than half a million Americans to be without homes. Half of them are seniors. These are real live human beings. How many deaths are acceptable? 100,000 or 250,000 or more? 550,000 people are already infected (see below).
Dr. Fauci is a real doctor and a real expert and knows what he is talking about when he said that people would die (as they have).
Where are the affordable homes and safe homes for people to reside in and shelter in place? It is not on the streets, in cars nor in shelters, or in nursing homes.
Many seniors and others without homes are already sick from not having a home. Sleep deprivation, poor nutrition, stress, bans, discrimination and criminalization lead to various illnesses including heart and lung conditions.
“Among Italy’s COVID-19 fatalities, 76.1% had high blood pressure, 35.5% had diabetes and 33% had heart disease Underlying health conditions like heart disease and diabetes are linked to “poorer clinical outcomes.”
“In the U.S. 133 million people suffer from at least one chronic disease. Among them, more than 1 in 10 have diabetes (and another 1 in 3 has prediabetes), while 108 million adults have high blood pressure. Further, 71.6% of U.S. adults aged 20 and over are overweight or obese.”
We already know that a high percentage of unsheltered people have underlying medical conditions. By putting them all together in shelters, they are more likely to spread the virus. Doctors and health care professionals have said that they should not be put into homeless shelters nor left on the streets especially during this crisis.
When the unsheltered and sheltered populations are combined, Washington, D.C. has 103.3 homeless per 10,000 people, which makes it the city with the highest homelessness level in America. Boston follows at 101.8, New York at 101.5, San Francisco at 94.3 and Santa Rosa in California at 59.8.
Urban Areas With the Highest Numbers of Homeless People
New York City, New York.
Los Angeles and Los Angeles County, California.
Seattle and King County, Washington.
San Diego and San Diego County, California.
San Jose, Santa Clara and Santa Clara County, California.
In January 2020, there were 62,679 homeless people, including 14,682 homeless families with 22,013 homeless children, sleeping each night in the New York City municipal shelter system. Families make up more than two-thirds of the homeless shelter population.
Research shows that the primary cause of homelessness, particularly among families, is lack of affordable housing. Surveys of homeless families have identified the following major immediate, triggering causes of homelessness: eviction; doubled-up or severely overcrowded housing; domestic violence; job loss; and hazardous housing conditions.
Each night thousands of unsheltered homeless people sleep on New York City streets, in the subway system, and in other public spaces. There is no accurate measurement of New York City’s unsheltered homeless population, and recent City surveys significantly underestimate the number of unsheltered homeless New Yorkers.
“While much of New York City is staying inside, a crisis has taken hold among a population for whom social distancing is nearly impossible: the more than 17,000 men and women, many of them already in poor health, who sleep in roughly 100 group or “congregate” shelters for single adults. Most live in dormitories that are fertile fields for the virus, with beds close enough for people sleeping in them to hold hands.
“And rather than keeping people away from shelters, the virus has driven them in.
“Some inmates released from Rikers Island to control the outbreakin the jail have wound up in shelters. And with the outdoor safety net falling apart — few pedestrians to beg for change; public bathrooms shut; many soup kitchens closed for lack of food and volunteers — the nightly shelter population has consistently reached levels seen only a few times in the last decade, and usually only on the most frigid nights of winter.
“When all of those systems simultaneously break down, you’re going to get this influx into congregate situations,” said Joshua Goldfein, a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society. “It’s a time bomb.”
“Residents who are at least 70 years old, and some residents in the 10 most densely packed shelters, are also being moved to hotels, whether they have symptoms or not. Some homeless families previously staying in hotels are being moved to make room for those residents.
“Mayor Bill de Blasio took office in 2014 vowing to reduce the number of homeless, but it has only grown, to an estimated 79,000 people, in part because of rising rents beyond the reach of low-income families.
“The shelter system is a patchwork of 450 buildings.”
Meanwhile in California: 108,000+ people without homes.
“California experienced its most widespread outbreak of COVID-19 in any homeless shelter to date where nearly half of 144 shelter residents tested positive. For some perspective, the outbreak in this single shelter of 70 shelter guests comprises 8.5% of all positive cases in San Francisco, which total 857.
“When looking back on the lead-up to this catastrophe we see a series of policy missteps that got us here. This was entirely predictable and preventable. This was reiterated by doctors and service providers.
“Academics, physicians, public health professors and advocates submitted advisory letters to the administration from March 18 onwards warning of the disaster that would occur in congregate shelters. They advised congregate shelters be relocated into vacant hotels. If this was not possible, it was advised that if someone tested positive in a shelter, everyone in the shelter should be immediately relocated into hotels and then tested.
How many people without homes have to get sick, spread the virus and die on the streets and/or in shelters? Will it matter if they are adults, seniors or children?
And what will be the consequences of re-opening America too soon? the Washington Post reported that Trump was thinking maybe he could re-open America before May 1, because this whole situation is really "hurting his presidency and reelection prospects," according to people who know him.
He has numerous task forces including one to re-open America. But they have no plans for getting hospitals the equipment they need, they have no plans for widespread testing, either regular coronavirus tests or antibody tests to find out just how widespread in the population exposure has been. They have nothing.
According to Johns Hopkins, there are almost 550,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States right now. Governors like Phil Murphy in New Jersey are correctly noting in the Post that to re-open too quickly would be like "pouring gasoline on the fire" that's already raging.
Governors from various states such as California, Oregon and Washington are getting lots of kudos for joining together to re-open when they think the time is right. They will not be forced by the federal government to reopen their states in a reckless manner.
READ THE BILL OF RIGHT'S
The 10th Amendment says:
"The powers not delegated to the US by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
States get to decide what to do on their own.
But how many more Americans have to die before SOMEONE takes charge of this mess including sheltering people without homes into SAFE HOMES?
