‘Already in a state of crisis’ — How the coronavirus is hitting the unhoused hardest
Mama Cat, left, has been advocating and providing food for the unhoused in St. Louis for five years but the pandemic has put a hold on the services she provides. “This coronavirus is a monster. It doesn’t care who it takes out. And our unhoused family has no protection. They have nowhere to go.”
Photo courtesy PotBangerz
In its fifth season, the podcast ‘We Live Here’ from St. Louis Public Radio and PRX continues its work exposing and presenting solutions for racial and economic inequities in the St. Louis region and beyond. This episode was produced in partnership with America Amplified.
TJ Johnston
The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted how interconnected our country is, and sadly, how long-standing inequities make some of us much more vulnerable to the disease.
Among the most susceptible right now are our unhoused.
“People who are without housing are already in a state of crisis anyway,” says TJ Johnston.
Johnston is a shelter resident in San Francisco, California. Though being in a shelter brings some relief during this pandemic, like having access to a hand-washing station, it also brings risks, like overcrowding.
“It's quite easy to catch a cold, living in such an environment,” he says. “So, I am definitely worried that I might be able to catch something worse.”
Bobby Watts with the Nashville-based National Health Care for the Homeless Council says the coronavirus hasn’t necessarily created more cracks for people to slip through, but the sudden and extreme pressure of the outbreak has made existing cracks wider.
Bobby Watts
“What this really points out is the inherent inequity in how we have been addressing healthcare and housing in this country,” he says. “Whenever a system is under stress, the most vulnerable people are those that are the neediest, but also the most likely to be left out. So if we reach the time … where they're talking about rationing and sharing ventilators, we have to make those choices of who gets it and who doesn't. I'm very concerned that those who are poorer will … not be as highly valued or treated equally or equitably in the healthcare system.”
Listen to the episode here or wherever you get your podcasts.
In this episode:
Cathy Daniels, or Mama Cat, St. Louis-based community leader and advocate who experienced homelessness herself; founder and leader of PotBangerz, an all-volunteer group feeding and advocating for the unhoused.
TJ Johnston, shelter resident in San Francisco; reporter and assistant editor of Street Sheet, a newspaper focused on homelessness and poverty, written by and for people experiencing these conditions, published through the Coalition on Homelessness.
Teresa Anderson, community member in South Bend, Indiana.
Kathy Schneider, executive director of St. Margaret’s House in South Bend, Indiana, a day-center for women and children in need.
Sarah Kroeger, researcher at the University of Notre Dame.
Bobby Watts, chief executive officer of the Nashville-based National Health Care for the Homeless Council.