Tag: poverty

$130,000 for an 8-foot-by-8-foot shed? That’s what L.A. is paying in a bid to house the homeless

In other cities, 64-square-foot aluminum and composite sheds are being used as quick and inexpensive emergency shelter for homeless people.

Not in Los Angeles. Here, plans to employ the minimalist structures, known as “tiny homes,” have blossomed into expensive development projects with access roads, underground utilities and concrete foundations — and commensurate planning delays.

At the city’s first tiny home village, scheduled to open in January, each of the 39 closet-sized homes is costing $130,000, about 10 times what some other cities are spending. Five more villages are planned to open later.

Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the program in March, signaling that the concept of sheltering people in tiny homes, long neglected in Los Angeles, had emerged as a leading strategy in the city’s response to a federal lawsuit alleging it has done too little to get homeless people off the streets.

He told the court that the city had purchased 50 of the prefab structures as the first installment of a plan to shelter homeless people in villages of tiny homes around the city.

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For The First Time Ever, Millions Of Working-Poor Americans Forced To Turn To Food Banks

Feeding America, a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks, was overwhelmed with demand as 20% of the organization’s food banks were at severe risk of running out of food earlier this year.

Demand at food banks has been so high, that Feeding America handed out 4.2 billion meals from March through October, the most ever.

The organization reported a 60% average increase in food bank users during the pandemic – and at least 30% are first-timers.

Data from Feeding America showed 181 food banks in its network distributed nearly 57% more food in the third quarter than the same period in 2019.

Estimates from the food bank suggest 1 in 6 Americans, from 35 million in 2019 to more than 50 million by the end of this year, will have food insecurity problems. The problem is worse for children – nearly 1 in 4 will go hungry as the pandemic deeply scarred the economy.

Shockingly, Feeding America found that 1 in 5 residents in Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, and Louisiana could not put food on the table.

AP interviewed Donna Duerr, 56, who said she must “either pay bills or get food.” She said food bank donations have greatly helped her as she struggles to survive.

Many of the folks attending food bank lines are the working poor who once had jobs in the service industry. Because of permanent job loss, many of their jobs will be completely wiped out.

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Food stamps, rent assistance may be withheld from those who refuse Covid-19 vaccinations

Americans who refuse to get mandated Covid-19 vaccinations may lose benefits such as food stamps (WIC) and rent assistance, according to a document from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Health Security.

According to the document, one of the top members of the “Working Group of Readying Populations for COVID-19 Vaccines” is Luciana Borio, MD, a prominent member of Joe Biden’s Covid-19 taskforce.

Borio recommends recruiting celebrities and social media influencers to speak to “specific audiences” about the urgency of taking the vaccine.

The document says “bundling” vaccines with food stamps would be, “a way to build trust” among low-income people such as “Blacks and minority communities.”

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Virus Could Push 150 Million People Into Extreme Poverty

The World Bank suggested upwards of 150 million people could be pushed into “extreme poverty” due to the virus pandemic, erasing nearly three years of progress in global poverty reductions. 

According to the report, for the first time in two decades, the virus pandemic, compounded by the effects of climate change, are slowing poverty reduction progress, resulting in an additional 88 million to 115 million people falling into extreme poverty this year, with total estimates of 150 million in 2021, depending on the economic recovery shape. 

The biennial Poverty and Shared Prosperity Report defines “extreme poverty” as living on less than $1.90 per day, which is likely to affect between 9.1%-9.4% of the world’s population this year. With the world’s poverty rate expected to rise this year, it would mean extreme poverty is at 2017’s 9.2% level, marking the first rise in the poverty rate in two decades. The rate was expected to drop to 7.5% by 2021 before the coronavirus pandemic.

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As World Plunges Into Poverty, Super Rich Top Unprecedented $10 Trillion Net Worth Thanks to COVID-19

Make no mistake, the government’s reaction to COVID-19 — shutting down business, forcing people to state home, all the while granting monopolies to massive chains like Amazon, Walmart, etc. — has decimated the middle class and pushed the already-struggling poor that much deeper into despair. But you won’t see the owners of those monopolies complaining as they have seen their wealth soar to unprecedented highs.

As the rest of the country struggles to pay their mortgages, has their businesses shut down, and descends into poverty, COVID-19 for the super rich has been a record setting windfall. Four of the most controversial billionaires on the planet, have seen their wealth increase by over a combined $100 billion in just the last 10 months.

Since the COVID-19 lockdowns began, Jeff Bezzos has seen his net worth shoot up by nearly $70 billion. Bill Gates, who has been embroiled in controversy and has somehow become the mainstream media’s go-to “expert” on COVID-19, has seen his net worth increase by nearly $10 billion. As his platform censors any information that challenges the establishment’s narrative on COVID-19, Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth increased by $20 billion. And, as his platform also censors information like Facebook, Larry page has seen his profits from Google add $5 billion to his net worth.

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