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From the newsletter, Straight from City Hall:

The City of Cleveland strongly encourages residents not to participate in trick-or-treating this year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. However, if residents choose to trick-or-treat or pass out candy, the permitted hours in the City of Cleveland are from 6-8 p.m. They are asked to adhere to the regulations outlined in the Ohio Department of Health’s “Celebrating Halloween” guidelines which include the following:

o   Always wear a face covering and stay 6 feet away from people who are not from your household, whether trick-or-treating, passing out treats or attending attractions or events.

o   A costume mask is not a substitute for a cloth mask. A costume mask should not be used unless it is made of two or more layers of breathable fabric that covers the mouth and nose and doesn’t leave gaps around the face.

o   Do not wear a costume mask over a protective cloth mask because it can be dangerous if the costume mask makes it hard to breathe. Instead, consider using a Halloween-themed cloth mask.

o   If you may have COVID-19 or may have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, you should not participate in in-person Halloween festivities and should not give out candy to trick-or-treaters.

o   Carry hand sanitizer and use it often, especially after coming into contact with frequently touched surfaces and before eating candy.

o   If taking your children trick-or-treating, limit the number of houses you visit and ask your children to stay as far from treat-givers as possible. For small children, consider holding the bag for them.

o   Wipe off candy wrappers with sanitizing wipes when you arrive home. (NOTE: Never wipe unpackaged food with wipes.)

In an effort to provide children in Cleveland’s neighborhoods with an alternative to traditional trick-or-treating, the City will be offering grab-and-go candy bags. This is in lieu of our annual Big City Boo event, which we must regretfully cancel this year. Participants seeking candy bags will be required to wear masks, maintain six feet of social distancing and follow posted guidelines and directional signage.

The candy bags will be at the 18 open City of Cleveland Neighborhood Resource and Recreation Centers (NRRCs) on October 30 from 6-7 p.m. or until all bags are given out. All of the NRRCs will supply candy bags with the exception of the following: Halloran, Stella Walsh, Sterling, Hamilton, Kovacic and Camp Forbes. Please note: candy bags will be given out on a first-come, first-serve basis.

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Ohioans have made substantial contributions to mitigating the effects of the Opioid crisis throughout the state. From state initiatives to community support, we have been able to save many lives. In fact, since its inception, 15,000 people have sought help from the RecoveryOhio Crisis Text Line. Despite these significant efforts, there was a disconnect in the education surrounding the life-saving antidote, naloxone.

In Ohio, a 2015 law allowed pharmacists to dispense this medication to customers without a prescription, the only problem was, many pharmacists were unaware of this change. According to a survey completed by the Cleveland Plain Dealer of 275 Northeast Ohio pharmacies, a large number of pharmacies did not know that naloxone can be dispensed without a prescription.  In fact, 20 percent of the pharmacies surveyed incorrectly stated that customers would need a prescription for naloxone. Consequently, many pharmacies did not even have naloxone in stock.

That is why I introduced Senate Bill 59, the Naloxone without Prescription Training Bill, to require all pharmacists, technicians and pharmacy interns be trained to become knowledgeable that naloxone can be dispensed without a prescription and would also require those professionals that dispense the drug to maintain an adequate supply of it. This legislation passed unanimously out of the Senate earlier this year. It then moved over to the House where it passed out of the House Health Committee unanimously.

I am proud to announce that in September, during National Recovery Month, Governor DeWine signed House Bill 341 into law, which contained S.B. 59 as an amendment. With this law in effect, we will be able to save more lives and work towards overcoming the opioid epidemic in Ohio. The passage of this legislation is even more significant given the increased loss of life due to opioid usage this year. In August alone, Cuyahoga County witnessed at least 47 fatal cases due to heroin/fentanyl/analogs, and at least 293 victims over the course of this year. We must continue to raise awareness and pass meaningful legislation to better help our families, friends, and neighbors who are silently battling addiction. 

PHOTO CAPTION: Senator Antonio provides Sponsor Testimony on S.B. 59 in the Ohio House Health Committee

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The COVID-19 pandemic has changed many aspects of our daily lives: what we wear, where we go, and who we can visit- but it does not change your vital role in our democracy.

With the 2020 General Election right around the corner, it is important to be aware of upcoming deadlines and processes to make your vote count and your voice heard. 

Before heading to the polls on Nov. 3, 2020, you must be registered to vote. The deadline to register to vote for this election is Oct. 5, 2020.

To register, you will need your Ohio driver’s license or Ohio identification card number, name, date of birth, address, and the last four digits of your social security number. If you have recently moved, you will need to update your voting address. Last year, the Ohio Secretary of State’s office purged thousands of citizens from voter rolls. Some of these names were removed in error, so even if you have not moved and you have previously voted, you should verify your voter registration out of an abundance of caution. 

The unpredictable nature of a global pandemic makes the possibility of in-person voting unclear for many. To be safe, you can vote by mail. To do so, you will need to complete and mail an absentee ballot application to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections at 2925 Euclid Ave Cleveland, OH 44115. The deadline to request an absentee ballot is three days before the election, but it is highly recommended that requests are submitted as soon as possible. Once you receive your ballot in the mail, you will need to return it to the board of elections, which can be done by mail or in person. When mailing the completed ballot, it must be postmarked no later than the day before the election (Nov. 2, 2020) and received no later than 10 days after the election. You can also deliver your ballot in person prior to 7:30 p.m. on Election Day. 

Election Day 2020 will look different, but you too can help the process run smoothly by signing up to be a poll worker if you are less vulnerable to the virus. Many of our older Election Day volunteers will be unable to help in November due to COVID-19 related risks, so it is a great time for young people to sign up as paid poll workers through the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. 

While this election will present new challenges, we must remember that our foremothers and fathers fought for our right to vote and make our voice heard. This is an important time to participate in our democracy. 

PHOTOS BY ELIZABETH HALKO

Featured top photo caption: Senator Antonio at the Cuyahoga County BOE drop box at E. 30^th and Euclid Avenue.

Last May, while the pandemic and recession sapped state revenue, Gov. Mike DeWine cut funding for education and health care. As policymakers prepare for the next budget year, a Policy Matters Ohio report shows how the cuts set a lower baseline for critical programs like education, mental health and public defense attorneys.

“Congress has yet to provide the kind of aid state and local governments need to protect the public,” said report author, Senior Project Director Wendy Patton. “That’s forcing state lawmakers to make cuts they shouldn’t have to make. However, years of cuts at the state level have left Ohio ill-prepared. State lawmakers have underfunded programs that make Ohio communities stronger and healthier in favor of tax cuts and tax breaks that benefit corporations and the wealthy few.”

In May, Gov. DeWine cut $776 million from the current 2020-21 state budget’s General Revenue Fund (GRF). Partly due to the pandemic, GRF spending came in $1.5 billion below appropriations. The cuts have established a lower baseline for 2021 appropriations. The Office of Budget and Management said spending on many public services should be held to 2020 levels. Budget cuts for FY 2021 have not been announced, but Patton confirmed at least $440 million in planned reductions: $309 million from K-12 schools, $89 million from higher education and $46 million to help counties fund public defenders. Also vulnerable are important programs that were scheduled to receive increased funding in 2021, like the programs to lower Ohio’s high infant mortality rate among Black communities.

With Congress unable to come to an agreement about the next COVID-19 aid package, Patton said it’s more important than ever for state leaders to leverage Ohio’s public revenue in ways that will support all communities.

“State policymakers have tools to help Ohioans keep the lights on, the rent paid and food on the table,” Patton said. “They can rebalance the tax code so the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share. They can stop unproductive tax giveaways. They can tap the rainy day fund. They can use different buckets of federal funds. During this unprecedented public health crisis and recession, everything must be used to help struggling families.”

By Malcolm Burnley and Rachel Dissell, The Fuller Project

(Pictured: Lynn Rodemann) 

Lynn Rodemann walked up the driveway, a mask fixed tightly to her face. 

A mother of five welcomed her into the backyard, where she was cleaning up the colorful, damp decorations from a child’s birthday party the evening before. 

Rodemann, a community outreach specialist, is part of a pandemic response team traversing Slavic Village to check on residents and offers information on a rent assistance program – and an application to vote by mail in the upcoming November presidential election. 

Working the overnight shift as a corrections officer at a women’s prison during a pandemic, coupled with limited child care options is a daily struggle, the woman said. 

“You could see how tired she was,” says Rodemann, who broke social distancing protocol to give the woman, who started to cry, a hug. “I was so devastated for her.”

After that encounter, she  wondered how a mom like the one she had met could have any energy left to worry about voting. A few days later, Rodemann returned to the home with a care package: masks, alcohol wipes and a thermometer. 

“If there’s a possibility that they’re losing their house, they don’t give a shit about voting,” says 39-year-old Rodemann, who has worked for Slavic Village Development in the historic but under-resourced neighborhood for six years. 

“They’re worried about keeping a roof over their head and still eating.”

And just as fears of evictions remain in this community 10 minutes south of downtown Cleveland, it’s a concern facing thousands of Americans nationwide. 

Policy experts predict an “avalanche” of evictions to hit low-income renters across the country this fall. Women are expected to be the majority of the 30 to 40 million Americans at risk of eviction by year’s end, according to findings from the Aspen Institute. If income-insecure women face losing  their homes – and access to a stable address to receive voting registration, ballots, applications, and critical change-of-address forms –  this could impact how many of them vote in the upcoming presidential election, experts say, adding this could also have a significant impact on the outcome of the November election. 

“These aren’t issues that people look at together, but they should be looking at together,” says Shailly Gupta Barnes, policy director for the Poor People’s Campaign and the Kairos Center. 

A recent NPR analysis found neighborhoods with higher evictions had lower voter turnout than the rest of the city, including other low-income neighborhoods. In Slavic Village, the worry is that voter turnout, which hasn’t rebounded from the last housing crisis more than a decade ago, could get worse. In 2016, only 38.5 percent of eligible voters cast ballots, the second-lowest among neighborhoods in the city. 

Cleveland and Cuyahoga County  have allotted $18.1 million in federal CARES Act and Community Development Block Grant money to help renters. As she goes door-to-door, Rodemann and others spread the word about the rental assistance program, administered by CHN Housing Partners, a housing nonprofit, which can cover rent for up to three months. 

Energizing people to vote in a community like Slavic Village could prove difficult. The same has been true for encouraging people to fill out the U.S. Census.

 The neighborhood has followed the pattern of other industrial and urban communities: a booming population at the start of the century, then deindustrialization post World War II, urban flight, and declining populations, empty homes and increases in poverty and crime rates. By the Great Recession, the 5-square-mile neighborhood had more foreclosures in its 44105 zip code during the spring and summer of 2007 than any other zip code in the United States. The housing market, then in crisis across the country, was devastated in Slavic Village. As it continues its climb to recovery, the community again staves off another wave of housing displacement wrought by COVID-19.

Now get-out-the-vote efforts are more difficult as coronavirus cases top 5 million in the U.S. and nearly 4,500 in Cleveland. That’s why a vote-by-mail application is included in the same handout packet alongside rent payment assistance information that Rodemann hands out. 

Organizers are also helping voters navigate Ohio’s ballot request process through smaller hands-on events at places like Daisy’s Ice Cream on Fleet Avenue and Neighborhood Pets, a local pet food pantry and resource center. 

Dozens of volunteers hand-wrote 2,000 postcards to new and infrequent voters in Slavic Village, encouraging them to vote this cycle.

I’ve been helping to coordinate the postcard packets. This is the pile in my living room and it’s still growing.

Thank you @slavicvillage! pic.twitter.com/0ZDQh2Igfs

— Rebecca Maurer (@maurerlawllc) August 20, 2020

Women have consistently outpaced men in voter turnout across racial groups and education levels since the 1980s. And because women, as a voting bloc, have historically leaned toward Democratic party candidates, evictions could mean a partisan impact. In 2016, then -Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton led among women voters by 13 percent compared to President Donald Trump. That gap has widened in 2020, putting former Vice President Joe Biden ahead of President Trump by 25 percent among women voters, according to recent polling.  

For now, the anticipated surge in evictions hasn’t manifested. In July, there were 423 eviction filings in Cleveland, down 55 percent from the same month the year prior. But there’s reason to believe the data doesn’t yet reflect the situation to come.

The national moratorium on evictions — a 120-day freeze that applied to many renters and was part of the CARES Act — was lifted in July. On August 11, President Trump said: “We are stopping evictions. We’re not going to let that happen,”  But the president’s top economic policy analyst, Larry Kudlow, walked back those comments days later. 

Meanwhile, Congress has been unable to agree on further relief for keeping people in their homes, despite the success of CARES Act protections. 

“Eviction and voting don’t go real well together. It becomes a form of voter suppression,” says Bill Faith, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio.

In the months leading up to the election, community groups in Cleveland  have stepped in to register voters and recruit poll workers, canvassed door-to-door while passing out supplies like masks, bandanas and hand sanitizer. 

One of those groups is  Cleveland VOTES, a nonpartisan organization founded by two Black women. The group aims to get low-income residents involved in the democratic process in tandem with the board of elections. As of Aug. 17, the county elections board had  received more than 40,000 vote-by-mail applications.

 “I know that people are getting the message, I know that more people are applying for vote-by-mail,” says Jennifer Lumpkin, civic engagement strategist for Cleveland VOTES. 

In this year’s primary election, Ohio voter turnout was down close to 45 percent compared to 2016, according to a July report by the Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project. That was the steepest four-year dip of any state. 

The decline has been attributed to a confluence of factors, including fear of the virus, conflicting information about when and how to vote, slowed mail delivery and primary races that were less competitive than in 2016. Another factor was the two-step process to vote by mail, or absentee, in Ohio. Voters have to fill out and return a paper ballot application to their local board of elections before getting a ballot to cast. 

Early and in-person voting will still be offered, though the state is limiting secure ballot drop boxes to one in each of the state’s 88 counties. Given health and safety concerns, particularly in the city’s Black community disproportionately hit by COVID-19 infections and deaths, groups like Cleveland VOTES are emphasizing mail-in ballots.

When it works properly, voting by mail can actually help to overcome some of the gendered barriers – like lack of transportation – that interfere with women’s votes, Lumpkin says. 

That aligns with Rodemann’s conversations with women in Slavic Village. 

“You can talk about voting and say, ‘I also want your voice to be heard. I want you to be counted,” Rodemann said. “Folks who don’t feel like they have a voice or they feel unheard, they feel unseen, then they don’t participate.”

Fuller Project reporter Jessica Washington contributed to this story. 

Malcolm Burnley is a journalist with The Fuller Project, a global nonprofit newsroom reporting on issues that affect women. Rachel Dissell is a contributing journalist with The Fuller Project.

• Vote-by-mail application
• Ballot applications can be dropped off in a secure drop box in the parking lot of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections at 2925 Euclid Avenue. 
• Rent assistance applications

This story was originally published by The Fuller Project, a nonprofit newsroom reporting on issues that affect women.