Davis Street ‘really helped me through the hardest times’
Demand for services from nonprofit has greatly increased due to COVID-19
Things haven’t always been easy for Gina Harris and her son, Oliver. But, fortunately, they’ve had the Davis Street Community Center in times of need.
“I’ve been going there for like three years now,” said the 26-year- old San Leandro resident, who has received food, clothing and other assistance from the nonprofit. “They have honestly really helped me through the hardest times I’ve been through.”
Some of those hard times happened earlier this year as Harris, who supports herself and 4-year- old Oliver in part by cleaning homes, suddenly found herself in financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In the beginning, a lot of my clients didn’t want me to come clean their houses,” she said.
That greatly cut into the earnings of Harris, who describes herself as “partially a single parent.” She explained that she is no longer in a relationship with Oliver’s father, who is in the military and “doing his own thing right now.”
Once again, Davis Street was there for Harris and her son — just like the nonprofit organization has been there for thousands of others who have been impacted by the pandemic.
“It’s a really great feeling to be able to help people like Gina,” said Kristal Gonzalez, Davis Street’s basic needs director. “Everybody is struggling right now with COVID and people are losing their
jobs left and right.
“We need to help those families who are really struggling and in need — just give them the necessities they need, but normally they wouldn’t ask for,” she said.
Over the past six months, the nonprofit has seen a huge increase in demand for its services, which include rent and utility assistance, medical, dental and behavioral health services, child care services, and assistance with food and groceries.
“We usually would see roughly, I would say, 15 maybe to 25 households per day because we are open five days a week. Twenty-five is a good number, I would say,” Gonzalez said. “Now, we are seeing close to 75 households per day.”
And there are days when that number spikes even higher at the community center, which was founded as a ministry of the First Chris
And the best hope is that this phase of scarcity is as short as possible,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of Oaklandbased consumer advocacy organization Health Access and a member of the state’s Community Vaccine Advisory Committee, a group of 60 community-based organizations that are helping guide the state’s policies.
As currently drafted, California’s guidelines say that the vaccine should go to workers in three groups: education and child care workers (1.4 million), emergency services personnel ( 1.1 million), and people who work in high-priority essential businesses (3.4 million), ranging from agriculture and grocery services to plant nurseries and sawmills.
Other criteria — such as age and underlying medical conditions — are “subpriorities” of these three main groups.
This differs from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation on Sunday asserting that adults 75 and older, as well as front-line essential workers, both belong in the next vaccination group.
Today, the state will discuss whether to adjust its criteria to include elders too, reflecting the new CDC recommendation. Wright expects California to align itself with the CDC guidelines. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration will make the final call.
So far, a state work group has focused on essential workers, said Dr. Robert Schechter, chief of the Immunization Branch of the California Department of Public Health and co- chair of the group. But over the next days and weeks, the committee will consider those with medical conditions, including advanced age, that put them at higher risk, he added.
If not included in this second stage, elders and people with high-risk med
ical conditions, as well as additional essential workers, will almost certainly be included in the third phase of vaccination.
Across the nation, there is near-universal consensus on who belonged in the first round, called Phase 1A: front-line health care workers and residents of nursing facilities. Only Florida included adults over age 65 in its first wave of vaccinations.
But states are divided over who belongs in the next phase, called 1B.
A labama , Delawa re , Florida, Maryland, North Carolina and Tennessee each prioritize elders and those with high-risk medical conditions over nonhealth essential workers. North Carolina and Tennessee prioritize those with high-risk medical conditions over those ages 65 and older, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The trade- off depends on what a state is trying to achieve, according to Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former Food and Drug Adminis
tration commissioner. To reduce deaths, he said, you’d prioritize the elderly. To reduce the rate of infection and bolster the economy, you’d prioritize essential workers.
In California, parents and educators celebrated the addition of teachers to the proposed 1B list.
“It is necessary to move forward with school reopening plans,” said Santa Cruz teacher Stacy Newsom Kerr. “In my district, something like 97% of teachers feel returning to classrooms right now is unsafe.”
Members of the justice system also applauded their inclusion.
“It’s been treacherous. T he whole time, we’ve never stopped going into court,” said Santa Clara County Public Defender Molly O’Neal. “The hallways were really crowded, with members of the public coming in, and nobody is doing any kind of mask enforcement.”
But others, including companies, unions and industry trade associations,
were frustrated that they must wait.
“We’re everywhere. We come in contact with a tremendous number of people,” said David Chandler of the California Association of Licensed Security Agencies, Guards & Associates, which represents 600,000 security guards. “We’re in every kind of business, whether it be a retail establishment, hospital, distribution centers, transportation centers or financial institutions.”
Amazon already has an agreement in place with a licensed health care provider to administer COVID-19 vaccines to its employees on- site at its facilities. It just needs clearance to get the vaccine.
Among those not on the list: the Space X scientists who care for the four astronauts currently on the space station; Lyft and Uber drivers; the people who collect and process municipal solid waste; longshoremen and other Pacific maritime workers and employees of the California Independent System Operator, responsible for maintaining the reliability of one of the largest and most modern power grids in the world.
And while public transit workers are on the CDC’s list, they’re not on the proposed state list. “Our frontline workers sit alongside other essential workers: grocery clerks, health care workers, caregivers and emergency services personnel and therefore deserve equal prioritization in receiving the COVID-19 vaccine,” argues Robert Lyles of AC Transit.
In contrast, many elders are retired, so they can stay sheltered at home, some noted.
Wright argues this is a moment to think of the common good. Even if others are vaccinated before us, we all benefit.
“It is my interest to have my kids educated. It is in my interest to have access to an ICU bed. It’s in my interest to have groceries delivered and to have emergency services,” he said.
“This should be a moment of social solidarity.”