Community Support, Mutual Aid, and the Role of Elected Officials During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Conversation with Shaeleigh Severino
During the spring and early summer of 2020, New York was the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. The suffering of the critically ill, the pleas of overworked health care professionals, and the pain of the 800+ death toll each day are seared into the minds of many New Yorkers and will never be forgotten. But then and now, these horrors did not equally affect all New Yorkers: it is well-documented that the COVID-19 has disproportionately brought harm to Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other communities of color in terms of cases, deaths, and economic hardship. One such district that has suffered disproportionately from the COVID-19 pandemic is Council District 32 of New York City, says candidate Shaeleigh Severino.
Severino, a passionate 21-year-old student at St. John’s University, is currently the only Afro-Latina running for this City Council position, and she wants to shed light on the impact that City Council can have on her local community. Ultimately, Severino hopes to bridge the gap between her community and elected officials and have her people’s voices be heard.
Council District 32, which lies in Queens, has been neglected for far too long according to Severino, who cites this neglect as one of the reasons that motivated her to run for office. “We weren’t getting the kind of swift attention or action that our communities’ dire crisis requires,” she told PPE4ALL in an interview. “Southeast Queens is left out of the conversation far too often. The Rockaways is more than just a beach destination but yet time and time again we see that we’re not being represented.”
“[It’s come to] mutual aid. What are we going to be able to do for each other?” Severino has been working hard in her community to meet the needs of the individuals, households, and businesses that have been affected by COVID-19. When searching for organizations providing free PPE, Severino had little luck at first, consistently getting turned away, until she came across PPE4ALL. We provided her with 200 sewn masks and 350 face shields in November. Since then, Severino has distributed the PPE, utilizing her connection to her district to assess the needs of its constituents.
The lack of city-wide attention to Southeast Queens’ communities has been a problem for decades and, during COVID-19, has come with deadly consequences. District 32 is home to a large number of elderly individuals, who are at an increased risk of serious illness and hospitalization due to COVID-19. Public health guidance recommends that the elderly limit their social interactions, and many of the elderly community members in District 32 were restricted to their homes during the peak of the pandemic. This posed a serious problem for food and resource access for these individuals, Severino tells us. The few senior centers in the district, a symptom of long-term community neglect, had to deal with high COVID-19 casualties and were unable to meet the needs of the elderly population. “City Hall had all the city-wide data at their disposal; they knew that Southeast Queens’ communities have vulnerabilities, yet we’re being let down,” she says. According to Severino, discretionary funds that could have been allocated to supplying PPE and other resources to the district were not utilized by elected officials, leaving District 32 unable to keep its residents safe and healthy.
When a fire in District 32 displaced upwards of 55 individuals, Severino stepped up to help her community, organizing a drive for clothes, toiletries, and food overnight. She noted that one thing was missing: PPE. Severino distributed half her store of masks and face shields from PPE4ALL to the displaced families, allowing for their safety. She has given the remaining PPE to individuals who have expressed a need for it.
Severino recounts one instance in which she was knocking on doors, and met a woman who could not afford PPE due to the steep cost of her husband’s hospital bills. She notes that through mutual aid, we have the power to relieve some of this stress by helping and supporting one another. Severino tells the stories of many unemployed individuals in her district, for whom free PPE means they can venture safely to food pantries, job interviews, and local businesses.
Similarly, Severino recalled a time when she stopped by her favorite bodega and learned the business could not afford the PPE they needed to safely operate. After outfitting the workers with PPE donated by PPE4ALL, Severino reflected on the impact of COVID-19 and government inaction on small businesses: “If the bodega closes, what do we do?” Small businesses are the backbone of our communities. Government inaction and the lack of PPE and other resources threaten these businesses, families and workers that operate them, and entire communities that depend on the social, cultural, and economic impact of these businesses.
PPE4ALL was founded to connect with communities whose needs would otherwise be ignored. While PPE4ALL recognizes that the challenges and inequities that District 32 and other communities face are systemic and deeply rooted, communities must come together and support one another if and when others do not do their part. Both Severino’s bid for City Council and the formation of PPE4ALL were born out of stepping up to the challenge of responding to need when others have not.
