A year after its director was plucked into the service of the state, the Allegheny County Health Department remains without a long-term leader. 

The Board of Health and new County Executive Sara Innamorato have just begun an effort to fill what a spokesperson called “a vital position for the administration.”

“The director and the [board] have broad responsibilities that range from infant mortality and the opioid epidemic to air pollution and food safety,” wrote Abigail Gardner, the county’s communications director, in an email to PublicSource. “Leading the Health Department is highly technical and process-oriented work,” requiring understanding of law and regulations and “a massive amount of genuine public engagement.”

Unclear at this point is the public’s role in the selection process. Gardner wrote that “it is likely that there is some kind of piece of the process that will involve public input.”

At its Jan. 17 quarterly meeting, the Board of Health did not discuss plans to choose a director, and Acting Director Patrick Dowd declined comment.

Some advocacy organizations are setting out their expectations up front. 

On Dec. 7, a coalition of 35 organizations and 37 individuals under the banner of the Equitable and Just Greater Pittsburgh Network petitioned the county to prioritize health disparities and social determinants of well-being in its choice of a new director.

“The Health Director’s role and the Health Department affect so many aspects of people’s lives,” said Jason Beery, director of the network, convened by UrbanKind Institute, a Pittsburgh-based “think-and-do tank.” A new director would likely want to be involved in issues including air quality, housing health and the county’s development of a climate action plan, he said, so it’s important to hire someone “with certain qualities that we think would best address some of the complex health challenges and health outcomes that affect all of our communities and municipalities.”

Important department, leadership vacuum

Debra Bogen served as the county’s health director from early March 2020, as the pandemic shutdown loomed, until January 2023, when Gov. Josh Shapiro announced her nomination as state secretary of health. Bogen serves as the acting secretary because Republican lawmakers’ concerns have prevented state Senate confirmation. Dowd, the acting director, is a former Pittsburgh City Council member with a doctorate in history.

The 300-person department’s responsibilities include:

• Monitoring air quality, enforcing emissions regulations and allocating the Clean Air Fund
• Inspecting restaurants and otherwise enforcing food safety measures
• Enforcing housing health rules
• Striving to curb violence, overdoses and other causes of death
• Preparing the public for health emergencies like the pandemic.

The director is technically chosen by the nine-member Board of Health. Eight members continue to serve despite expired terms. The slots are some of many that Innamorato can use to shape the county bureaucracy after 12 years of former Executive Rich Fitzgerald making appointments. Gardner did not provide a timeline for reappointing or replacing members, or for hiring a director.

“We look forward to continuing to dig in with them and understand the expertise the board could use going forward to meet the moment or urgent public health needs,” Gardner wrote.

At its meeting, the board reelected as its chair Lee Harrison, a physician and epidemiology professor at the University of Pittsburgh. He has served on the board since 2001, was last reappointed in 2017 and has continued though his term expired in 2020.

‘Hard to get information’

Innamorato’s transition team has posted the health director position on its job opportunities website, indicating that it wants candidates for the $270,000-a-year position who:

• Will focus on racial and economic health disparities
• Has experience making “a measurable impact” on community health
• Is ready to support marginalized communities
• Can craft “an inclusive strategy” to fill vacancies in the department
• Will partner with governmental organizations, nonprofits and businesses to address health challenges.

A medical doctorate is “highly desirable,” according to the posting, though a candidate with a doctorate in public health may be considered.

In its letter to the Board of Health, the Equitable and Just Greater Pittsburgh Network called for a health director conversant in the social determinants of health — the effects that economic, environmental, political, social and cultural factors have on well-being.

The letter also noted the longstanding disparities in health care in the county, some of which improved in recent decades but many of which remain stark. 

The local health system’s failure to bring Black residents’ life expectancy and chronic disease rates in line with those of white residents was magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic. The department pledged to work on closing gaps in care driven by racism and the lack of culturally appropriate health access in announcing a five-year plan a year ago.

A new director should also have experience in policy implementation and commit to transparency, openness, accountability, accessibility, cultural humility, collaboration and public participation in budgeting, according to the letter.

“It’s been hard to get information out from [the Health Department] in the past, and considering it is a department focused on public health, it feels like a lot of that information needs to be made public, and there needs to be clarity on why the department is making certain decisions,” said Beery in an interview with PublicSource. He also outlined the network’s views during the public comment portion of the board meeting.

The four-year-old network has never weighed in on a personnel decision before, according to Beery. Member groups would like to see some kind of public input process, potentially including representatives of underrepresented communities, areas burdened by pollution or other health threats and groups directly affected by health policy.

The network has not yet received a response to its letter, which was sent to the department, the Board of Health members and several Innamorato transition team chairs.

Beery said that a thorough and prompt process would be ideal, but added that the network is not trying to be antagonistic. “There is an amount of grace that we would show any new person in this kind of executive role,” he said.

Less patient was Clairton resident Kim Meachem, speaking at the board meeting as the department moves toward issuing a new operating permit for U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works.

“We are sick and tired of coming before this panel to tell you the same story over and over and over again,” she said, “and not seeing any results.”

Charlie Wolfson is PublicSource’s local government reporter and a Report for America corps member. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org or on Twitter @chwolfson.

Rich Lord is the managing editor at PublicSource and can be reached at rich@publicsource.org.

The Jewish Healthcare Foundation has contributed funding to PublicSource’s healthcare reporting.

The post County’s top health post, vacant for a year, ‘vital’ to Innamorato administration appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

Falaknaz Paiwandi came to the Oakland Food Pantry in search of fresh vegetables and halal meat. 

The 56-year-old father of four fled Afghanistan with his family after the Taliban seized power there in 2021. They left their home in Parwan — a rural province north of Kabul — for a New Jersey military base, where they joined thousands of Afghan refugees awaiting new lives in American cities. 

They settled in Pittsburgh a few months later, but are finding it hard to afford food here. Paiwandi, a veteran of U.S.-backed Afghan armed forces, can’t work because he was injured in a car accident. His 23-year-old son, a laundromat worker, is the family’s sole earner. His wages are nowhere near enough to feed his parents and siblings. 

“It’s too expensive and we’re not able to buy food for ourselves,” said Paiwandi, speaking in Dari through an interpreter. “That’s why we’re having a plan to get food from the food pantry.”  

He selected apples, carrots, walnuts and mangoes, among other produce items. But he couldn’t have his pick of protein: There was no halal beef or chicken that day, so he took the salmon that pantry staff offered him.  

About 30 Afghan families visit the pantry each month, according to Community Human Services [CHS], the nonprofit that runs it and offers other supportive services. Their needs highlight gaps in Pittsburgh’s charitable food system, which is struggling to keep pace with high demand and changing demographics in the region. Staff at food banks and pantries say more people with limited English proficiency are seeking food assistance. And few pantries offer halal meat — a crucial macronutrient for Paiwandi and other followers of Islamic dietary law. 

CHS is trying to fill those gaps. It uses interpreters to communicate with people facing language barriers. It stocks the kind of fresh produce and grains that are staple foods in many countries. And it offers halal meat as much as its budget allows. 

Staff said their efforts drew more refugees and immigrants to the pantry. High food prices and the end of pandemic-era food benefits are driving demand, too. Nearly 2,800 people used the pantry in the last fiscal year — a 77% increase from fiscal year 2022 that brought more traffic to the neighborhood and generated backlash from residents. 

“We’re trying to be really good neighbors while also serving the community,” said Chief Executive Alicia Romano. “It’s been a really tough balance.” 

Growing needs and rising tensions 

To get the food they need for the week, a pantry participant must first maneuver through the tight streets of South Oakland. If they’re new to Pittsburgh and unfamiliar with traffic laws here, they might park in a fire lane or permit-parking spot for residents.  

It’s happened often enough to create conflict with neighbors, some of whom called police to report participants who illegally parked near the pantry, or blocked traffic on Lawn Street while loading food into their cars. Pantry Program Manager Mattie Johnson once had to defuse tension when a group of neighbors confronted participants outside the pantry to complain about the disruption near their homes.   

Police who arrived to enforce traffic laws were unprepared for the language diversity at the pantry. Johnson said an officer “made this one big announcement” in English, which many participants couldn’t understand. When staff used interpreters to make sure everyone got the message, “it kind of clicked to her, you know, what was going on here.” 

More refugees have resettled in Allegheny County in recent years, according to data provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services. It partnered with resettlement agencies to bring 746 people here in 2023 and 822 in 2022 — up from 174 in 2021. The historic high is due to people fleeing conflict and instability in countries such as Ukraine, Afghanistan, Venezuela and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said Dana Gold, chief operating officer of Jewish Family and Community Services [JFCS], one of four resettlement agencies in the region. 

Research shows they’re at risk for food insecurity after they arrive — especially if they face language barriers, which can lead to fewer job opportunities and difficulty enrolling in food assistance programs. 

It’s why food pantries should develop “linguistic and cultural competency” to serve them, said Ha Ngan (Milkie) Vu, an assistant professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University who studies food insecurity in refugee and immigrant populations. That means stocking “culturally appropriate foods” and hiring staff with the language skills to communicate with participants. 

The CHS team stepped up on a recent afternoon as people from Ukraine, Afghanistan and other countries walked through the pantry doors. 

An Arabic-speaking volunteer helped new participants with the intake process. Interpreters from Larimer-based Global Wordsmiths — who speak rarer languages and dialects like Dari and Pashto — were a phone call away. An assortment of fresh produce, dried legumes and canned goods was stocked on the shelves. And non-English-speaking participants could point to signs on the wall — of a lamb, pig, cow, turkey and fish — to choose cuts of meat.  

There were problems to solve, too. Staff placed signs and cones around no-parking zones, and have expanded pantry hours to keep the flow of traffic moving. 

Romano attended a November meeting of the Oakcliffe Community Organization, which represents residents of the South Oakland enclave, to announce the changes to neighbors who complained.  

Johnson said neighbors who called police to “intentionally ticket” vulnerable participants aren’t helping. She described the plight of a low-income woman who stayed away from the pantry for weeks after she was fined $50 for a parking violation.  

“It’s affecting the people that are already here to receive help, and who need it the most — especially her,” she said. “And I felt so bad because there was nothing we could do.” 

Elena Zaitsoff, vice president of the Oakcliffe group, declined to comment on behalf of residents. She said CHS leadership is welcome to keep attending meetings to update the community. 

Johnson hung a large sign near the pantry entrance that reads “Welcome” in 17 languages. After clashes with neighbors and a recent xenophobic comment from one participant to another, she wanted refugees and immigrants to know “that they can come here [and] we're going to try to accommodate their needs … as much as possible.”    

One of her biggest hurdles? Sourcing halal meat, which is expensive and hard to find in the charitable food system. 

Working toward a charitable food system for all 

Halal is the Arabic word for “permitted.” 

It applies to anything that’s allowed under Islamic law, but it’s most often used to describe food, said Asma Ahad, the director of halal market development at IFANCA, an Illinois-based halal certification organization. 

An animal must be slaughtered by a Muslim using the proper method, which is considered more humane, according to IFANCA guidelines. Pork isn’t allowed, so Muslims typically eat halal beef, lamb or chicken. Suppliers avoid cross-contamination with non-halal foods.  

“We see more halal-specific diets than anything,” said Johnson. 

But the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, which supplies local pantries, hasn’t consistently offered halal meat. Johnson pulled up its online ordering form on a December afternoon. It allowed her to select kosher foods — eaten by followers of Jewish dietary law — but not halal ones. 

“I feel like our halal families are coming in every week and we have to constantly give them fish, fish, fish,” she said. “... I don’t feel like it’s fair” that Muslims who come to the pantry can’t choose from a wide array of meats.  

“I don’t think it was intentional,” she added.

It “definitely” wasn’t, said Erin Kelly, director of partner and distribution programs at the food bank. “Our inventory is constantly changing.” 

A food bank spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement that partner food pantries have “low demand” for halal beef and chicken because it’s more expensive. “Thus, we tend to not keep as big of a supply” in our warehouse. But it keeps some halal meat offsite for partners who need it and encouraged pantry staff to reach out when they can’t order the items online.

“We will work with CHS and other partners that serve similar populations to ensure they have the resources to serve their community,” said the spokesperson. 

Johnson asked the food bank for halal products in November. It responded to her request the day after PublicSource asked it questions about its halal inventory. She said the food bank offered to add halal chicken to its next delivery to the pantry.

A majority of food-insecure Muslims require or prefer halal foods, according to a poll by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a Michigan-based think tank that studies American Muslims. Ahad said food banks and pantries are “slowly” realizing they need to do more, “but there’s still not an understanding of … why doing it right and doing it on a regular basis is critical.” The problem needs to be recognized at the federal level “so it can trickle down,” she added. 

Advocates want to expand the list of halal and kosher foods available through The Emergency Food Assistance Program, a federal program which buys healthy foods and partners with states to distribute them via food banks and pantries. They’re pushing for more equity in food stamps, too.    

In the meantime, a handful of pantries in the region will keep trying to plug the holes in the system. Some are struggling to keep up with demand. 

The Islamic Center of Pittsburgh runs a delivery-based pantry that offers halal meat sourced from local butcher Salem’s Market and Grill. The sign-up system filled up in a day this month — a record since it started posting the forms online a few years ago.

“I was shocked to see this,” said Pantry Manager Issam Abushaban. “That goes to show you how many people are in need and how desperate the situation is.” 

He’s seen more families from Syria and Afghanistan at the mosque lately. “We tend to be a comfort zone for people who need help when they come from other places,” he added.  

The Squirrel Hill Food Pantry, run by JFCS, is one of the few pantries in the county that’s open five days a week. It’s built up a network of suppliers — local and in New York — to keep shelves stocked with kosher and halal foods. Refugees often receive their first supplemental foods from the pantry, which sources culturally appropriate produce for them such as tomatillos, plantains and mangoes. Staff said they tend not to use canned goods.   

“We’ve been doing this a long time,” said Gold, the JFCS executive. 

But there’s still more to learn: “We were buying the wrong kind of lentils” for Afghan families, she said.  

CHS secured a $51,000 grant from McAuley Ministries last month to buy halal meat and other foods. It’s awaiting the funds, searching for a local supplier and keeping a dedicated halal freezer ready.  

Paiwandi, the father of four from Afghanistan, will be glad to have some options. 

“We just want to have food which is halal for Muslims,” he said. “Chicken, cow and fish meat.” 

If you need food assistance, dial 211 or find resources here.  

Venuri Siriwardane is PublicSource’s health and mental health reporter. She can be reached at venuri@publicsource.org or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @venuris.

This story was fact-checked by Delaney Adams. 

This reporting has been made possible through the Staunton Farm Mental Health Reporting Fellowship and the Jewish Healthcare Foundation.

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During this holiday season, around 900 people are known to be sleeping outside or in shelters in Allegheny County.

Housing and homelessness were ever-present concerns in the Pittsburgh region this year. But even as tents went up and shelters swung shut, new leadership came knocking on the doors of power with pledges of responsiveness and equity.

With COVID-driven funding expiring fast, though, the long-haul effects of the pandemic may be just beginning for the city, the Pittsburgh Public Schools and other local institutions.

In so many areas of life in our region — education, environment, equity, public health and safety — the gears of history continued to turn, and sometimes to grind, in 2023. PublicSource highlighted emerging trends and dug deep into the data, documentation and human-level impact.

Here are some of the stories we reported, many of which will echo into 2024 and beyond.

What happens after a camp is cleared?

The year 2022 closed with the City of Pittsburgh removing an encampment along Stockton Avenue on East Allegheny’s edge and sweeping aside with it a longstanding agreement.

The tents went down just as Allegheny County’s new Second Avenue Commons shelter prepared to accept displaced people while the Smithfield United Church of Christ’s basement doors creaked open.

If anybody thought those developments would noticeably blunt the effects of the housing crisis, they were quickly disabused of that notion.

The early days of Second Avenue Commons were marked by staffing problems and safety questions, while this autumn saw ramped-up evictions from its single room occupancy units. The Smithfield shelter, meanwhile, became a haven for hundreds but a bugaboo for Downtown businesses, until its June closure demonstrated just how tattered America’s safety net has become.

“I understand that it can’t exist indefinitely, but this haphazard closure is going to cause death and we need to hold people accountable for that.”

Aubrey Plesh, founder of Team PSBG, which operateD the shelter at the Smithfield United Church of Christ, Downtown

With cold weather’s return came a slow-motion rollout of the county’s and city’s plan for emergency shelter. The persistent presence of at least 200 people on the street, though, left leaders looking for… 

A path to long-term affordable housing

The affordable housing shortage has been well documented for at least a decade, though never so viscerally evident as it was in 2023. Yet one of the most versatile tools for addressing housing needs — the Housing Choice (Section 8) Voucher — had become rusty and blunt by the time PublicSource documented concerns of landlords, tenants and former Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh [HACP] insiders. That reporting spurred pledges of prompt improvements in customer service in the program, but the year ended with curbs on the portability of vouchers.

City development officials, meanwhile, scrambled to preserve affordable units that might otherwise fall into disrepair or convert to market-rate status. A $50 million federal grant raised hopes for more and better Hill District homes.

County-level interests sought to bring to the boroughs some of the models that have taken root in the city. And after nearly a decade of inactivity, the Pittsburgh Land Bank slowly began the process of reclaiming abandoned city property, sidestepping legal obstacles that held up progress. 

While fears of gentrification have been most pronounced in Pittsburgh, housing market forces don’t stop at the city line. That’s why Sara Innamorato was quizzed about the issue during her successful run for county executive, which has everybody asking …

Will a fresh approach on Grant Street really change things?

In what will be the last Allegheny County election season to feature direct six-figure contributions to candidates, Democrat Innamorato barely overcame Republican Joe Rockey’s large fundraising edge. (Conversely, District Attorney Stephen Zappala ran as a Republican, and bested billionaire-backed Democrat Matt Dugan.)

Innamorato’s pledge to focus on the “struggle of everyday people” has a different feel from outgoing County Executive Rich Fitzgerald’s recent emphases, which have tended toward consensus building with business, labor and multiple levels of government, plus stable property taxes.

Innamorato has said she’d like to address increasingly skewed assessments, but also wants to reduce a reassessment’s impact on those least able to afford tax hikes.

Innamorato also heard “alarm bells” in the county’s selection of nonprofit contractor Adelphoi to take over the Shuman Juvenile Detention Center. But she will become executive amid heightened attention to violent crime, which the county has sought to address with a $50 million effort to beef up prevention efforts.

That’s a lot on the plate of the likely most prominent member of what we’ll call … 

Southwestern Pennsylvania’s pandemic-forged leadership class

Innamorato follows political ally Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey to Grant Street, but also joins dozens of new leaders who replaced longtime executives in both the public and private realms.

Also reaching prominence this year were Pittsburgh Police Chief Larry Scirotto (who promptly disappointed some accountability advocates) and University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Joan Gabel (whose statements on Israel and Gaza left some dissatisfied).

The three years of turnover at the top that followed the Great Resignation may be remembered as a pivot point for the Pittsburgh region, but it won’t likely herald an extended and unanimous chorus of Kumbaya. Exhibit one: Gainey and UPMC (now led by Leslie Davis) show no signs of reaching an accord on any obligations the healthcare giant may have to the city’s coffers.

And the city’s bank balance? It’s likely to get leaner, as federal American Rescue Plan Act funds run dry. 

Gainey won’t be the only local leader scrambling for funds because … 

Schools will likely be scraping by

The Pittsburgh Public Schools are expecting similar headwinds as relief funding dries up and costs mount.

To get through the next budget year, PPS needs to draw nearly $30 million from its depleting rainy day fund. But even then, glaring inequalities persist, with students in some schools feeling they’re being taught in a “playground” instead of a rigorous educational setting.

The district also faces challenges over disparate student outcomes, variable teaching quality and uneven costs maintaining a patchwork of buildings that far exceed the needs of a shrinking student pool.

Graduates of high schools in Pittsburgh and suburban districts may be wise to review university balance sheets before filling out applications as … 

Higher ed weathers storms of its own

Higher education fairs little better in a city that’s hinged its revival on an “eds and meds” economy. 

Many newer workforce entrants are questioning the value of a degree altogether. The Community College of Allegheny County lost about half of its student body between 2010 and 2022 – and even a steep drop since the 2020 pandemic doesn’t account for the whole picture, one of steady decline.

Alarm bells rang out from Chatham University’s sedate Squirrel Hill campus in summer, when faculty learned the university faced a $12 million budget hole. To close the gap, President Rhonda Philips laid off department staff, trimmed administration salaries and slashed faculty pension contributions.

Chatham faculty answered with an early unionizing effort they hope will strengthen their position as the administration seeks to patch its deficit. That push can be viewed as one of many efforts aimed at …

Leveling society’s playing field

Campus concerns early in the year were focused primarily on safety for LGBTQ students, and when Pitt’s response wasn’t satisfying, an effort to bring the issue before the Board of Trustees resulted in criminal charges and student conduct hearings. At Duquesne University, a bid to rename Lambda to the Queer Student Union stagnated amid ongoing tension between the school’s Catholic orientation and the growing push for LGBTQ inclusion.

Nearly every university is grappling with diversity in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision ending affirmative action in admissions.

That ruling was also seen as a potential warning shot for other programs meant to undo effects of discrimination, and lent some urgency to the Gainey administration’s pledge to refresh the data behind race-conscious programs. Equitable law enforcement remained a work in progress, too, as a mayor elected in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police didn’t immediately dent the racial skew of his own department’s activities, or make “driving while Black” a thing of the past.

Equity efforts increasingly overlap with the ongoing environmental and climate catastrophe, and nowhere is that more newsworthy than in …

A region still fueled by fossils

Pollution from coal, manufacturing and other fossil fuels continues to plague a region still trying to shrug off the nickname “Smoky City.”

After Shell Chemical Appalachia opened its giant new petrochemical plant in Beaver County, a PublicSource investigation revealed a litany of malfunctions where, in many cases, the Department of Environmental Protection largely relied on Shell to assess its own missteps and the validity of public complaints.

In October, the Biden administration announced funding for two hydrogen hubs spanning stretches of Pennsylvania, although a proposal centered around Pittsburgh did not make the cut. Opinion is fiercely split on whether hydrogen has a role in the transition to clean energy or merely extends our fossil fuel dependence.

To some, natural gas extracted through fracking offers another pathway to weaning off coal and its carbon-heavy cousins. But families living less than 900 feet from a well pad in Washington County say their health and quality of life has suffered accordingly, while state legislation to keep drilling away from homes fell flat this summer.   

Climate change and air quality are daunting big-picture problems, and if you’re yearning to feel good about humanity, it might be advisable to look at …

Spirited neighborhoods rising to challenges

If the arc of history bends toward justice, the end of that rainbow can seem elusive — but perhaps it will end in the Hill District.

The neighborhood is still wary about developer promises after witnessing one of urban renewal’s most infamous injustices when the city razed the Lower Hill District and built the Civic Arena and parking lots. But leadership at the Bethel AME Church, victimized by the wrecking ball in 1957, believe they have a pact that will partly redress that tragedy with affordable housing.

Similarly, Wilkinsburg’s population losses created both a need for redevelopment and fear of gentrification. The apparent collapse of a push to merge the borough into Pittsburgh may invite civic leaders to build on the community’s strengths.

Pittsburgh’s growth depends on its embrace of diversity and its willingness to welcome newcomers, and nowhere was that more evident than in Beechview. The South Pittsburgh neighborhood hosts the biggest concentration of Latino residents in the region, and its business district — once crippled by disinvestment and fraud — features what may be the region’s most bilingual main street.

As PublicSource enters its 13th year of writing, photographing and otherwise pursuing stories for a better Pittsburgh, there’s plenty of room for improvement — in the region and the media. Also ample is the spirit of determination to solve problems, whether they’re as concrete as the shortage of affordable housing or as intangible as equity in education. We’ll continue to seek and share truth, whether it’s in the form of professionally reported investigations or community members’ essays. We hope you’ll continue with us on that journey, and thank you for your readership and support.

Rich Lord is the managing editor at PublicSource and can be reached at rich@publicsource.org.

Jamie Wiggan is deputy editor at PublicSourceand can be reached at jamie@publicsource.org.

Fact-checked by the PublicSource staff.

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Mario’s family was kicked off Medicaid this year. 

Beechview Points of Pride
PublicSource maps and chronicles the strengths of diverse communities

When he reported a new income source, he learned that his family — including his two children — no longer qualified for health insurance through UPMC for You, a Medicaid managed care plan. 

And buying marketplace coverage is out of the question: Most plans would cost him up to $300 per family member. That works out to more than $1,200 per month — a cost he can’t afford on top of his mortgage and other expenses. 

“It’s too much money, you know?” he said, shaking his head.  

PublicSource is withholding Mario’s last name because he comes from a mixed-immigration status household. His daughters, 13 and 5, were born in the U.S. They’ve been without health insurance for most of the year. 

Despite their lack of health coverage, Chelsea, his eldest daughter, was sitting on a doctor’s exam table. Mario had brought her to a mobile clinic in Beechview for a free COVID booster and exam for her school health record. 

The best part of their experience? The doctor attending to Chelsea, Dr. Diego Chaves-Gnecco, is a Spanish speaker. Mario — who knows English, but prefers to speak his native Spanish — was able to directly communicate with a provider about his daughter’s health. 

“It’s just better because he speaks in my own language,” he said. “I feel comfortable,” he added, gesturing to his daughter. “I think she feels comfortable as well.” 

Asking questions and advocating for yourself or your loved one is an essential part of receiving healthcare. Some take it for granted, but it’s a process that many people with limited English proficiency, including many immigrants, struggle with. 

Experts say it’s hard for non-English speakers to navigate the byzantine American healthcare system — especially if they’re used to universal coverage in another country. And if they’re undocumented, they won’t qualify for public health insurance in Pennsylvania without proof of a serious health condition. The state excludes at least 10,000 undocumented children from its Children’s Health Insurance Program, according to an estimate by child advocates. 

In Beechview, doctors from Salud Para Niños — a bilingual pediatric clinic at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh — have teamed up with staffers from local nonprofit Casa San José to provide primary care to uninsured kids. Many travel from all over Western Pennsylvania to access the free, bilingual and bicultural pediatric care they bring to the South Hills neighborhood that’s become a hub for Spanish-speaking people in the region.

An ‘invisible’ community  

Every Tuesday, a mobile medical van pulls up outside Casa San José on Broadway Avenue. It was parked across the street from the nonprofit’s office on a rainy morning in November. 

Described by staff as “the care mobile,” the van is operated by Children’s Hospital, but was paid for by the Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation and the Ronald McDonald House Charities. It has a tiny nurse’s station, two cheerfully painted exam rooms, and a patient waiting area in the style of a four-seat arrangement on a passenger train. 

There was enough room to accommodate the team of four — Chaves-Gnecco, a nurse and two drivers — working that day. They attended to several families with children, who arrived for their appointments between 9 a.m. and noon. 

There was Alba, who moved to Beechview in February from Santa Marta, a city on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. She brought her 11-year-old son, Edward, who has asthma, for a check-up and free inhaler supplied by the clinic. Joselyn arrived next with her son, Justin, 8, who needed childhood immunizations. Chelsea was the last patient on the schedule.

PublicSource is withholding their last names to protect patient privacy.

Chaves-Gnecco is the driving force behind the operation. He’s a pediatrician from Bogotá, Colombia who came to Pittsburgh for specialty training in the late 1990s. He planned to leave after a year, but changed his mind and did a pediatric residency at Children’s Hospital, choosing a track that would help him understand the social and environmental factors that drive health outcomes. It was training that would prepare him to serve communities of color like his own, which he described as “invisible” in the region. 

There are more than 13,000 Latinos in the City of Pittsburgh and more than 31,000 Latinos in Allegheny County, but “you’re still hearing that there are no Latinos” here, said Chaves-Gnecco. That’s partly because the county lacks traditional barrios — a term for American neighborhoods with concentrations of Spanish-speaking immigrants, he said. The group makes up just 2.5% of the county’s population, compared to Los Angeles County’s 49%, according to census data. 

But it’s an important and fast-growing population, he added. Latinos in the county grew by more than 80% between 2010 and 2020 — far more than the 2% total population growth, according to a county report. Latinos here also tend to be younger: Just 7% are 65 or older, compared to 19% of all people in the county.   

Chaves-Gnecco founded Salud Para Niños — “Health for the Children” — to meet the healthcare needs of those young people. It opened more than 20 years ago as a bilingual clinic at Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood. He was helping a lot of kids, but wasn’t reaching the undocumented ones, some of whom, he said, “will never qualify” for subsidized health insurance under current Pennsylvania law. 

“And that’s kind of sad because that’s not the case for other states,” he said, pointing out that California, Washington and others have expanded coverage to include undocumented people. 

Immigrants and people who face language barriers are more likely to be uninsured and less likely to seek primary care, said Drishti Pillai, the director of immigrant health policy at KFF, a San Francisco-based health policy research organization. Without access to preventative services, they might develop a health condition that goes untreated for a long time, which could lead to a trip to the emergency room.  

“By then the situation could likely have gotten much worse, much more expensive to treat, and it theoretically could incur more costs to the healthcare system,” she added.

To keep that from happening to uninsured kids, Chaves-Gnecco and his team took the care mobile to Beechview in early 2020,  just as the world was shutting down to prevent the spread of COVID-19. That year, Salud Para Niños cared for more uninsured kids than ever. Now the program does about 360 uninsured patient visits per year. 

‘Linguistically affirming care’ for families 

“Oh, no!” yelled Justin, the third-grader, when he spotted the nurse carrying a tray of syringes toward him. 

Rose Wise laughed over Justin’s antics in the exam room. A longtime pediatric nurse at Children’s Hospital, she loves her shifts on the care mobile because “it eliminates the barriers to healthcare,” including cost, transportation and language barriers. 

Justin and his mother, Joselyn, are uninsured. She had been taking him to a low-cost clinic in Squirrel Hill, but heard from staffers at Casa San Jose that a Spanish-speaking doctor was treating kids right where she lived in Beechview.

That day was Justin’s first appointment with Chaves-Gnecco, who gave him a physical and caught him up on his vaccinations. He told Joselyn in Spanish that her son was healthy and in good shape to play sports at school. She plans to bring Justin back to the care mobile. 

“Thanks to this type of clinic, we have the possibility to access a doctor,” she said, speaking through Chaves-Gnecco’s translations. “This clinic is very valuable for the community. It’s very important.” 

Joselyn and Justin’s experience is what pediatrician and assistant professor Dr. Maya Ragavan calls “linguistically affirming care.” It creates a safe, supportive environment in which patients and their families can express their identities. Affirming care started as a framework for treating LGBTQ+ patients, but it can be applied to immigrants, people of color and other marginalized groups.  

Ragavan speaks Spanish and occasionally treats patients on the care mobile. She’s also a health equity expert whose research shows that affirming care can help improve health outcomes for immigrants. Too often, families don’t get that kind of care, she said, adding that it’s bad practice to expect family members to interpret for their loved ones. That leaves the burden on the family to advocate for a certified interpreter. 

Chelsea, Mario’s daughter, said she had to translate for her parents in other healthcare settings. 

“That’s really hard and really unfair,” said Ragavan. “… It’s the healthcare system that does that [to immigrant families].”

Chaves-Gnecco, on the other hand, built a system that ensures families receive affirming care “from start to finish,” she said, from a Spanish-speaking scheduler to fully translated health manuals. 

“I love the way that he can communicate with my parents,” Chelsea said. “Anything that I shouldn’t [have to] know to explain, he explains it for them.” 

Non-Spanish-speakers are also welcome at the care mobile, which is equipped with a tablet that provides virtual interpretation services for more than 100 languages, said Chaves-Gnecco. And the team is working with community partners like Casa San José to better accommodate Latinos whose first language is indigenous — a growing population here, according to a county report. 

A trusted community partner

Across the street from the van, Constanza Henry was helping people who were crowding into Casa San José’s tiny lobby. Some had only been in the U.S. for one week, she said. 

Henry is Casa San José’s community health and wellness coordinator. She works with providers to hold free clinics in or near the nonprofit’s office. Her efforts helped bring vaccines, mammograms and primary care to adults and children in Beechview.

Nearly a third of immigrant adults said a community health center is their usual source of healthcare in a recent survey. That jumps to about two-fifths among immigrants who are uninsured, undocumented or have limited English proficiency, said Pillai, the KFF researcher. 

Of all the doctors who donate their time to Casa San José’s programs, only the ones from Salud Para Niños can speak Spanish, said Henry. She often has to translate for patients and providers at the other clinics. It’s why Chaves-Gnecco is one of the most beloved doctors in the community, she added, and in such demand that he sometimes has to turn patients away. 

“It’s also very frustrating, not having all of the resources you would like to have,” said Henry, an immigrant herself from Mexico City. “Or just thinking that in our countries, if you go to the dentist, they won’t charge you so much and they will help you immediately.”  

Chaves-Gnecco said Colombia provides healthcare to immigrants, refugees and unhoused people. He dreams of universal coverage in the United States — of a system that doesn’t punish uninsured children.  

“It’s no secret to anybody that if you don’t have health insurance in this country, sometimes you might end up losing your car … [or] your home,” he said. “That is a really huge problem. And I feel that we should do better for our community in general, for all Americans … and provide health insurance for everybody.”

Back in the care mobile, the team wrapped up with Mario and Chelsea.  

Wise, the pediatric nurse, said Chelsea could have her pick from the clinic’s supply of blankets. She chose a cozy-looking fleece one in a butterfly pattern. It shielded her as she climbed down the clinic’s steps and stepped out into one of the coldest, wettest mornings this fall.   

The locations and hours of operation for Salud Para Niños can be found here in English y aquí en español. 

Correction: Tom Skemp’s name was misspelled in an earlier version of this story.

Venuri Siriwardane is PublicSource’s health and mental health reporter. She can be reached at venuri@publicsource.org or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @venuris.

This story was fact-checked by Ladimir Garcia. 

Translation by Zulma Michaca, a bilingual professional living in Riverside County, Calif., with family ties in Pittsburgh. She can be reached at z.michaca123@gmail.com.

This reporting has been made possible through the Staunton Farm Mental Health Reporting Fellowship and the Jewish Healthcare Foundation.

The post In Beechview, a free bilingual clinic cares for children of immigrants appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

A la familia de Mario le quitaron Medicaid este año.

Beechview Puntos de Orgullo
FuentePública (PublicSource) mapea y relata las fortalezas de comunidades diversas.

Después de que él reportó una nueva fuente de ingresos, descubrió que su familia – incluyendo sus dos niñas – ya no calificaba para seguro médico a través de UPMC Para Ti (UPMC for You), un plan que administra servicios de Medicaid.

Y es impensable comprar cobertura médica del mercado: La mayoría de los planes le costarían hasta $300 por cada miembro de la familia. Eso sería más de $1,200 al mes – un gasto que no puede solventar encima de su hipoteca y sus otros gastos.

“Es demasiado dinero, ¿sabes?” él dijo, sacudiendo la cabeza.

FuentePública (PublicSource) está reteniendo el apellido de Mario porque él viene de un hogar con estatus migratorio mixto.  Sus hijas, de 13 y 5 años, nacieron en EE. UU. Ellas no han tenido seguro médico durante la mayor parte del año.

A pesar de no tener cobertura médica, su hija mayor, Chelsea, estaba sentada en una mesa de examinación médica. Mario la trajo a una clínica móvil en Beechview para un refuerzo gratis contra el COVID y un examen médico para su expediente escolar.

¿La mejor parte de la experiencia? El doctor que asiste a Chelsea, el Dr. Diego Chaves-Gnecco, habla español. Mario – habla inglés, pero prefiere hablar en su español nativo – pudo comunicarse directamente con un proveedor acerca de la salud de su hija.

“Simplemente es mejor porque habla en mi propio idioma,” él dijo. “Me siento cómodo,” agregó, gestionando a su hija. “Creo que ella también se siente cómoda.”

Hacer preguntas y abogar por ti mismo, o abogar por tus seres queridos, es una parte esencial de recibir atención médica. Algunos lo subestiman, pero es un proceso con el que batallan muchas personas con dominio limitado de inglés, incluyendo muchos inmigrantes.

Dicen los expertos que es difícil para que las personas que no hablan inglés naveguen el bizantino sistema americano de salud – especialmente si están acostumbrados a cobertura universal en otro país. Y si son indocumentados, no califican para seguro médico público en Pensilvania sin prueba de una condición médica seria. El estado excluye al menos a 10,000 niños indocumentados de su Programa de Seguro Médico Infantil (Children’s Health Insurance Program), de acuerdo con un estimado de defensores de menores.

En Beechview, los doctores de Salud Para Niños – una clínica bilingüe pediatra en el Hospital Infantil de Pittsburgh UPMC (UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh) –se unen con personal de la organización sin fines de lucro local Casa San José para brindar atención médica a niños sin seguro médico. Muchos viajan de todas partes del Oeste de Pensilvania (Western Pennsylvania) para acceder la atención médica pediátrica gratis, bilingüe, y bicultural que traen al vecindario de South Hills y que se ha hecho un centro para personas que hablan español en la región.

Una comunidad ‘invisible’

Cada jueves, un camión médico móvil llega a la Casa San José en la Avenida Broadway. Estaba estacionado al otro lado de la calle de la oficina de la organización sin fines de lucro una mañana lluviosa de noviembre.

Descrita por el personal como “el camión que cuida” (“the care mobile”), es dirigido por el Hospital Infantil (Children’s Hospital), pero fue pagado por la Fundación Pingüinos de Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation) y la Casa de Caridades Ronald

McDonald (Ronald McDonald House Charities). Tiene una pequeña estación de enfermeras, dos cuartos coloridos de examinación, y una sala de espera para pacientes con el estilo de un tren con asientos para 4 pasajeros.

Había suficiente espacio para acomodar al equipo de cuatro — Chaves-Gnecco, una enfermera, y dos conductores — que trabajaban ese día. Ellos atendieron a varias familias con niños que llegaron a sus citas entre las 9 a.m. y el mediodía.

Estuvo Alba, quien se mudó a Beechview en febrero desde Santa Marta, una ciudad en la costa caribeña de Colombia. Ella llevó a su hijo de 11 años, Edward, que tiene asma, para que le hicieran un examen médico y le dieran un inhalador gratis suministrado por la clínica. Joselyn llegó después con su hijo, Justin, de 8 años, que necesitaba vacunas infantiles. Chelsea fue la última paciente programada.

FuentePública (PublicSource) retiene sus apellidos para proteger la privacidad de pacientes. 

Chaves-Gnecco es la fuerza impulsora detrás de la operación. Él es un pediatra de Bogotá, Colombia, que vino a Pittsburgh a finales de los años 1990 para un entrenamiento especializado. Él tenía planeado irse después de un año, pero cambió de parecer e hizo una residencia pediátrica en el Hospital Infantil (Children’s Hospital). Este nuevo camino le ayudaría a entender los factores sociales y ambientales que afectan a la salud. El entrenamiento le preparó para atender a las comunidades minoritarias como la suya, que él describió cómo “invisibles” en la región.

Hay más de 13,000 Latinos en la Ciudad de Pittsburgh (City of Pittsburgh) y más de 31,000 Latinos en el Condado de Allegheny, pero “todavía se escucha decir que no hay Latinos” aquí, dijo Chaves-Gnecco. En parte, eso es porque no hay “barrios”– un término en inglés que designa vecindarios americanos con concentraciones de inmigrantes que hablan español, él dijo. Este grupo representa sólo el 2.5% de la población del condado, comparada al 49% del Condado de Los Ángeles, de acuerdo a datos del censo.

Pero es una población importante y que aumenta rápidamente, agregó. Los Latinos en el condado crecieron por más del 80% entre el 2010 y el 2020 – mucho más que el crecimiento de 2% del total de la población, de acuerdo con un informe del condado. Los Latinos aquí también suelen ser más jóvenes: sólo el 7% tienen 65 años o más, comparado con el 19% de toda la gente del condado.

Chaves-Gnecco fundó Salud Para Niños — “Health for the Children” — para atender las necesidades médicas de esos jóvenes. Empezó hace más de 20 años como una clínica bilingüe en el Hospital Infantil (Children’s Hospital) en el vecindario de Oakland en Pittsburgh. Estaba ayudando a muchos niños, pero no conseguía llegar a los niños indocumentados, algunos de los cuáles, según dijo, “nunca calificarán” a seguro médico subsidiado, bajo la ley actual de Pensilvania.

“Y eso es algo triste porque ese no es el caso en otros estados,” él dijo, destacando que California, Washington y otros han ampliado su cobertura para incluir a personas indocumentadas.

Los inmigrantes y las personas con barreras lingüísticas tienen una probabilidad más baja de tener seguro y buscar atención médica, dijo Drishti Pillai, la directora de pólizas de salud para inmigrantes en KFF, una organización basada en San Francisco que investiga pólizas de salud. Sin acceso al servicio preventivo, pueden desarrollar una condición médica y estar mucho tiempo sin recibir tratamiento, lo que puede convertirse en un viaje a la sala de emergencia.

“Para entonces, la situación puede haber empeorado, se hace mucho más cara de atender, y en teoría podría implicar más gastos para el sistema médico,” agregó.

Para prevenir que eso les pase a niños sin seguro médico, Chaves-Gnecco y su equipo llevaron el camión que cuida (“the care mobile”) a Beechview a principios del 2020, justo cuando el mundo se cerraba para prevenir el contagio del COVID-19. Ese año, Salud Para Niños atendió a más niños sin seguro médico que nunca. Ahora el programa provee alrededor de 360 visitas al año a pacientes sin seguro médico.

‘Atención lingüísticamente afirmativa’ para las familias   

“¡Ay no!” gritó Justin, de tercer grado, cuando vio que la enfermera venía hacia él con una bandeja de jeringas.

Rose Wise se reía del numerito de Justin en el cuarto de examinación. Una enfermera pediatra por mucho tiempo en el Hospital Infantil (Children’s Hospital), a ella le encantan sus turnos en el camión que cuida (“the care mobile”) porque “elimina las barreras a la atención médica,” incluyendo el costo, la transportación, y las barreras lingüísticas.

Justin y su madre, Joselyn, no tienen seguro médico. Ella lo había llevado a una clínica de bajo-costo en Squirrel Hill, pero supo a través del personal de Casa San José que un médico que habla español atiende a niños en Beechview, justo donde ella vivía.

Ese día era la primera cita de Justin con Chaves-Gnecco, quien le hizo un examen físico y puso sus vacunas al día. Le dijo a Joselyn en español que su hijo estaba sano y en buena condición para jugar deportes en la escuela. Ella planea traer a Justin al camión que cuida (“the care mobile”) en el futuro.

“Gracias a este tipo de clínica, tenemos la posibilidad de tener acceso a un doctor,” ella dijo, hablando de las traducciones de Chaves-Gnecco. “Esta clínica es muy valiosa para la comunidad. Es muy importante.”La experiencia de Joselyn y Justin es lo que la pediatra y profesora adjunta Dr. Maya Ragavan llama “atención lingüísticamente afirmativa.” Crea un ambiente seguro y favorable donde los pacientes y sus familias pueden expresar sus identidades. Atención afirmativa empezó como un marco de atención para pacientes LGBTQ+, pero se puede aplicar a los inmigrantes, a las personas de color y a otros grupos marginalizados.

Ragavan habla español y ocasionalmente atiende a pacientes en el camión que cuida (“the care mobile”). También es una experta de la equidad de salud cuyas investigaciones demuestran que la atención afirmativa puede ayudar a mejorar los resultados de salud para los inmigrantes. Con mucha frecuencia las familias no reciben ese tipo de atención, dijo, agregando que es una mala práctica esperar que miembros de familia traduzcan para sus seres queridos. Eso deja la carga a la familia de abogar por un intérprete certificado.

Chelsea, la hija de Mario, dijo que ella tuvo que traducir para sus padres en otros establecimientos de atención médica.     

“Eso es muy difícil y muy injusto,” dijo Ragavan. “…Es el sistema de atención médica el que le hace eso [a las familias inmigrantes].”

Por otra parte, Chaves-Gnecco construyó un sistema que asegura que las familias reciban la atención afirmativa “de comienzo a fin,” dijo ella, desde programar las citas en español, hasta proveer manuales de salud completamente traducidos.

“Me encanta cómo él se puede comunicar con mis padres,” dijo Chelsea. “Cualquier cosa que yo no sepa explicar, él se lo explica.”

Aquellos que no son hispanohablantes también son bienvenidos al camión que cuida (“the care mobile”), ya que está equipado con una tableta que provee servicio de interpretación virtual en más de 100 lenguajes, dijo Chaves-Gnecco. Y el equipo está trabajando con socios comunitarios como Casa San José para adaptarse mejor a los Latinos cuyo idioma primario es una lengua indígena – una población creciendo aquí, de acuerdo con un reporte del condado.

Un socio comunitario de confianza

Al otro lado de la calle donde estaba el camión, Constanza Henry ayudaba a la gente que se amontonaba en el pequeño vestíbulo de Casa San José. Algunos solo llevaban en EE. UU. una semana, dijo.

Henry es la coordinadora de salud comunitaria y bienestar en Casa San José. Ella trabaja con proveedores para ofrecer clínicas gratuitas dentro o cerca de la oficina de la organización sin fines de lucro. Su esfuerzo ayudó a traer vacunas, mamografías y atención primaria para adultos y niños en Beechview.

En una encuesta reciente casi un tercio de los adultos inmigrantes dijeron que un centro médico comunitario es su fuente habitual de servicio médico . Eso sube a casi dos-quintos de inmigrantes sin seguro médico, indocumentados o con dominio limitado de inglés, dijo Pillai, la investigadora de KFF.  

De todos los doctores que donan su tiempo a los programas de Casa San José, solo los de Salud Para Niños pueden hablar español, dijo Henry. Ella frecuentemente tiene que traducir para pacientes y proveedores en otras clínicas. Esta es la razón por la que Chaves-Gnecco es uno de los doctores más queridos en la comunidad, ella agregó, y con tanta demanda que a veces tiene que rechazar pacientes.  

“También es muy frustrante, el no tener todos los recursos que quisieras tener,” dijo Henry, ella misma inmigrante de la Ciudad de México. “O solo pensando que, en nuestros países, si vas al dentista, no te van a cobrar tanto y te ayudarán inmediatamente.”

Chaves-Gnecco dijo que Colombia provee servicios de salud a los inmigrantes, refugiados y personas sin hogar. El sueña con cobertura universal en Estados Unidos – con un sistema que no castigue a los niños sin seguro médico.

“No es un secreto para nadie que si no tienes seguro médico en este país, a veces terminas perdiendo tu carro … [o] tu hogar,” dijo. “Es un gran problema. Y pienso que debemos hacer lo mejor para nuestra comunidad, para todos los americanos … y proveer seguro médico a todos.”

De vuelta al camión que cuida (“the care mobile”), el equipo terminaba con Mario y Chelsea.

Wise, la enfermera pediatra, le dijo a Chelsea que podía llevarse una de las cobijas de la clínica. Ella escogió una que se veía cómoda y parecía ser de lana con un diseño de una mariposa. Se cubría con ella mientras bajaba los escalones de la clínica y dio un paso hacía una de las mañanas más frías y mojadas del otoño.

Las ubicaciones y las horas de operación de Salud Para Niños están disponibles aquí en inglés y aquí en español.

Venuri Siriwardane es una reportera en FuentePública (PublicSource) de la salud y la salud mental. Puede ser contactada en venuri@publicsource.org o en X, la plataforma anteriormente conocida como Twitter, @venuris.

Los hechos de esta historia fueron revisados por Ladimir Garcia. 

Traducción de Zulma Michaca, profesional bilingüe experta viviendo en el Condado de Riverside, Calif., con familia en Pittsburgh. Para contactarla: z.michaca123@gmail.com.

Este reportaje ha sido posible por la Beca de Investigación Staunton Farm Reportando Salud Mental (Staunton Farm Mental Health Reporting Fellowship) y la Fundación Judía de Servicios Médicos (Jewish Healthcare Foundation).

The post En Beechview, una clínica bilingüe gratis atiende a hijos de inmigrantes appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

This story was originally published by NEXTpittsburgh, a news partner of PublicSource. NEXTpittsburgh features the people, projects and places advancing the region and the innovative and cool things happening here. Sign up to get their free newsletter.

When women return to the renovated Bethlehem Haven in 2024, chocolate-brown interior walls will be refreshed with pale paint colors accented by subtle blues, greens and mauves. Natural light will stream through all-new windows at the Uptown women’s shelter, and French doors will lead to an outdoor patio. 

“This is a very positive solution [to homelessness] and will finally be a therapeutic place,” says Kate Colligan, senior manager of development for Bethlehem Haven. 

The four-story, brick structure at 1410 Fifth Ave., built in 1902 as a bank, is currently undergoing a $3.2 million rehab and is expected to reopen in the spring.  

Upgrades include converting shared rooms into single-occupancy units for 26 women, adding laundry facilities and kitchenettes on each residential floor, a new elevator, new roof and insulation. Basement storage space will be transformed into an activity room and staff lounge. 

The renovation comes as the city’s homelessness crisis is escalating; many in the Pittsburgh region cite it as an issue that keeps them from coming Downtown to work or patronize restaurants and cultural events.  

Since a shelter operated by Allegheny County in the Smithfield United Church of Christ, Downtown, closed its doors in June, the county has been working with the city of Pittsburgh to find extra beds for people experiencing homelessness during severe weather. 

A total of 744 people were in emergency shelters in Allegheny County on Dec. 11, with 475 from adult-only households and 269 from households with children, according to the county Department of Human Services’ dashboard that tracks homelessness.

That’s up 23 percent from 603 total on Dec. 11, 2022, with 409 from adult-only households and 194 from households with children, the dashboard reported.  

While Bethlehem’s Haven renovated space won’t add beds, it will improve the services it offers, say officials of the nonprofit. 

“This will allow us to put all our efforts toward healing women, not worrying about leaky roofs and windows that don’t open,” says Colligan. 

“Homelessness is not a new public health crisis,” says Annette Fetchko, Bethlehem Haven’s chief executive. “Since opening our doors in 1981 to women experiencing homelessness, we have been at capacity.”

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Fetchko says, the shelter “experienced a dramatic shift in the demographics of the women” it serves.

Besides women steeped in “generational poverty and trauma,” she says, many women during the pandemic became homeless for the first time or began aging into homelessness. 

At Bethlehem Haven’s separate emergency shelter at 905 Watson St., Uptown, about 50% of those served are age 50 or older, says Fetchko. 

That emergency shelter has capacity for 28 beds and adds spaces for women during the winter months.

That facility also includes a newly renovated health and wellness clinic that offers care for women and men who lack insurance or resources. 

The clinic is staffed by Pittsburgh Mercy Health System, the nonprofit that since 2016 has operated Bethlehem Haven as a wholly owned subsidiary.

Many women who stay at Bethlehem Haven’s flagship facility on Fifth Avenue have physical disabilities and mental health issues that prevent them from living independently. 

Besides a bed and meals, they receive help with financial literacy, job searches and, in some cases, counseling to put them on a path to permanent housing. 

“We feel it’s really critical to be able to get people into safe, affordable housing to stabilize their most critical needs and work with them to develop life skills,” says Fetchko.

During renovations, Bethlehem Haven’s residents have stayed in temporary housing in Shadyside.

The project is the first phase of an ambitious plan that includes building 34 new, affordable apartments adjacent to Bethlehem Haven. 

That development, Uptown Flats, is a partnership of Bethlehem Haven and ACTION-Housing with an estimated cost of $18.2 million. 

To make space for the new units, Bethlehem Haven acquired four properties on its Fifth Avenue block – including the now-shuttered Ace’s and Deuce’s Lounge and a former post office – and will raze them. 

Plans call for Uptown Flats to offer studio, one- and two-bedroom units for low-income residents who can access wraparound wellness and counseling services provided by Bethlehem Haven. 

Construction is scheduled to begin in February.

Gerard Schmidt, senior project manager with LGA Partners, architects who designed Bethlehem Haven’s renovation and Uptown Flats, says developers and designers met with multiple community groups in Uptown and the Hill District while planning the project and all are “excited about the transformation of the neighborhood.”

“The nuisance bar and the vagrants will be gone,” says Schmidt, whose firm is also located in Uptown.

Funding for Bethlehem Haven’s renovations includes a $750,000 grant from the state’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program; a $425,000 grant from the state’s Local Share Account; $450,000 from the Henry L. Hillman Foundation; and grants from McAuley Ministries, Eden Hall Foundation and others.

Uptown Flats will be funded primarily through the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit program with BNY Mellon as the tax credit investor, says Colligan. 

Catherine Montague, interior designer, is gathering feedback from female residents who occupied the shelter before the rehab. 

They will help select bedspread patterns and towel colors, and their input already has resulted in adding phone chargers for each room. 

“Our approach was to get them really involved and to feel included,” Montague says. 

Donors can continue to purchase “housewarming” gifts such as a bedroom pillow set or bathrobe for $50, or a living room set for $25,000, here.

Joyce Gannon is a Pittsburgh-based freelance writer.

The post Bethlehem Haven’s $3.2 million renovation helping address Pittsburgh’s homeless crisis appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

Editor’s note: This story contains references to sexual abuse, domestic violence and murders of children.

Update (12/14/23): The Pennsylvania Senate passed the bill dubbed Kayden’s Law by a vote of 50-0 on Dec. 13. The bill now moves to the state House for consideration.

Reported 12/7/23:

Claim abuse, lose custody: A bill aims to curb a trend born of the theory of ‘parental alienation’

When a child development professional first told Inaya that they would be filing a Childline report on behalf of her toddler, she felt both relieved and terrified. 

The Pittsburgh mother of one was fearful her then-husband would hurt her child once she disclosed the abuse, but her worry poured out to the child development professional. “One weekend I broke down before her because of what had been happening, and she then told me that, ‘You and your daughter are no longer safe here,’” said Inaya, whose real name is being withheld out of concern that publicity might result in negative consequences.

Inaya had been enduring what she described as increasingly threatening tirades and promises of violence: throwing items, breaking down doors and descriptions of physical harm that would come to her and her child if they did not comply. Once the Childline report was filed, Inaya knew the risk had surged, and she had to leave. 

“That’s when I called up the women’s shelter, and she said, ‘Just pack two sets of clothes for yourself and your daughter and come right here.’ OK, and so that’s what I did.” 

She believed that would be the start of a new — and safer — life for her and her toddler. 

Instead, five years later, Inaya’s ex-husband has primary custody and she is only permitted to see her child for two overnight visits per week, which she says amounts to about 13 to 15 waking hours. The case has included testimony brought by an expert witness called by her ex-husband who said that physical and sexual abuse might be less harmful to a child than “parental alienation.”

The decades-old theory of parental alienation, which holds that one parent may deliberately turn a child against the other, has polarized family courts across the country. Court decisions to disregard abuse allegations, driven in part by the theory, have been linked to child deaths.

Since the death of a Philadelphia-area child in 2018, advocates and lawmakers have pushed for more protections for the children of parents fleeing abusive situations. But while measures inspired by that death have made their way into law in some states and can even unlock federal funding, they haven’t yet made it through Pennsylvania’s General Assembly.

Parental alienation: Worse than a punch?

Psychiatrist Richard Gardner coined the phrase “parental alienation syndrome” in 1985, characterizing it as a disorder in which children, programmed by the allegedly “loved” parent, grow resentful of the allegedly “hated” parent, and often of that parent’s extended family. 

In 2013, the American Psychological Association [APA] listed parental alienation as a specific form of child abuse. Parental alienation syndrome is not listed as a medical term in either the International Classification of Diseases or the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Nonetheless, it turns up in custody cases, including Inaya’s in a 2021 custody trial.

Her lawyer sought to exclude the testimony of Robert Evans, a psychologist and co-author of the book “The Essentials of Parent Alienation Syndrome,” but a county Court of Common Pleas judge denied that motion. According to the trial transcript, Inaya’s lawyer then cross-examined Evans, presenting hypothetical scenarios of abuse.

“Can a parent inflict more damage by parental alienation than the parent could inflict by, say, breaking the child’s bones?” the lawyer asked.

“Conceivably, yes,” Evans answered.

“… How about, you have a 4-year-old child, and the parent punches the child in the face and leaves two black eyes,” the lawyer continued. “Could in your opinion parental alienation be worse for the child than that?”

“Potentially, yes,” said Evans.

“OK, how about if you have a 4-year-old, and the father forces the child to perform fellatio on him. Could that be less harmful to the child than parental alienation?”

“Potentially, yes,” Evans answered.

“How about the father actually fully penetrates his four year old daughter’s vagina with his penis. Could that be less harmful to the child than parental alienation?” the lawyer asked.

Said Evans: “Potentially.”

Evans did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

In late 2021 the judge gave Inaya’s former husband custody of the child, with periods of supervised custody for the mother.

A theory that usually works against moms

“Historically we have seen fathers get custody of their children during custody cases because women and children were seen as their property,” said Danielle Pollack, policy manager for the National Family Violence Law Center at George Washington University Law School. Over the last several decades, Pollack said, “we have seen more of a 50/50 standard.”

Parental alienation claims, though, have pushed the pendulum back, according to research conducted by the center.

“Parental alienation is an effective legal strategy even though there is no evidence to support it,” said Joan Meier, a professor of Clinical Law and Director of the center. “It fits the court’s mind that no abuse could ever happen and both parents should just get along.”

Meier’s 2019 study found that in cases in which mothers claim abuse by a father, and the father then claims alienation, courts are more than twice as likely to disbelieve the mother’s claim. When a mother claims child abuse, and the father claims alienation, courts are almost four times more likely to dismiss the claim than if the father did not claim alienation. 

“Women’s voices are taken as less credible and children even less credible,” Pollack said. “So when you have to talk about the abuse, the courts have the human response to deny it. We all don’t want it to be true that these things have happened, especially child sexual abuse. Your brain just turns off.”

Meier also found that when fathers claim alienation, the rate at which mothers lose custody shoots up from 26% to 50% for any abuse allegation. Even when courts believe a father has abused a mother, if they also believe the mother is alienating, some mothers still lose custody to the abusive fathers. 

Across all cases in which alienation was claimed — regardless of whether abuse was claimed — when a father alleged a mother was alienating the man took full custody from her 44% of the time. When the genders were reversed, mothers took custody from fathers only 29% of the time. 

“It’s a mix of ignorance, stereotypes, denial of abuse and misogyny,” Meier said. “There has not been any useful training [in courts] on the use of parental alienation and its gendered outcomes.”

Judges “see an abuser come into court calm, cool, collected, a pillar of the community,” said Kathleen Russell, executive director of California-based Center for Judicial Excellence. 

The mother, by contrast may appear stressed and could be suffering from PTSD, impacting their courtroom delivery, Russell added. As a result, judges “don’t believe the women because they don’t present well, and they believe the abusers because they are poised and don’t act abusive.” 

When parental alienation is alleged, she said, efforts to disprove it can instead appear to support the underlying claim, in a system where judges tend to reward the friendliest parent.

“If your kid is being raped on the weekend and you are trying to restrict custody or go for sole custody because your child is having medical issues or is hysterical upon pickup, you are not going to look friendly to the court.”

Incautious calls by courts can bring tragedy.

The Center for Judicial Excellence’s dashboard logs nearly 1,000 children’s deaths nationwide, since 2008, in cases in which custody was contested over allegations of abuse. The issue, said Russell, is that the family court system was not designed and has not been trained to handle cases like these. 

“The majority of cases that come in are not domestic violence or child abuse cases,” said Russell. “Those all settle amicably; the parents are able to put the child’s best interests forward.” But when the case gets complicated, she said, untrained family courts too often fail to protect children. 

Kayden’s story — and the bill named after her 

On Aug. 6, 2018, 7-year-old Kayden Mancuso, from Bucks County, was murdered by her father Jeffrey Mancuso during court-ordered unsupervised custody time, which had been granted despite the mother raising safety concerns during custody litigation. Kayden’s mother, Kathy Sherlock, had submitted evidence to the court of the father’s abusive, violent history including criminal records and filed for a restraining order.

In 2019, a bill named after Kayden, and aimed at averting future tragedies, was introduced in Pennsylvania. Almost five years later, the latest version passed the Senate Judiciary Committee with a unanimous vote in October, but has not yet passed either full chamber of the General Assembly. 

The bill would:

• Make clear that the most important issue in custody cases is protection of the child
• Establish a hearing to review evidence after claims of abuse
• Require that a court-determined abusive party would be limited to supervised custody until that party could prove they do not pose a risk to the child’s health and safety
• Mandate ongoing, evidence-based training programs within courts regarding child abuse, domestic violence and the impact of child abuse and domestic violence on children.

State Sen. Steven Santarsiero, D-Bucks County, the prime sponsor of Kayden’s Law, said he is “cautiously optimistic” that the bill will pass soon.  

“Every stakeholder has been very supportive,” he said. “It was just fine tuning.” 

State Rep. Emily Kinkead, D-Brighton Heights, said she expects the bill to pass.

Kinkead, an attorney who serves on the House Judiciary Committee, said she had concerns that provisions in prior versions, which would have required professionals to supervise visits when there was an allegation of abuse, would be very difficult to execute given the lack of trained court supervisors. “If the courts are telling you that they can’t make it work, that’s something you should listen to,” said Kinkead. The updated bill suggests looking closely at each case to determine whether it requires a professional visitation supervisor. 

Last year President Joe Biden reauthorized the Violence Against Women’s Act, enacted in 1994, increasing services and support for survivors from underserved and marginalized communities including for LGBTQIA+ survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking. The act endorses provisions echoing Kayden’s Law’s planks, pledging federal funds to states that require courts to carefully consider abuse allegations, ensure that the right of a child to be with a protective parent is not secondary to the desire to improve the child’s relationship with the other parent and require training for judges. However, states are not required to take these measures. 

“Kayden’s Law is such low-hanging fruit,” Meier said. “Requiring that experts are truly experts in what they are testifying for, requiring training for judges and not ordering the [child’s] reunification with an alleged abuser seems so clear and necessary.”

While Kayden’s tragedy occurred in Pennsylvania, Colorado became the first state to officially pass Kayden’s Law in May. New York, Maryland, Montana and Illinois have also introduced similar legislation. California passed similar legislation in mid-October. 

An Allegheny County court spokesperson declined to respond to questions, saying the court can’t comment on anything related to pending legislation.

‘We just can’t side with abuse’

Kendra, a mom in Allegheny County whose real name is being withheld, said she endured almost six years of being “emotionally, mentally, spiritually” abused. Kendra was granted a PFA, but once it expired, she said, her husband would break into her house, vandalize her property and verbally abuse her in front of their two children.

“When I would call the police, they said they couldn’t do anything because his name was still on the deed of the house because we weren’t officially divorced yet,” Kendra said. 

Kendra said these events were very traumatizing for her and her children. Her son, then three years old, would lock the doors anywhere they went because he “wanted to keep the bad guys out.” 

Kendra has primary custody of her children, with her ex-husband having five hours per week plus every other weekend and some holidays. She notes that she found a way to finance the continued cost of a lawyer.

“What is happening to these women and children that don’t have the money? There were times I would get [lawyer bills] up to $2,000 to $4,000 every two weeks,” Kendra said. “The system is so perverted and twisted, it doesn’t protect women; men use kids as pawns and there’s no accountability unless women are in the financial position to keep going to court for as long as it takes.”  

“It still comes down to who has the most money for a better lawyer,” said Pollack, of the National Family Violence Law Center.

Neighborhood Legal Services, a federally funded program to provide legal aid, can help eligible households to navigate family courts. 

Meier said that abuse continues through generations in part because it is not acknowledged. 

“We just can’t side with abuse any longer,” Meier said. “So many kids are being intentionally harmed and traumatized, and it’s so frustrating that courts deny abuse all the time and still hold onto old fashioned and inaccurate standards. … We need to just keep calling it out or it will keep happening.”

The City of Pittsburgh officially declared November as Family Court Awareness month. Pollack led a press conference conducted by Mayor Ed Gainey’s office, which included statements from child survivors of abuse.

“As a survivor, you are told to tell the truth and you would be okay, but after hours of questioning and telling the truth, we were completely ignored,” said a child referred to as Nova, whose real name was withheld. “Everyone overlooked what we had to say, and it affected us greatly. The trauma caused by family court is real.”

Inaya does not want to give up on getting custody of her child, but it’s exhausting and expensive. She’s also unsure if more hearings will even make a difference.

“I shared what my daughter had told me, ‘Papa does bad things to me.’ And another time, she had said that he doesn’t stop,” she said. “I shared this in the court.” 

Correction: Neighborhood Legal Services provides legal aid to victims of domestic violence, and to clients in custody cases related to Protection from Abuse cases if there is a high risk of lethality or other safety factor. Subject to available resources, NLS represents clients in some types of family court cases in which custody is contested. The agency also helps clients in Allegheny, Beaver, Butler and Lawrence counties to navigate family courts. An earlier version of this story mischaracterized NLS’ availability. To seek legal help, click here.

Meg St-Esprit is a freelance journalist based in Bellevue. She can be reached at megstesprit@gmail.com or on Instagram and Twitter.

Erin Yudt is an editorial intern at PublicSource and can be reached at erin@publicsource.org.

This story was fact-checked by Punya Bhasin.

The post Updated: Kayden’s Law passes Pa. Senate, would change family court handling of child abuse allegations appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

Líderes de Pittsburgh por años han dicho que esperan crecer la población de la ciudad, en parte, al atraer inmigrantes. En Beechview, donde las cifras del censo muestran que la población Hispana y Latina creció por 75% entre 2010 y 2020, líderes locales ven los beneficios y buscan la manera de cómo involucrar una población más diversa. 

Beechview Puntos de Orgullo
FuentePública (PublicSource) mapea y relata las fortalezas de comunidades diversas.

“No han sido más que un valor inmenso a este distrito y al vecindario,” dijo el miembro del Consejo de la ciudad Anthony Coghill, quien vive en Beechview y representa a ese y otros vecindarios de South Pittsburgh. “Están atrayendo dinero a nuestra economía local. Han traído mucha vida a nuestro vecindario que estaba sufriendo un poco.” 

Los Latinos representan 10% de la población del censo de Beechview del 2020, que es mucho más de lo que es en la ciudad (4%) o el condado (3%), pero todavía son la minoría en un vecindario mayormente blanco. 

Monica Ruiz, directora ejecutiva del centro de recursos para la comunidad Casa San José, dijo que muchos de los Latinos de Beechview recientemente llegaron a los Estados Unidos – lo que significa que no pueden votar y les cuesta  conectar con oficiales del gobierno y acceder recursos. Ella dijo que muchos temen al gobierno por su experiencia con autoridades en sus países de origen. 

 “Muchos de ellos están huyendo por como es el gobierno allí,” dijo Ruiz. “Así que hay un temor válido.” 

Coghill dijo que ha tomado un método pasivo al involucrar a la comunidad Latina porque no quiere que nadie se sienta intimidado.  

“No los he involucrado como debería,” dijo Coghill. “… Creo que no siento que es lo que quieren. Así que no los quiero forzar a que me acepten. Aunque ellos o alguien que ellos conocen no tengan el papeleo en regla para estar aquí, no quiero asustar a nadie.”

Pero, Coghill ha sido activo en involucrarse con organizaciones como Casa San José y Pittsburgh Hispanic Development Corporation, y Ruiz dice que su esfuerzo no ha pasado desapercibido. 

“Son personas como él que son Pittsburghers blancos que han estado aquí por generaciones a los que quizás la gente se siente intimidados al verlo y hablar con él. Pero él realmente se ha hecho disponible y estoy agradecida con él.” 

Nuevo sabor político 

Algunos cambios recientes en el área de restaurantes en Beechview son emblemáticos de los cambios políticos y demográficos del vecindario, y no sólo metafóricamente. The Huddle, el lugar americano de tantos años se retiró, mientras que la calle principal está salpicada de establecimientos como Chicken Latino y El Paisano. 

Pero hay más: The Huddle, que servía hamburguesas y bistecs con palomitas gratis en la Avenida Broadway por 47 años hasta este verano, pertenecía a Pete Wagner, un símbolo de una cultura política que ahora ya no se reconoce.

Wagner presidió el Comité Democrático Distrito 19 por décadas, en un tiempo cuando el respaldo del partido era vital para las posibilidades electorales de los candidatos, y miembros del comité sentían una presión inmensa de apoyar a la selección del presidente del distrito. Eso hacía a Wagner un intermediario de poder y su restaurante era donde se tomaban las decisiones.

Coghill recordaba ir a ver a Wagner en The Huddle a plantear el caso de su candidatura al Concejo Municipal. Con el tiempo, después de disfrutar el apoyo de Wager y luego perder ese apoyo, Coghill decidió enfrentarse al sistema. En el 2010 retó a Wagner para ser presidente del distrito y perdió. Pero en el 2014 Coghill ahuyentó a Wagner del puesto e impuso una orden nueva: Él no iba a presionar a miembros del comité a votar de cierta manera y dijo que apoyaba pensamientos libres cuando se trataba de respaldar a candidatos primarios.  

Desde esa revolución en 2014, la mayoría de la ciudad y el condado han sido arrasados por una reforma progresiva. Miembros poderosos del comité (Coghill les decía “caciques de guerra”) son algo del pasado. Candidatos respaldados por el comité han perdido elecciones primarias de vez en cuando. Este verano, Wagner les dijo a los medios de noticias que cerró The Huddle para retirarse. 

Bob Hillen, el presidente del comité Republicano para el 4to Distrito del Consejo, que incluye a Beechview, dijo que su partido ha tratado de involucrar y reclutar a la comunidad Latina sin éxito.

Hillen, quien vive en Beechview, aprecia la abogacía de Cohill para el área, pero dijo que los residentes que han vivido en el vecindario desde hace mucho tiempo se sienten fuera de lugar en su propio vecindario. 

“Muchos de los negocios locales se fueron de aquí,” dijo Hillen, un pintor de profesión y ex candidato al concejo municipal. “Casi todos los negocios que tenemos ahora son restaurantes mexicanos, negocios Latinos. De cierto modo, perdimos nuestro supermercado, aunque todavía sigue allí, mayormente se usa por inmigrantes para transferir dinero fuera del país.” 

No votantes, pero no olvidados

El comité local Democrático se ha convertido “más perceptivo de los verdaderos votantes,” según el miembro del comité Darrin Tidrick. “No hay la misma consideración al decir ‘Vamos a hacer lo que nos dicen que hagamos.'”

Pero el comité no refleja la comunidad floreciente de Latinos, según el presidente del distrito actual, Tony Griffith. Esto se explica en parte por el hecho de que muchos miembros no tienen derecho a votar.

Mientras la narrativa nacional alrededor de votantes Latinos se enfoca en quién apoyarán en las elecciones federales, Ruiz se enfoca en que los recién llegados simplemente se acoplen a sus vecindarios.

“No son elegibles para votar pero eso no significa que no puedan estar políticamente involucrados,” dijo Ruiz.” Hemos trabajado con la gente para tratar de ayudar a que cuenten sus historias a sus vecinos, sus jefes, a la gente que sí puede votar. De esa manera ellos ayudan a que los demás entiendan que no somos votantes de un solo tema.” 

Ella elogió a políticos incluyendo a Coghill y a la Representante del estado Jessica Benham, D-Lado Sur, por llegar a eventos comunitarios y no ignorar a las personas que no pueden votar. 

“Muchos de ellos llegaron aquí porque se quieren quedar y están en el camino a la ciudadanía,” dijo Ruiz. “Así que eventualmente serán votantes e ignorarlos tal vez no sea lo correcto. Será interesante ver como se verá nuestro bloque político en los siguientes cinco a diez años.”

Aunque muchos de los Latinos de Beechview no pueden votar, Ruiz, un residente del vecindario Brookline, recientemente fue nombrada a un puesto destacado en las políticas del condado. La ejecutiva del Condado-Electa Sara Innamorato la designó como copresidenta del su comité de transición, que dará forma a la nueva administración del condado que tomará el cargo en enero. 

“Estamos hablando de estrategias para asegurar que todas las voces sean incluidas,” Ruiz dijo de su trabajo con la transición. 

Charlie Wolfson es un reportero del gobierno local de FuentePública (PublicSource) y es miembro de corps para Report for America. Puede ser contactado en charlie@publicsource.org.   

Los hechos de esta historia fueron revisados por Ladimir Garcia. 

Traducción de Zulma Michaca, profesional bilingüe experta viviendo en el Condado de Riverside, Calif., con familia en Pittsburgh. Para contactarla: z.michaca123@gmail.com.

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