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THE SAN BERNARDINO

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AMERICAN

“A Man In Debt is So Far A Slave” -R.W. Emerson

NEWSPAPER A Community Newspaper Serving San Bernardino, Riverside & Los Angeles Counties

December 30, 2021 Thursday Edition

Volume 52 No. 37 Mailing: P.O. Box 837, Victorville, CA 92393

Office: (909) 889-7677

Email: Mary @Sb-American.com

Website: www.SB-American.com

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them and these will continue till they have resisted either with words or blows or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance those of whom they suppress. —Fredrick Douglass (1849)

The Pandemic’s Heavy Toll on Our Children’s Mental Health

HUD Reaches Settlement With Southern California Housing Providers Resolving Claims Of National Origin Discrimination

Charlene Muhammad | California Black Media Government News

The Covid-19 pandemic is taking a heavy toll on the health, finances, and mobility of people around the world, affecting almost everyone on the planet. Youth, in particular, have been experiencing an uptick in mental health cases, including depression, in a trend U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is calling an emerging crisis. On Dec. 7, Murthy released a 42page health advisory drawing the country’s attention to the “urgent” need to help youth facing mental

health problems. He said one in three students in the U.S. say they experience sustained periods of sadness and hopelessness. That number represents a 40 % increase from 2009 to 2019. The pandemic has made those conditions worse. “The future wellbeing of our country depends on how we support and invest in the next generation,” said Murthy. “Especially in this moment, as we work to protect the health of Americans in the face of a new

variant, we also need to focus on how we can emerge stronger on the other side. This advisory shows us how we can all work together to step up for our children during this dual crisis.” Recently, a panel of experts tackled the issue during a news briefing organized by Ethnic Media Services titled “The Pandemic's Heavy Toll on Teen Mental Health.” Michelle Cabrera, Executive Director of the County Behavioral Health Directors Association

(CBHDA), spotlighted the health needs of minority youth. She explained that all over the nation -- and in California -- youth are suffering from a mental health crisis, leading to increasing numbers of suicide and high levels of anxiety in schools. "The numbers of children and youth in acute mental health crises shot up two and sometimes three-fold. We have had children as young as eight-years-old who have been hospitalized due to suicidal ideation,” stated Cabrera. Behavioral health experts say transitioning students back to in-person learning results in higher rates of children and youth exper ienci ng mental health crises, she said. According to Cabrera, existing programs lack support for youth in Black and Native populations, and records show that major disparities are also present among professionals within the behavioral health field. “For example, the access to services and programs that may be used in White communities to combat mental health problems continued on page 2

Omicron And A Collapsed Healthcare System: This Is How COVID Closes 2021 More

than

5.3

million

people

have

died

worldwide

from

the

virus.

By: Jenny Manrique

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced today that it has reached a Conciliation/Voluntary Compliance Agreement with National Community Renaissance, National Community Renaissance of California, Desert Meadows Housing Partners, LP, Victorville Housing Partners L.P., and Cathedral Family Housing Partners, L.P., management agents and owners of four HUDsubsidized apartment complexes in southern California, resolving allegations that the property managers refused to rent to or provide adequate language services for applicants with limited English proficiency (LEP). Read the agreement. The Fair Housing Act prohibits housing providers from discriminating against persons seeking housing because of national origin. In addition, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of national origin by recipients of federal financial assistance and requires such recipients to take reasonable steps to ensure that LEP persons have meaningful access to programs and activities. “Individuals and families seeking to obtain decent affordable housing shouldn’t be turned away just because they don’t speak English,” said Demetria McCain, HUD’s Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. “Today’s settlement represents HUD’s ongoing commitment to

ensuring that housing providers meet their obligations under Title VI and the Fair Housing Act to welcome all applicants, regardless of the language they speak.” The case came to HUD’s attention when Inland Fair Housing and Mediation Board (IFHMB), a HUD Fair Housing Initiatives Program agency, filed four complaints after it conducted fair housing tests allegedly showing that on-site managers at the properties refused to rent to LEP persons and told Spanish speaking prospective tenants that they needed to speak English in order to be added to properties’ waiting lists. LEP prospective tenants were also allegedly told that they had to provide their own interpreters. Under the Agreement, the management agents and owners of the properties will pay $9,000 to IFHMB, submit documentation attesting to completion of fair housing training, and comply with HUD’s LEP Guidelines entitled “Final Guidance to Federal Financial Assistance Recipients Regarding Title VI Prohibition Against National Origin Discrimination Affecting Limited English Proficient Persons.” People who believe they have experienced discrimination in housing may file a complaint by contacting HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at (800) 6699777 (voice) or (800) 877-8339 (Relay). Housing discrimination complaints may also be filed by going to hud.gov/fairhousing.

MISSION STATEMENT

From left to right: Dr. Ben Neuman, Chief Virologist, Global Health Research Complex, Texas A&M University; Dr. Dali Fan, Clinical Professor, UC Davis Health Science: Dr. Tung Nguyen, Stephen J. McPhee, MD Endowed Chair, General Internal Medicine, UC San Francisco; Peter Maybarduk, Director, Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines Group; Dr. Roshni Mathew, Clinical Assistant Professor, Stanford Children’s Health Almost two years after COVID-19 pandemic started, 270 million people have been infected with the virus and 5.3 million have died worldwide. Cases in the United States exceed 50 million, while more than 800,000 Americans have lost their lives. As the planet grapples with the deadly Delta variant, new challenges appear with the arrival of Omicron, an even more contagious strain for which the level of protection that vaccines provide is still unknown. Experts convened by Ethnic Media Services insist that the only way out of this pandemic is vaccination with boosters,

the use of masks and permanent testing. They view with concern the collapse of the health system and the lack of vaccine equity. “Our healthcare system has been stretched to the breaking point several times during this pandemic and is poorly equipped to deal with this wave,” said Dr. Tung Nguyen, Professor of Medicine at the University of California in San Francisco. “Many of my colleagues are leaving the healthcare system and those who are staying are burnout and depressed. This matters to all of us.” The Omicron wave has caused 120,000 cases a day, an increase

of 40% compared to the last two weeks and 68,000 hospitalizations, 21% more than in the last 15 days. The projection is 200,000 cases a day in the coming months. Before the appearance of this variant originated in SouthAfrica, the risk of contracting COVID among the unvaccinated was five times higher than among those who are fully vaccinated, and the risk of death was 13 times higher. Although to date 61% of the population is fully vaccinated, “the bad news is the effectiveness of the two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines are significantly reduced against the Omicron variant… so now we have to assess

the rate of boosters,” Nguyen said. Only 31% of people over 18 have received a booster, while that rate is 53% for people over 65. 23% of COVID cases in the United States have occurred in people under the age of 18, although hospitalizations and deaths among this population are very rare, said Roshni Mathew, Co-Medical Director of infection prevention and control at Stanford Children’s Health. Only about 1% of the seven million pediatric COVID cases have required hospitalizations and around 660 pediatric patients have died from the coronavirus. continued on page 6

Clifton Harris /Editor in Chief Investigative Reporter sbamericannews@gmail.com Mary Martin-Harris / Editor Legal /Display Advertising (909) 889-7677 Clifton B. Harris / Audio Engineering Editor Digital Online Banner Advertising (909) 889-7677 The San Bernardino American News was established May 6, 1969. A legally adjudicated newspaper of general circulation on September 30, 1971, case number 15313 by the Superior Court of San Bernardino County. The San Bernardino AMERICAN News subscription rate is $59.00 per year. The San Bernardino AMERICAN News is committed to serving its readers by presenting news unbiased and objective, trusting in the mature judgment of the readers and, in so doing, strive to achieve a united community. News releases appearing in the San Bernardino AMERICAN News do not necessarily express the policy nor the opinion of the publishers. The San Bernardino AMERICAN News reserves the right to edit or rewrite all news releases.


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