Are You Aware? Who Will Survive?
This is part V in our “battlefronts” Awareness Wednesday series. Read the other posts in the series here.
So many of us are home with our families and are relatively safe and going out infrequently. Imagine if the situation were different.
Imagine trying to survive in this time without a home. Many homeless people are afraid to go into shelters at this time. They fear the close quarters and the infection rates in the shelters. Earlier this month 94 men tested positive at a homeless shelter in Salt Lake City. Recently in the Boston area all residents and staff at certain homeless shelters were tested for COVID-19. At one of these shelters 43% of residents and 11% of staff were positive. Knowing that the shelters are crowded many prefer to stay on the street.
In New York City the homeless have gone underground into the subways. Even the governor of New York State is frustrated. He has called the situation “disgusting” and “disrespectful to the essential workers who have to ride the subway system.” Unfortunately, many of these homeless in the subway system do not have any other options and probably feel safer in the subway without any PPE than they would in a shelter. In the midst of the homeless sheltering in the subway system more than 80 MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authority) employees have died of COVID-19.
Everywhere I go I see signs that say “wash your hands” and “stop the spread.” The best advice that we have for not catching and transmitting COVID-19 is to wash our hands and to maintain social distancing. This is hard to do if you live like so many Native Americans do.
Recently a Native American woman named Hope Tidzump was interviewed on the NPR show Morning Edition. She spoke about how difficult it is to isolate family members in the large households that are common to Native American families. Often there are three generations under one roof. And families can be quite large. She has eight children. In addition to having many people in the household, the physical structures can be quite inadequate. On the Navajo reservation it is estimated that 30% of households are without running water. This makes regular hand washing near impossible.
When we speak about no running water we often think only about drinking, washing, and house cleaning. The other side of this issue is that without running water, these homes do not have toileting facilities either. One woman speaks of traveling two miles away to her mother’s home to bathe and cook. The number of COVID-19 cases on the Navajo reservation is creeping up towards 1,650. The infection rate per capita in the Navajo Nation is higher than all states except New York and New Jersey. There have been about 60 deaths.
The Navajo reservation also has other infrastructure issues. Many homes have no electricity. Many have no internet service. With all children home from school at this time, so many rely on the internet to keep their kids connected to their educational systems. Schoolwork is delivered via email, and classroom meetings are happening on the internet. For the children on the reservation that is an impossibility.
Many lower-income families also face similar challenges. When children are not in school and the parents are essential but low-wage workers, where do the children go, and what do they do all day long? Imagine where the children of your food manufacturing plant workers, grocery workers, restaurant workers must be during the hours when parents are away. These children may also be disconnected from the school breakfast and lunch programs they have relied on in the past. Many parents are frustrated with their ability to keep children on track with their schoolwork when they are homeschooling and even working from home with them. How difficult it must be to keep children on track when parents are away for a good portion of the day. Many of these parents are being burdened with the cost of daycare for children who should be in school while they are at work. This is increasing the financial squeeze.
In New York City the rates of COVID-19 have been the highest in the nation. The Bronx has taken the brunt. This is most apparent in the city’s housing projects. The New York City Housing Authority is responsible for the housing of many of the poorest residents in the city. NYCHA workers had been working without any PPE. In NYC Housing Authority buildings, 20% of residents are more than 60 years old. Many NYCHA staffers, such as maintenance workers and inspectors, have tested positive. Much of their work is in close proximity to residents, making repairs within their private units, fixing water leaks, testing for and removing lead paint, and working in mold remediation. Staffers have complained of a lack of soap and paper towels in their restroom facilities. Buildings were supplied with cleaning products that were not anti-microbial. When information was requested by the New York Post about numbers of NYCHA worker deaths due to COVID-19 there was no response.
The people who live in the housing projects do not have the luxury of self-isolating from the rest of the household when they are ill. There is no second bathroom available for the infirm. There is no guest room or finished basement to hunker down in until the malady has passed. It is nearly inevitable that the virus will spread rampantly between members of the same household, even under the best of conditions. Chris Cuomo, brother to the governor of New York and popular CNN anchor, was unable to self-isolate well enough to prevent illness’s spread to others of his household despite being able to provide a deluxe self-isolation suite for himself in his basement.
When we recover from this pandemic, we should hold our elected officials accountable for what has happened. This is not just about whether hospital workers have had PPE. This is not just the social service and health and community service administrators who have failed the homeless so miserably. It is also the federal agencies that have allowed the Native American population to suffer at such great magnitude without electricity, water, internet, and more. It is the housing authorities that have never had disinfectants in their stockpiles for flu seasons, measles outbreaks, or urination in the hallways — and now this. We must hold them accountable for believing that children of underpaid essential workers who are no longer in school can be kept safe and fed while their parents are keeping others safe and fed. We must demand more, not only for ourselves but for others more vulnerable.
Charlotte Mountain is the anti-racism committee lead for Mormon Women for Ethical Government.
