This week, we’re revisiting our episode “What Is Appalachia?” from December 2021. Appalachia connects mountainous parts of the South, the Midwest, the Rust Belt and even the Northeast. That leaves so much room for geographic and cultural variation, as well as many different views on what Appalachia really is.
Dominique Miller is an outreach worker for Harmony House in Huntington, WV, a group that makes contact with homeless people to offer support and shelter.Kyle Vass
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The coronavirus has changed everything. People around the globe have spent nearly a year sheltering at home, adhering to restrictions and requirements to avoid the contagious COVID-19.
Imagine what that experience is like for someone who’s homeless. If your only option for a warm bed is a group shelter, will you take it – or will you stay on the street? Across the country, shelters meet public health requirements to make congregate housing as safe as possible.
On this Us & Them episode, we look at the challenge people face when deciding how to shelter from the virus.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation and the West Virginia Humanities Council.
Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond. You also can listen to Us & Them on WVPB Radio — tune in on the fourth Thursday of every month at 8 p.m., with an encore presentation on the following Saturday at 3 p.m.
Kyle Vass
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Dominique Miller is an outreach worker for Harmony House, an organization that works to rehouse people experiencing homelessness in and around Huntington, W.Va., Monday, Jan. 18, 2021.
Kyle Vass
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Dominique Miller looks for people who may be inhabiting a dilapidated structure in Huntington, W.Va., Monday, Jan. 18, 2021.
Kyle Vass
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The Huntington City Mission uses an on site chapel to house people overnight who can’t be admitted to their main facility for fear of spreading Covid-19 in Huntington, W.Va., Tuesday Jan. 19, 2021.
Kyle Vass
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A support beam for a bridge serves as a shelf for a couple who live outside in Charleston W.Va., Sunday Jan. 17, 2021. (Photo/Kyle Vass)
Kyle Vass
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An unsheltered couple take refuge under a bridge in Charleston W.Va., Sunday Jan. 17, 2021.
This week, we’re revisiting our episode “What Is Appalachia?” from December 2021. Appalachia connects mountainous parts of the South, the Midwest, the Rust Belt and even the Northeast. That leaves so much room for geographic and cultural variation, as well as many different views on what Appalachia really is.
If you feel under the weather, how do you know when it’s time to see a doctor? Also, a growing movement to make Appalachia the “truffle capital of the world,” is being led by a small-town farmer in southern Kentucky.
On this West Virginia Week, health care in the state may see transformation, Gov. Patrick Morrisey wants to bring out of state foster kids home, and we explore the origins of a popular American hymn.
This week, too often, people with mental health challenges or substance use disorder wind up in jail. But crisis response teams offer another way. Also, changes to the Endangered Species Act could benefit big business. They could also kill animals like the eastern hellbender. And, in troubled times, a West Virginia writer says to find peace in nature.