By Sydney Melson and Erica Wright
The Birmingham Times
COVID-19 vaccination sites are opening around Jefferson County, and growing numbers of citizens are receiving shots—but some wonder whether the homeless population is being overlooked.
“It is incredibly important that the homeless population is not forgotten,” said Anne Wright Rygiel, executive director of the Firehouse Ministries, a homeless shelter that has provided services to the Birmingham community since 1983. “This is still congregate living and housing. … We’re all grouped together, and we do the best we can.”
Having a COVID-19 vaccination plan is extremely important for area emergency shelters, said Gordon Sullivan, Director of Operations for One Roof, the umbrella organization for agencies fighting to prevent and end homelessness in the Birmingham metro area. “Even with social distancing and mask wearing, there is still a risk of viral spread among our most vulnerable citizens experiencing homelessness.”
Tamika Palmer, the mother of Breonna Taylor, right, listens to a news conference, Friday, Sept. 25, 2020, in Louisville, Ky. Family attorney Ben Crump is calling for the Kentucky attorney general to release the transcripts from the grand jury that decided not to charge any of the officers involved in the Black woman's death. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
By Erica Wright
The Birmingham Times
What’s left to say about 2020 except that it’s over. But what a year with the well-chronicled coronavirus pandemic that killed more than 300,000; racial unrest that created division in across many communities and a presidential election that was over — until it wasn’t. And there was plenty of more to a year that goes down as one of the most memorable in recent history. Here’s some of what happened.