There are thousands of known species of mold fungi with diverse life-styles
Trichoderma
Is the one That has changed my family’s life drastically.
The McCloskey family has been through more than most families can even imagine. Dad is disabled, and mom had to go back to work full-time after she became disabled herself. They were evicted from their home because it was literally making them sick with mold and fungus, and they are now living in a hotel. They have three cats and one service animal, and they are struggling to make ends meet.
But despite all they've been through, the McCloskeys haven't given up. They're still fighting for a better life for themselves and their children. And that's where you come in.
Your donation will help the McCloskeys pay for housing and legal assistance as they try to get back on their feet. Anything you can give will make a difference in their lives. Thank you for your generosity and compassion.
Mold is also capable of growing both indoors and outdoors and thrives in warm, damp and humid settings. It can exist in any season and almost all environments. Moreover, mold can appear in many different colors, and sometimes as spots. In addition, mold has a musty odor.
If mold gets into your HVAC system, the damage can even be greater. The mold is likely to spread throughout your ducts and will keep multiplying under the right conditions. Turning on your HVAC system will help it spread throughout your entire house.
Mold thrives in numerous places, both indoors and out, and you can find them wherever there is moisture. Exposure to mold, regardless of its type, can result in an array of health effects. Possible health issues that can be caused by exposure to indoor mold include:
- Nasal irritation
- Throat stuffiness
- Rash
- Watery eyes
- Eye redness
- Nasal congestion
- Wheezing
- Bronchitis and pneumonia infections
- Eye issues
- Coughing
- Headache
- Joint pain
- Fatigue
- Skin irritation
- Muscle pain
- Concentration issues
We have had all these symptoms for Past 2 years. Now being in hotel withdrawal symptoms from not breathing in the fungus on a daily basis. Are bodies detoxing a little more and more everyday.
Some off the (Challenges) We Face.
The basic problem of homelessness is the need for personal shelter, warmth, and safety. Other difficulties include:
Hygiene and sanitary facilities
Hostility from the public and laws against urban vagrancy
Cleaning and drying of clothes
Obtaining, preparing, and storing food
Keeping contact with friends, family, and government service providers without a permanent location or mailing address
Medical problems, including issues caused by an individual's homeless state (e.g., hypothermia or frostbite from sleeping outside in cold weather), or issues which are exacerbated by homelessness due to lack of access to treatment (e.g., mental health and the individual not having a place to store prescription drugs)
Personal security, quiet, and privacy, especially for sleeping, bathing, and other hygiene activities
Safekeeping of bedding, clothing, and possessions, which may have to be carried at all timesPeople experiencing homelessness face many problems beyond the lack of a safe and suitable home. They are often faced with reduced access to private and public services and vital necessities:
General rejection or discrimination from other people
Increased risk of suffering violence and abuse
Limited access to education
Loss of usual relationships with the mainstream
Not being seen as suitable for employment
Reduced access to banking services
Reduced access to communications technology
Reduced access to healthcare and dental services
Targeting by municipalities to exclude from public space
Implication of hostile architecture
Difficulty forming trust in relation to services, systems, and other people; exacerbating pre-existing difficulty accessing aid and escaping homelessness, particularly present in the chronically homeless. Statistics from the past twenty years, in Scotland, demonstrate that the biggest cause of homelessness is varying forms of relationship breakdown.There is sometimes corruption and theft by the employees of a shelter, as evidenced by a 2011 investigative report by FOX 25 TV in Boston, wherein a number of Boston public shelter employees were found stealing large amounts of food over a period of time from the shelter's kitchen for their private use and catering. Homeless people are often obliged to adopt various strategies of self-presentation in order to maintain a sense of dignity, which constrains their interaction with passers-by, and leads to suspicion and stigmatization by the mainstream public.Homelessness is also a risk factor for depression caused by prejudice. When someone is prejudiced against people who are homeless, and then becomes homeless themselves, their anti-homelessness prejudice turns inward, causing depression. "Mental disorders, physical disability, homelessness, and having a sexually transmitted infection are all stigmatized statuses someone can gain despite having negative stereotypes about those groups." Difficulties can compound exponentially. A study found that in the city of Hong Kong over half of the homeless people in the city (56%) had some degree of mental illness. Only 13% of the 56% were receiving treatment for their condition leaving a huge portion of homeless untreated for their mental illness.The issue of anti-homeless architecture came to light in 2014, after a photo displayed hostile features (spikes on the floor) in London, and took social media by storm. The photo of an anti-homeless structure was a classic example of hostile architecture, in an attempt to discourage people from attempting to access or use public space in irregular ways. However, although this has only recently came to light, hostile architecture has been around for a long time in many places.: 68 An example of this is a low overpass that was put in place between New York City and Long Island. Robert Moses, an urban planner, designed it this way in an attempt to prevent public buses from being able to pass through it.
Healthcare
Health care for homeless people is a major public health challenge. When compared to the general population, people who are homeless experience higher rates of adverse physical and mental health outcomes. Chronic disease severity, respiratory conditions, rates of mental health illnesses and substance use are all often greater in homeless populations than the general population. Homelessness is also associated with a high risk of suicide attempts. Homeless people are more likely to suffer injuries and medical problems from their lifestyle on the street, which includes poor nutrition, exposure to the severe elements of weather, and a higher exposure to violence. Yet at the same time, they have reduced access to public medical services or clinics, in part because they often lack identification or registration for public healthcare services. There are significant challenges in treating homeless people who have psychiatric disorders because clinical appointments may not be kept, their continuing whereabouts are unknown, their medicines may not be taken as prescribed, medical and psychiatric histories are not accurate, and other reasons. Because many homeless people have mental illnesses, this has presented a crisis in care.The conditions affecting homeless people are somewhat specialized, and have opened a new area of medicine tailored to this population. Skin conditions, including scabies, are common, because homeless people are exposed to extreme cold in the winter, and have little access to bathing facilities. They have problems caring for their feet, and have more severe dental problems than the general population. Diabetes, especially untreated, is widespread in the homeless population. Specialized medical textbooks have been written to address this for providers.Due to the demand for free medical services by homeless people, it might take months to get a minimal dental appointment in a free-care clinic. Communicable diseases are of great concern, especially tuberculosis, which spreads more easily in crowded homeless shelters in high-density urban settings. There has been ongoing concern and studies about the health and wellness of the older homeless population, typically ages 50 to 64 and older, as to whether they are significantly more sickly than their younger counterparts, and if they are under-served.A 2011 study led by Dr. Rebecca T. Brown in Boston, conducted by the Institute for Aging Research (an affiliate of Harvard Medical School), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program found the elderly homeless population had "higher rates of geriatric syndromes, including functional decline, falls, frailty, and depression than seniors in the general population, and that many of these conditions may be easily treated if detected". The report was published in the Journal of Geriatric Internal Medicine. There are government avenues which provide resources for the development of healthcare for homeless people. In the United States, the Bureau of Primary Health Care has a program that provides grants to fund the delivery of healthcare to homeless people. According to 2011 UDS, data community health centers were able to provide service to 1,087,431 homeless individuals. There are also many nonprofit and religious organizations which provide healthcare services to homeless people. These organizations help meet the large need which exists for expanding healthcare for homeless people.
There have been significant numbers of unsheltered persons dying of hypothermia, adding impetus to the trend of establishing warming centers, as well as extending enumeration surveys with vulnerability indexes.
Effect on life expectancy
In 1999, Dr. Susan Barrow of the Columbia University Center for Homelessness Prevention Studies reported in a study that the "age-adjusted death rates of homeless men and women were four times those of the general U.S. population and two to three times those of the general population of New York City". A report commissioned by homeless charity Crisis in 2011 found that on average, homeless people in the UK have a life expectancy of 47 years, 30 years younger than the rest of the population.
Health impacts of extreme weather events
People experiencing homelessness are at a significant increased risk to the effects of extreme weather events. Such weather events include extreme heat and cold, floods, storm surges, heavy rain, and droughts. While there are many contributing factors to these events, climate change is driving an increasing frequency and intensity of these events. The homeless population is considerably more vulnerable to these weather events, due to their higher rates of chronic disease, and lower socioeconomic status. Despite having a minimal carbon footprint, homeless people unfortunately experience a disproportionate burden of the effects of climate change.Homeless persons have increased vulnerability to extreme weather events for many reasons. They are disadvantaged in most social determinants of health, including lack of housing and access to adequate food and water, reduced access to health care, and difficulty in maintaining health care. They have significantly higher rates of chronic disease including respiratory disease and infections, gastrointestinal disease, musculoskeletal problems and mental health disease. In fact, self-reported rates of respiratory diseases (including asthma, chronic bronchitis and emphysema) are double that of the general population.The homeless population often live in higher risk urban areas, with increased exposure and little protection from the elements. They also have limited access to clean drinking water, and other methods of cooling down. The built environment in urban areas also contributes to the "heat island effect", the phenomenon whereby cities experience higher temperatures due to the predominance of dark, paved surfaces, and lack of vegetation. Homeless populations are often excluded from disaster planning efforts, further increasing their vulnerability when these events occur. Without the means to escape extreme temperatures and seek proper shelter, and cooling or warming resources, homeless people are often left to suffer the brunt of the extreme weather.
The health effects that result from extreme weather include exacerbation of chronic diseases and acute illnesses. Pre-existing conditions can be greatly exacerbated by extreme heat and cold, including cardiovascular, respiratory, skin and renal disease, often resulting in higher morbidity and mortality during extreme weather. Acute conditions such as sunburn, dehydration, heat stroke, and allergic reactions are also common. In addition, a rise in insect bites can lead to vector-borne infections. Mental health conditions can also be impacted by extreme weather events as a result of lack of sleep, increased alcohol consumption, reduced access to resources and reduced ability to adjust to the environmental changes. In fact, pre-existing psychiatric illness has been shown to triple the risk of death from extreme heat. Overall, extreme weather events appear to have a "magnifying effect" in exacerbating the underlying prevalent mental and physical health conditions of homeless populations.
Case study: Hurricane Katrina
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina, a category 5 hurricane, made landfall on Florida and Louisiana. It particularly affected the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest hurricane in the US in seven decades, with more than 1,600 confirmed deaths, and more than 1,000 people missing. The hurricane disproportionately affected marginalized individuals, and individuals with lower socioeconomic status (i.e., 93% of shelter residents were African–American, 32% had household incomes below $10,000/year and 54% were uninsured). The storm nearly doubled the number of homeless people in New Orleans. While in most cities, homeless people account for 1% of the population, in New Orleans', the homeless account for 4% of the population. In addition to its devastating effects on infrastructure and the economy, the estimated prevalence of mental illness and the incidence of West Nile Virus more than doubled after Hurricane Katrina in the hurricane-affected regions.
Legal documentation
Homeless people may find it difficult to document their date of birth or their address. Due to the fact that homeless people usually have no place to store possessions, they often lose their belongings, including identification and other documents, or find them destroyed by police or others. Without a photo ID, homeless persons cannot get a job or access many social services, including healthcare. They can be denied access to even the most basic assistance: clothing closets, food pantries, certain public benefits, and in some cases, emergency shelters. Obtaining replacement identification is difficult. Without an address, birth certificates cannot be mailed. Fees may be cost-prohibitive for impoverished persons. And some states will not issue birth certificates unless the person has photo identification, creating a Catch-22. This problem is far less acute in countries that provide free-at-use health care, such as the UK, where hospitals are open-access day and night and make no charges for treatment. In the U.S., free-care clinics for homeless people and other people do exist in major cities, but often attract more demand than they can meet.
Victimization by violent crimes
Homeless people are often the victims of violent crime. A 2007 study found that the rate of violent crimes against homeless people in the United States is increasing. A study of women veterans found that homelessness is associated with domestic violence, both directly, as the result of leaving an abusive partner, and indirectly, due to trauma, mental health conditions, and substance abuse.
Stigma
Conditions such as alcoholism and mental illness are often associated with homelessness. Many people fear homeless people, due to the stigma surrounding the homeless community. Surveys have revealed that before spending time with the homeless, most people fear them, but after spending time with homeless people, that fear is lessened, or is no longer there. Another effect of this stigma is isolation.The stigmas of homelessness can thus be divided into three major categories in general: (1) attributing homelessness to personal incompetency and health conditions (e.g., unemployment, mental health issues, substance abuse, etc.); (2) seeing homeless people as posing threats to one's personal safety; and (3) de-sanitizing homeless people (i.e., seeing them as pathogens). Past research has shown that those types of stigmas are being reinforced through the fact that one is homeless and have a negative impact on effective public policymaking in terms of reducing homelessness. When a person lives on a street, many aspects of their personal situations, such as mental health issues and alcoholism, are more likely to be exposed to the public as compared to people who are not homeless and have access to resources that will help improve their personal crises. Such lack of privacy inevitably reinforces stigma by increasing observations of stereotypes for the public. Furthermore, media often attributes those personal crises to the direct cause of crimes, further leading the public to believe that homeless people are a threat to their personal safety. Many also believe that contacts with homeless people increase their chance of contracting diseases given that they lack access to stable, sanitary living conditions. Those types of stigmas are intertwined with each other when shaping public opinions on policies related to the homeless population, resulting in many ineffective policies that do not reduce homelessness at all. An example of such ineffective but somewhat popular policies is imposing bans on sleeping on the streets.Relying on the famous contact hypothesis, researchers argue that increasing contact between the homeless population and non-homeless population is likely to change public opinions on this out-group and make the public more well-informed when it comes to policymaking. While some believe that the contact hypothesis is only valid on the condition that the context and type of contact are specified, in the case of reducing discrimination against the homelessness population, some survey data indicate that the context (e.g., the proportion of the homeless population in one's city) and type of contact (e.g., TV shows about the homelessness population or interpersonal conversations about homelessness) do not produce much variation as they all increase positive attitudes towards homeless people and public policies that aid this group. Given that the restrictions of contexts and types of contact to reduce stigma are minimal, this finding is informative and significant to the government when it comes to making policies to offer institutional support for reducing discrimination in a country and for gauging public opinions on their proposed policies to reduce homelessness.
More facts…
80% of people experiencing homelessness are temporarily homeless due to sudden changes in their lives.
45% of adults experiencing homelessness have in the last 30 days
A landlord can evict a tenant in Iowa for a variety of reasons, the most common of which are failing to pay rent or violating the lease or rental agreement. The tenant may have at least one defense available with which to challenge the eviction.
The tenant may find that challenging the eviction is not always the best option. The tenant might have to pay the landlord's court and attorney's fees if unsuccessful in court. The tenant could also receive a negative credit rating and could be turned down for future housing. The best option for the tenant might be to try to talk to the landlord and negotiate a deal outside the court system. Many communities have free or low-cost mediation services that handle landlord-tenant disputes.
Our health was not taking seriously from local and federal authorities. The live electric wires hanging from ceiling where smoke detector should have been hanging. The state fire marshal just passed that buck to next agency who told me they couldn’t help either. The judge and court bailiff both got asked to look at their own court room as the paint seemed to be peeling off wall. Would this be the same mold/fungus I have become deathly allergic to but forced to breath it in and fight for my family’s right to Fair Housing which is Our Federal Rights to live in a safe habitable home. We are trying to raise awareness on this situation our family has endured to try and protect others. We have literally had leave all personal belongings behind as the fungus has taking control of all 16 years of memories and memorabilia. We have already started the task of purchasing new clothes and all other things that are going to be needed.
We have lost a lot in the last month, but our daughter's smile and the wonderful staff here at the Country Inn by Radisson have been a life saver. We would be so appreciative for any assistance you can provide. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Thank you so much for considering making a donation to help our family. We are currently homeless and living in a hotel. We have been evicted from our previous home because it was literally killing us with mold and fungus. We are a family of three, with three cats and one ESA service animal. We are in dire need of housing and legal help. Being homeless almost feels like a target has been put on my family's safety and well-being. Anything you can give would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for your generosity.
The McCloskey’s
❤️💜
