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By Sydney Melson The Birmingham Times A number of Birmingham organizations are fighting to prevent and end homelessness in the metro area and provide services for a vulnerable population especially in the midst of a pandemic. Here are three: JIMMIE HALE MISSION JHM has implemented big changes to its recovery program in the past year, said Executive Director Michael Coleman. “When I came in a year ago, our program was basically a book that taught people how to recover from addiction. It was kind of a self-paced thing, and we didn’t even have anyone on site that was certified in addiction r...

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...

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 comm...

Communities struggle to make best use of largest influx of homeless aid in U.S. history Shaena Montanari and Natalie Walters, Howard Center for Investigative Journalism Winter in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge is wet and freezing, a life-threatening situation for the area’s homeless residents even without a pandemic. Darcy Long-Curtiss understands that better than most. The shelter that normally provided nighttime refuge was closed because of COVID-19, and federal aid money meant to help protect homeless people from the pandemic came late and with confusing restrictions. By...

SHAENA MONTANARI AND NATALIE WALTERS Howard Center for Investigative Journalism Winter in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge is wet and freezing, a life-threatening situation for the area’s homeless residents even without a pandemic. Darcy Long-Curtiss understands that better than most. The shelter that normally provided nighttime refuge was closed because of COVID-19, and federal aid money meant to help protect homeless people from the pandemic came late and with confusing restrictions. By the time Long-Curtiss got permission to erect temporary shelters purchased with her co...