Kendall Worth,
Halifax,NS
May 9th, 2022.
Dear:
Premier Tim Houston;
Health and Wellness Minister Michelle Thompson;
Dr. Robert Strang, MD, MOH;
I have for the past few years been a journalist covering serious issues affecting the community of people living in poverty, in Halifax, NS. My journalism includes covering how COVID is affecting the community of people I advocate for.
If you are readers of my BLOG; I do hope you saw my last BLOG post where I stated the following: “I am writing this post on Saturday May 7th 2022 and I am writing it firstly, because I, myself, on the evening of Monday May 2nd tested positive for COVID. Since that date I have been dealing with the symptoms of having COVID. In short, I will say “Readers, believe me, dealing with, and living life, over these past few days with COVID symptoms has been no fun!” The Second reason I am writing, is that while living the past few days following the self isolation requirements set out by Public Health, I have been in-touch with others, concerned because they believe, people testing positive for COVID, are coming out of isolation to attend places like Souls Harbour, Hope Cottage, and the Saint Mary’s Basilica Drop-in, plus the other places where people-living-in-poverty, congregate”.
This I brought up the question, Are people really showing up COVID+ at places like Souls Harbour, Hope Cottage, and the Saint Mary’s Basilica Drop-in??
Since writing that blog post, the following possibilities have come to my attention, from discussion with my contacts.
#1 – It is possible that those who may be showing up at those places where people-living-in-poverty congregate, may be part of our homeless population here in Halifax. After all, if any of them test positive for COVID, they have only the 4 walls of their places like tents and/or "crisis shelters", in which to isolate. They maybe still showing up for access to things like food/hot meals, washrooms, phones, and laundry. Remember – The 4 walls of tents and Crises Shelters provide a lot less isolation resources then a home/apartment does.
#2 – Also it was suggested to me that it is possible that people could be coming out of isolation because they are Income Assistance Recipients whose case workers will not approve the telephone allowance from the ESIA program.
According to section 8.2.34, of the Employment Support and Income Assistance Policy Manual; “Telephone for Health and Safety Reasons: An applicant or recipient may be eligible for assistance for basic telephone service, where a telephone is required for medical or personal safety reasons. Connection charges and deposits will not normally be paid by the Department. The expense of special telephone equipment may be considered, when a medical condition prevents an applicant or recipient from using basic equipment, and assistance is not available from other sources (e.g. volunteer organizations). Documentation of need from relevant professionals (medical or otherwise) must be provided by an applicant or recipient”. During public health directed isolation, then, many people have no means to reach out for assistance to stay in isolation, but would have to leave their housing to seek food and or assistance.
If what I said in the two above statements is true, then the fact that people living in poverty are coming out of isolation for those reasons, needs to addressed.
How do we, at this point, address what remain outstanding issues, regarding COVID, for people living in poverty?
The community of people I advocate for and I, agree, that, in general, going back to living life by public health restrictions and lock downs, plus the government introducing new guidelines on what we should do in this “new normal” to not get COVID, are good ideas in principle. But what is clear is we cannot go back into living life with lock-down measures. Although we do not want to see restrictions make a come back for our own reasons, we are also scared that those heartless financially-better-off-people who do not care about us, are going to bring back the Truckers/Convoy Freedom Rallies. As this article points out, the community of people I advocate for, did not support those rallies. The Community of people I advocate for do not want those Truckers/Convoy/Freedom rallies to make a come back!
I am now going to take a moment to go back to what I talked about in this BLOG post where I discuss the solution of Guaranteed Annual Income to the problem of not having enough money to live on. One solution is to give the Homeless and IA Recipients say $2000 a month to live on as their living allowance. That would be solution because the Homeless (Especially when a homeless person is directed by Public Health to isolate for 7 days) would be able to afford a much better situation - like a Hotel Room or an apartment - to isolate in, than a tent or crisis shelter. An Income Assistance Recipient would not have to worry about being affected by section 8.2.34, of the Employment Support and Income Assistance Policy Manual because the system I am suggesting in the above BLOG post would allow them to afford access to a phone to make calls during times of Public Health directed self-isolation.
A lot of people in the Community of People I advocate for are concerned and scared for the future of COVID at this point, and these things need to be addressed.
Yours Truly
Kendall Worth!
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| Kendall Worth - Masked and vaxxed |
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