cold

Wintertime Ithaca Homelessness Crisis Calls for Immediate Action

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Correction appended. In a wooded stretch behind Ithaca’s Walmart known as “the Jungle,” dozens of homeless individuals live out of tents and sleeping bags, often battling poor weather and environmental conditions. Under New York State’s Code-Blue policy, Tompkins County is required to provide shelter for anyone who requests it when the temperature drops below 32 degrees. However, with last week’s polar vortex bringing the temperature down to as low as negative seven degrees to Ithaca, the request for shelter rocketed, according to the Ithaca Voice, leaving the County in a shortage of resources. Kit Kephart, commissioner for the Department of Social Services told Ithaca Voice that because the County does not have enough shelter beds, many people requesting shelter are housed temporarily in local churches or hotel rooms.
To help the homeless population in the county survive the winter, Winnie Ho ’19 collaborated with the Ithaca Homeless Crisis team to fundraise online from Jan.

collegetown

Delayed Collegetown Apartment Opening Leaves Students Homeless

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Fontana has told his residents in his emails that the situation has made him “sick,” and that he is “fighting every hour to get [the residents] in as soon as possible.” However, despite his apologies and monetary compensation, residents argue that his efforts do not sufficiently ease the situations’ inconveniences.

Columns

ELIOT | The Pursuit of True Nobility

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By CHRISTO ELIOT
“And my whole crew is lounging
Celebrating every day, no more public housing
Thinking back to my one-room shack
Now my moms pimps a Ac with minks on her back”
– The Notorious B.I.G.
Christopher George Latore Wallace, who most of us know by the moniker The Notorious B.I.G., grew up in a single bedroom, subsidized housing project in the Brooklyn neighborhood, Bedford-Stuyvesant. Today the tree-lined streets of Bed-Stuy are wearing the after effects of gentrification, with renovated brownstones purchased largely by outsiders attracted by the affordability of houses in the area and a crime rate that has declined substantially since the days of of the late 20th century. In the 1980s, Bed-Stuy was struck with the same crack cocaine epidemic that plagued so many major American cities. Born in 1972, Biggie was 12 years old when he was swept into the trade and began to pedal the drug. Future undisputed heavyweight boxing champion of the world Mike Tyson grew up in the same streets and frequently fought with classmates and contemporaries who made fun of his lisp growing up.

Uncategorized

Camping Out: Economy Renders Student Homeless

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Zach Biegun ’11 is not your typical Cornell student. He does not really like to drink or go out. He is 24 years old. He postponed college for three and a half years to pursue his passion in ballet. He is the 12th person in his family to attend Cornell: His sister majored in anthropology, his brother in mechanical engineering, his mother in art history and his grandfather in animal food science. He works two jobs, as a yoga instructor in Helen Newman and as an Emergency Medical Technician in Boston on weekends. Oh, and he’s homeless.[img_assist|nid=37911|title=No direction home|desc=Zachary Biegun ’11 stands outside his tent where he often sleeps this semester. On Monday night he camped out behind the Africana Center.|link=node|align=left|width=336|height=224]