COVID-19

Already facing health and education gaps, refugees in San Diego banded together during the pandemic to define their own challenges and create their own solutions. Jama Ahmed Mohamed was 2 years old when his family fled the civil war in Mogadishu, Somalia, and escaped to a refugee camp in Kenya. This became his precarious home, where his family faced alienation and violence as displaced outsiders in the borderlands of two countries. “There’s this feeling of never being settled. …We would...

The number of people who became homeless for the first time more than doubled last year, a possible result of the pandemic and a concerning trend that could worsen when eviction moratoriums and rental assistance programs end. In its Homeless Crisis Response System report from 2020, the Regional Task Force on the Homeless found the number of first-time homeless people in the county increased from 2,326 in 2019 to 4,152 in 2020, a 79 percent jump. The previous year saw a 6 percent decrease...

It’s natural and desirable to grieve in the wake of so much death and deprivation. But what is grief? Is it another word for sadness? How do we work through it? And what are we working toward, when we grieve? The difference between sadness and grief While related, sadness and grief are functionally quite different. Sadness is an emotion—and like all emotions we feel it in brief episodes. Moments of truly profound sadness last only minutes at a time. Sadness leads to decreased physiological...

With many San Diegans still out of work and struggling under the pandemic, we're thrilled to announce Housing Help San Diego, a new housing and rent relief resource. HousingHelpSD.org is a one-stop hub made to help renters and landlords alike understand their rights and the resources available to help prevent evictions and homelessness. Residents can access the latest info on the moratorium, receive relevant updates and news right to their inbox, and even speak directly with a housing...

A spike in assaults against Asian Americans nationwide converging with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has further exposed health inequities and simmering sentiments of racism over the past year. In a report released last week, the group Stop AAPI Hate said it had received nearly 3,800 reports of hate incidents , including verbal harassment, shunning and physical assault, over the past year. With few concrete legislative answers to the problem, health experts and patients alike are left...

The City of San Diego COVID-19 Housing Stability Assistance Program helps to pay past-due, unpaid rent and utilities for individuals and families with low income in the City of San Diego who experience financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Households with income at or below 80 percent of San Diego’s Area Median Income ($92,400 per year for a family of four) may qualify if they are obligated to pay rent, have experienced a reduction in income or other financial hardship due to...

The struggle to maintain mental health is a universal experience in the American workplace. Before the pandemic, one in four American workers had been diagnosed with depression[1] and one in three reported having experienced some form of depression[2]. This is even more relevant in this current crisis. As February comes to a close, we are approaching 12 months of the battle against COVID-19 and the upending of what work, safety or even community looks like. We are bombarded daily with stats...

When San Diego County first imposed stay-at-home orders in March, officials said they hoped the region would return to some semblance of normalcy within a few weeks. Nine months later, now on our second lockdown order, COVID-19 cases and deaths are skyrocketing. Currently, 0% of Southern California’s ICU beds are available as more people are hospitalized with the virus. Already, more than 1,200 county residents have died from COVID-19. We recently caught up with some of the families who lost...