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Us & Them Encore: Compassion Fatigue

Homelessness is not just an issue for big cities. Across America, communities large and small are struggling to provide shelter to people without housing. In Charleston, West Virginia, government and community approaches to help the unhoused have created renewed debate on an issue that is already divisive. Earlier this year, this episode of Us & Them received a second place award from the Virginias AP Broadcasters for Best Podcast.

Homelessness has been on the rise since 2016, and the pandemic only exacerbated an acute shortage of resources to help people living on the streets. Many communities are struggling to provide support, even as some homeless people turn away from emergency shelters and remain in outdoor encampments.

In Charleston, West Virginia, the city’s opioid response program also focuses on support for people who are homeless. Tent cities have been a focus at the state legislature as debate continues over how to help people living on the street.

At the same time, some people say they’re more afraid of people living on the street than in the past. Providing sustained care for homeless people continues to elude and divide even well-meaning and determined communities.

Earlier this year, our Us & Them episode called Compassion Fatigue received a second place award from the Virginias AP Broadcasters for Best Podcast.

This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council and the CRC Foundation.

Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond.

*Us & Them* host Trey Kay met Randy Lantz on the steps of First Presbyterian Church in Charleston on a cold night in January 2023. Lantz, who’s from Georgia, said he’s been homeless since 2016. Lantz said after serving three prison sentences, he found his way “back into the world” after his first incarcerations, but this time, he said, he’s struggling.

*Photo Credit: Julie Blackwood*

Rev. William Myers became First Presbyterian Church’s new head minister in August 2021. It wasn’t long before he became aware of the church’s transient guests who slept on the building’s front steps. Rev. Myers allowed them to camp there overnight, but he also wanted to set limits, knowing children in the church’s preschool program used that entrance every morning and afternoon.

Myers established ground rules for those sheltering on the steps. But this did not resolve the concerns of some community members in and outside the congregation. In his first days in Charleston, Rev. Myers was quickly immersed in the debate over how best to help people living on the street.

(Click here to view Rev. Myer’s sermon about caring for homeless people.)

*Photo Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Ashley Switzer and her husband have raised five children in West Virginia’s capitol city. Her grandson attends a preschool located near First Presbyterian Church and St. John’s Episcopal Church, which houses Manna Meal, a soup kitchen that’s been serving meals to homeless people for more than four decades.

“There was a group of parents from this school right here who actually called for a meeting with the mayor of our town because of instances with homeless or criminal vagrants on school property, near school property, banging on parents’ car doors, children in the back screaming,” she said, standing outside the preschool playground where her grandson plays. “There have been children playing on this actual playground where homeless people will threaten them. My grandson has witnessed someone walking down this very sidewalk with no pants.”

*Photo Credit: Ashley Switzer*

Barbara DiPietro, senior director of policy for the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, oversees the group’s federal advocacy and policy analysis. “It’s not compassion in our public policies when we consistently choose not to fund housing, not to raise wages, to allow people to not get health care,” DiPietro said. “Homelessness isn’t an accident. These are conscious public policy choices.”

*Photo Credit: National Institute for Medical Respite Care*

Taryn Wherry, director of the City of Charleston’s CARE program, or Coordinated Addiction Response Effort, said the city’s outreach program focuses on those with substance use disorder as well as people living on the streets. The CARE program began under Charleston’s current mayor, Amy Goodwin.

*(Click here to hear Mayor Goodwin on meeting the needs of Charleston’s homeless population.)*

“We take a very hands-on, boots on the ground approach every day,” Wherry said. “We’re in the streets, we’re on the [river] banks or in abandoned properties. We’re talking to people and meeting them where they’re at.”

Wherry said CARE staff know firsthand what it is like to be out on the streets, struggling with drug or alcohol addiction.

“We have individuals who have lived and learned experience in all fields, people who are in long-term recovery who have been in active addiction,” she said.

*(Click here to view former Charleston Mayor Danny Jones announcing his order to dismantle a homeless encampment known as “Tent City.”)*

*Photo Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

A peer support worker with Covenant House, Sommer Short works for the nonprofit service organization that partners with Charleston’s CARE team. When Sommer was 21, she was injured in a car accident and prescribed opioids. Over the next five years, she transitioned to heroin use and said she eventually left home and became homeless.

Short works to support people who are living without shelter, like she used to live. She said many of the homeless people she meets are living with substance use disorder and feel like “her people.”

“Though I may be in a position where I’m three years sober today, I am comfortable going out there and trying to help someone the same way that someone helped me,” she said.

*Photo Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Short offers food and hygiene bags that she keeps in her trunk to homeless people camping in and around Charleston.

“We have a Ziploc bag, which contains the toilet paper and their socks and some ointment. Then we have some baby wipes. And inside, we also have a bottle of water, a hairbrush, a comb, a little travel pack for their toothpaste and a brush, a razor, shaving cream,” she said. Short also has food gift cards and Narcan nasal spray, which can be used to reverse a drug overdose.

*Photo Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

As Short walked toward a homeless encampment, she passed under a highway overpass where someone had written “HOPE” in yellow spray paint on the concrete wall.

“Hold On Pain Ends,” Short said, describing what the word means to her. “You always gotta have hope. Pain ends eventually. But you got to work for it as well.”

Photo Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Chef Iocovozzi Brings A Taste Of The Philippines To Asheville

Asheville, North Carolina has an eclectic dining scene and one of its “hidden” gems is Neng Jr.’s. It serves elevated Filipino cuisine in a little restaurant that’s tucked away in an alley on Asheville’s artsy West Side. Folkways Reporter Margaret McLeod Leef visited and brings us this story.

This story originally aired in the May 5, 2024 episode of Inside Appalachia.

The first thing I notice about Neng Jr.’s is its lively decor. There’s a green-tiled open kitchen, fire engine red countertops, and turquoise walls. Adorning the space are items from Chef and owner Silver Iocovozzi’s personal life — stuffed animals and well-worn books, trinkets from Iocovozzi’s mom for good luck, a quirky telephone in the shape of a red high heel and a vibrant painting of Iocovozzi’s husband, Cherry.

But, what I’m here for is Iocovozzi’s popular Filipino creation — the adobo.

“To me, it is like a quintessential Filipino dish, and it evokes all those flavors,” Iocovozzi says. “I think a lot of people get their minds blown by it, and I love that.”

Inside the kitchen, Iocovozzi cooks in a high-powered wok over an open flame. The adobo is served with duck on the menu. But today, Iocovozzi makes the adobo with pork cheeks that he has on hand. The adobo sauce simmers while he prepares a bitter melon relish to set off the adobo. The dish has a uniquely Filipino flavor profile.

“I would say it’s really a kind of a tangy cuisine, lots of vinegar and lots of sour,” Iocovozzi says. “There’s a lot of tart aspects to it.”

Silver Iocovozzi, chef and owner of Neng Jr.’s.

*Photo Credit: Will Crooks/Courtesy*

The bitter melon, a spiky cucumber-looking gourd, is almost too tangy on its own. But paired with the rich and silky adobo, my mouth waters for more. The dish is an example of the taste and technical skill Iocovozzi is known for.

Neng Jr.’s was recently nominated for a James Beard award, and Iocovozzi was named one of Time Magazine’s Next 100 People to Watch. He traces the start of his cooking journey back to his mother. He has fond childhood memories of her cooking.

“She would sit down on the ground with this really heavy cutting board and tenderize meat and marinate it, and it was a really simple marinade. It was just soy and oil and garlic and onion and black pepper. But it tasted so good to me,” Iocovozzi says.

Iocovozzi and his mom loved the soy, garlic and onion flavors. His mom is Filipino, and his dad was from North Carolina.

“They met in Japan. My dad was stationed there; he was a Marine. My mom, a Filipino woman, was working in Japan at a karaoke bar. She was an entertainer,” Iocovozzi says.

Iocovozzi’s parents met and married, and his mom immigrated to the United States. His mom was the only person of color in her new family. Staying connected to her Filipino heritage was difficult.

“My mom was really seeking some comfort of home and realizing she couldn’t find that representation of Filipino food or cooking, or even that warmth of culture that Filipinos bring,” Iocovozzi says.

But she found a way to share her culture with Iocovozzi.

“I would go with her to the Asian market and get all these ingredients that she could tell me about and get excited about. Because I think that was like the little amount of representation that she could share with me,” Iocovozzi says.

It wasn’t until visiting Manila and Batangas in the Philippines that Iocovozzi fully understood his mom’s culture and the link between food and celebration. “I grew up between Manila and eastern North Carolina, where my grandparents lived. And [I] really had a lot of experience in Batangas. Batangas is coastal in the Philippines where we would go visit. And because we were in town, they would just bring a reason to have a fiesta and a big celebration around food,” Iocovozzi says.

Those fiestas often centered on butchering and cooking a whole hog. “This was the first time I’d seen a pig be sacrificed. A lot of the cookery in Batangas is no electricity, no gas, just fire. And to see the way … these people that are living in these provinces cook with fire and break down pig and really know how to kill a pig with their hands — it’s an experience I’ll never forget. And also understanding how much I can appreciate food and where it comes from,” Iocovozzi says.

Understanding where food comes from — and how to prepare it — was a quest that took Iocovozzi from the Philippines to the American South and around the world in the restaurant business.

He got his start in Asheville as a dishwasher in 2011 after a friend suggested he’d like the city. Soon, he attended culinary school in the area and worked as a chef at Buxton Hall BBQ — an Asheville institution — before eventually cooking at award-winning restaurants in Tokyo, New York and Grand Cayman Island.

In 2020, he returned to Asheville to build his own community around food. Within two months, he secured a building with a takeout window for what would later become Neng Jr.’s. When designing Neng Jr.’s, Iocovozzi was as intentional about the space itself as the menu.

“I just want to create a space that shows some representation for those that have been seeking it and know that it can exist,” Iocovozzi says.

At Neng Jr.’s, Iocovozzi created a space that welcomes people of all ethnicities, genders, and orientations — just like Iocovozzi’s mom made room for her culture when she moved to the States. “I’m putting myself out there and my heart,” Iocovozzi says, “It’s really a passion project.”

The exterior of Neng Jr.’s, located in a narrow alley in Asheville, has a brightly painted mural.

*Photo Credit: Margaret McLeod Leef /West Virginia Public Broadcastin*g

And it was also a way to honor his mom, whose Filipino nickname was Naneng.

“It’s an affectionate name for a young girl. And I don’t, you know, identify as that, but … Neng Jr.’s is an iteration of that nickname stemming from my mom’s nickname. Because I’m her mini-me,” Iocovozzi says.

Iocovozzi shares his story through Neng Jr.’s, embodying the flavors, warmth and joyfulness of home. “I don’t think of myself as just like a restaurant in Asheville. I think of Neng’s as a restaurant in the world,” Iocovozzi says. “It’s so important to be a Filipino restaurant in Asheville because the people need to know what this food tastes like. And also understand this level of hospitality that comes from a Filipino.”

The Filipino traditions in Chef Iocovozzi’s family history continue to shape the restaurant. Iocovozzi is in the process of building a stage modeled after the original karaoke bars in Japan, like the one where his parents met.

——

This story is part of the Inside Appalachia Folkways Reporting Project, a partnership with West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Inside Appalachia.

The Folkways Reporting Project is made possible in part with support from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies to the West Virginia Public Broadcasting Foundation. Subscribe to the podcast to hear more stories of Appalachian folklife, arts and culture.

Attorney General Responsibilities And Ramp Season Is Winding Down, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, as chief legal officer for West Virginia’s citizens, state office holders, agencies and boards, the attorney general’s (AG) responsibilities cover the litigation gamut. The four candidates in the upcoming primary races for AG have diverse views on how those responsibilities should be handled – and prioritized. Randy Yohe has our second story on this race.

On this West Virginia Morning, as chief legal officer for West Virginia’s citizens, state office holders, agencies and boards, the attorney general’s (AG) responsibilities cover the litigation gamut. The four candidates in the upcoming primary races for AG have diverse views on how those responsibilities should be handled – and prioritized. Randy Yohe has our second story on this race.

Also, in this show, ramp season in West Virginia may be winding down, but before the last ramp has been picked, Bill Lynch went out to see what was left.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.

Eric Douglas produced this episode.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

Appalachian Filipino Cuisine And Joachim Cooder Has Our Song Of The Week, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, Asheville, North Carolina is home to an eclectic dining scene with hidden gems like Neng Jr.’s, which serves up elevated Filipino cuisine. Tucked away in an alley, it’s a slice of home no matter where you’re from. Folkways Reporter Margaret McLeod Leef has more.

On this West Virginia Morning, Asheville, North Carolina is home to an eclectic dining scene with hidden gems like Neng Jr.’s, which serves up elevated Filipino cuisine. Tucked away in an alley, it’s a slice of home no matter where you’re from. Folkways Reporter Margaret McLeod Leef has more.

Also, in this show, our Mountain Stage Song of the Week comes to us from Los Angeles-area musician Joachim Cooder. Cooder plays an electric mbira and sings accompanied by Gabe Noel on bass and Sam Gendel on saxophone. We listen to their performance of “Fuchsia Machu Picchu.”

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.

Our Appalachia Health News project is made possible with support from Marshall Health.

West Virginia Morning is produced with help from Bill Lynch, Briana Heaney, Chris Schulz, Curtis Tate, Emily Rice, Eric Douglas, Jack Walker, Liz McCormick, and Randy Yohe.

Eric Douglas is our news director. Emily Rice produced this episode. Teresa Wills is our host.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

Morgantown Nonprofit Mails Books To People Incarcerated Across Appalachia

Founded in 2004, the Appalachian Prison Book Project has mailed more than 70,000 books to people incarcerated in Appalachian prisons, with the goal of expanding access to books and educational resources.

Each week, volunteers comb through a stack of more than 200 letters on the second floor of the Aull Center, a historic twentieth-century home in Monongalia County now owned by the Morgantown Public Library.

Sent by people incarcerated across Appalachia, most of these letters contain the same request: a new book to read.

Some prisons in the United States have their own libraries, but often with narrow inventories and limited hours of operation. In turn, more than 50 organizations across the United States and Canada mail incarcerated people books missing from their library shelves.

In West Virginia, one nonprofit — the Appalachian Prison Book Project (APBP) — has distributed books throughout the region since 2004. In that twenty year span, APBP has mailed more than 70,000 books, according to Communications Coordinator Lydia Welker.

People in Appalachian prisons can submit written letters to APBP, requesting books they would like to receive through the mail, Welker said. APBP then examines each prison’s policies and connects readers with the book they requested, or one from a similar genre or subject area.

Volunteers join the project from all different backgrounds. Some are advocates for prison reform. Others, like Morgantown High School student Lilly Staples, do it from a love of books and desire to expand reading access.

Danielle Stoneberg prepares to send a book from the Appalachian Prison Book Project’s Morgantown office to an Appalachian prison.

*Photo Credit: Chris Schulz/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

“It’s a really nice space for volunteer hours,” Staples said while volunteering at the Aull Center in April. “I’ve always loved to read, and so helping, giving other people that chance in their position really means something to me.”

Still, this work can be tricky. Books with divisive or controversial content — like violence and nudity — tend to be rejected outright by facility staff.

Other rules are subjective, changing from facility to facility. Welker said one prison even refused to take in a copy of The Lord of the Rings because it had illustrations of a fictional map.

“These rules are not set in stone,” Welker said. “It’s up to the discretion of whoever’s working in the mailroom or whatever prison system it is to decide if a book gets inside.”

Occasionally, books APBP sends are rejected by prison staff. APBP keeps a running list of which books are accepted at which facility to ensure that resources are not wasted.

Welker said APBP’s most common request is a dictionary. Other widely sought-after texts include textbooks, as well as books that contain medical or legal information.

Reference books are some of the most requested items from the Appalachian Prison Book Project.

*Photo Credit: Chris Schulz/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

For the staff at APBP, this only further exemplifies the gaps in educational resources available to people who are incarcerated.

“It goes to show how much people need access to the outside world,” she said. “Very literally, information about how this world works.”

Mass incarceration in the United States often cuts people off from books and educational resources, which makes the work of APBP and similar prison book projects important, Welker said.

In 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that 355 of every 100,000 U.S. residents were incarcerated — one of the highest rates globally.

Additionally, the national incarceration rate of Black residents was nearly five times the incarceration rate of white residents in 2022. Hispanic residents were also incarcerated at nearly double the rate of white residents nationally.

Without groups like APBP, thousands of residents — and a disproportionate number of Black residents — would lack access to reading resources.

For many staff members and volunteers, working with APBP has opened their eyes to realities like these, and the daily challenges that incarcerated people face across the United States.

Before joining APBP, mass incarceration in the United States “was never really something that seemed really direct to me,” said Danielle Stoneberg,

“It was never really something that seemed really direct to me, and kind of in my face,” Danielle Stoneberg, prison outreach coordinator, said.

Stacks of books sit on the shelves of the Appalachian Prison Book Project’s Morgantown office, ready to ship to people who are incarcerated.

*Photo Credit: Chris Schulz/West Virginia Public Broadcasting.*

“As I started to have these experiences of going inside and reading letters, and also just having conversations with people, … I started to realize that I have a lot more friends than I thought, who had loved ones who have been impacted by the system,” she said.

Stoneberg said prison book projects like APBP allow volunteers to acknowledge the humanity of people who are incarcerated and work to improve their lived experiences.

“Many of us who work here with APBP, we believe that individuals shouldn’t be judged for the mistake that they made. We wouldn’t want to be judged for the worst thing that we ever did,” she said. “That’s why I sit on the phone for 20, 30 minutes on hold with a prison just to get hung up on, or not get the answer that I want.”

Stoneberg said this work is an important step toward making a difference in the U.S. prison system. Now, she is encouraging others to get involved in the project, too.

“What I would tell people is go ahead and have these experiences,” she said. “See if that makes you believe in the humanity of people who are incarcerated.”

For more information on the Appalachian Prison Book Project, visit the project’s website.

Chris Schulz contributed reporting to this story.

Books In Prisons And How The Role Of ‘Dad’ Is Shifting, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, being a parent is a 24-hour role, and a lifetime commitment that has historically fallen to women. As men have started to take on more domestic work, what it means to be a father has started to shift. Chris Schulz looks at these changes in our latest installment of “Now What? A Series on Parenting.”

On this West Virginia Morning, being a parent is a 24-hour role, and a lifetime commitment that has historically fallen to women. As men have started to take on more domestic work, what it means to be a father has started to shift.

Chris Schulz looks at these changes in our latest installment of “Now What? A Series on Parenting.”

Also, in this show, across the country, people who are incarcerated have reduced access to libraries, books and educational resources, according to the Appalachian Prison Book Project. For the past 20 years, the West Virginia-based nonprofit has worked to change that. They say that accessing books is a fundamental human right.

Jack Walker reports on the group’s history, and what it takes to get a book into an Appalachian prison.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.

Chris Schulz produced this episode.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning