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As Covid cases continue to rise, cases in Monroe County have gone up to above 10%, forcing schools to shut down all in-person sessions. At the same time, Bloomington officials are attempting to remove the homeless from public property. Earlier this week, the parks department in Bloomington tried to ban personal tents on all park property. Melanie talks about how the Parks Department Zoom meeting was met with community protest and the board ultimately decided to not proceed with the vote to ban tents on park property during the daytime.
A study by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness in 2018 found that LGBTQ+ youth represent 20% of all youth experiencing homelessness. About one in ten young adults ages 18 to 25, and about one in 30 adolescents ages 13 to 17, experience some form of unaccompanied homelessness over the course of a year.
*Update as of Thursday morning: The BPD dismantled the homeless camp over at Seminary Park near Kroger at some point around midnight last night.
Anyone wishing to help with issues of homelessness in Bloomington can learn more by joining the Bloomington Homelessness Coalition facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/btownhc.
Music this week:
