#project roomkey

[bighermie]

LA Hotel Converted to Federally Sponsored Homeless Shelter Had Over $11 Million in Damages | The Gateway Pundit | by Margaret Flavin

[sheliesshattered]

I've made some good progress on my Batuu vest sewing project in the last couple of days since I posted about finishing the Jyn Erso sweatshirt project. Like I mentioned in that post, working on the sweatshirt helped me realize that I needed to add fabric to the front shoulder of the vest rather than removing it. Once I got the shoulder seam sitting where I wanted it, the bust seam fit perfectly and didn't require any adjustments at all, woot.

With that and a few other small changes made to the lining, I went ahead and transferred all the changes to the paper pattern (including actually taping on extra paper to the front shoulder section) and then cut out the exterior fabric out of scraps of that same blue linen I used for the lining/mock-up.

All the work I did on fitting the lining and adjusting the paper pattern made the whole thing come together quickly and easily. I still had to do a slash-and-spread technique to ease the bust panels together, but it was sort of ridiculously easy compared to how much I struggled with that seam with the lining before realizing that the problem was with the markings on the pattern itself.

So now I've got two layers of the vest all sewn together, exterior on the left and interior lining on the right:

When they're layered together, the raw edges are all sandwiched between the exterior and the lining. This linen already has a good amount of body on its own, but layered together it's nearly as rigid as the duck cloth I made my original vest for The Moment out of. Which honestly I'm glad to see, since the torso section will be so fitted once the zipper is in, and actually under a bit of tension.

Last night while I was trying to fall asleep, I realized that any pockets I want to have in this vest need to be put in before I attach the exterior to the lining, so that the stitch lines don't show through. I haven't decided yet if I want to have any pockets visible from the outside (flaps or otherwise), but I knew I definitely wanted to have hidden interior pockets that I can access when the zipper is zipped all the way up (to mid-bust or so). This morning I measured and cut two little square pockets that live in the overbust area of the lining, below my collarbone but above the largest part of the bust -- visible on the right in the pic below where one of the front panels is opened up to show the lining:

I sized both pockets to fit my in-character pilot's license such that the license would stick out just a tiny amount (making it easier to retrieve without digging around in a too-deep pocket). My pilot's license is just slightly bigger than my real-world ID, so the pockets would also work for carrying practical items like ID, credit card, roomkey, etc. The pic below shows the pilot's license on the left and my driver's license on the right, with the lining turned completely inside out so that both pockets can be seen.

The next step, which I'm hoping to get to tonight, will be ironing all the new seams I've sewn in the last few days -- the pockets, the new shoulder panels in the lining, and all the seams in the exterior. While I'm at it, I want to cut out and iron a couple of pocket flap mock-ups so that I can pin the flaps to the outside and see if I like the look, and if so where I want the pockets to be.

The Moment vest has a pair of zipper pockets set on a diagonal, based on the screen-used vest Billy Piper wore in the Doctor Who 50th anniversary episode. Originally my plan for my Batuu outfit was to wear that vest as is, and then I started thinking about covering up the zippers (to follow the No Visible Closures In Star Wars rule) and figured I would just hand-sew some flaps over those zipper pockets.

But now that I'm doing the vest as a completely new scratch-build, I have the option to do whatever I want with the pockets. Pockets are lovely, but I do have the two interior pockets, my brown leather bag, and my belt (potentially with pouches) to help carry stuff around -- and even if I did have pockets on the lower torso of this vest, I probably wouldn't put much in there anyway, since the whole thing is so fitted.

I know for certain that I don't want to do patch pockets that stand away from the body of the vest, like the ones on Han Solo's vest. Side seam pockets are also out, because I think the tension of the fit would pull on those weird. Which leaves various types of welt pockets, with or without a flap, carefully angled so that tension doesn't make them pull and gap.

A lot of the vests in Star Wars have visible pockets, often multiple visible pockets, but those vests also tend to hang open rather than closed and snugly fitted. One exception that I've been looking to for inspiration is Bix Caleen from the Andor show on Disney+. She has a longer coat that's fitted through the torso with princess seams, just like my vest, and while it has pockets they're much lower down, on the hips. She also has something more properly called a vest, worn over a long-sleeved shirt, that is similarly fitted with princess seams -- and again, no visible exterior pockets at all.

The more I look at pictures of Bix, the more I'm leaning away from doing any sort of external pocket at all, and just stick with the two small internal pockets. I might need to do some top stitching along the seams to give it some visual texture (another thing that Bix's coat and vest both have), but that could be a good way to secure the lining to the exterior, too. Hmm. Definitely something I'll have to think on.

[justiceheartwatcher]

LA Hotel Converted to Federally Sponsored Homeless Shelter Had Over $11 Million in Damages

[radicalurbanista]

December 19, 2030. Los Angeles

BLM LA leads “Black Xmas” to protest Amazon and Capitalism. Even though LA hospital ICUs are at 0% capacity and it is now the global epicenter of COVID infections and deaths, Marina Del Rey mall (and other malls) is still open for shoppers. The government’s pandemic response continues to prioritize capitalism over human lives.

The city has continued street sweeps (displacing houseless residents), parking fines (financially burdening houseless residents), and over 12,000 promised rooms remain empty to over 45,000 houseless people.

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

By Anthony Dawahare

On the night of March 24, at around 11 p.m., over 400 LAPD cops — in riot gear with batons and rifles — descended upon the unhoused encampment at Echo Park, the largest homeless community in Los Angeles.

The police were met by a blockade of around 200 protesters defending the community. Cops demanded they disperse, calling it an “unlawful assembly.” When most refused, police used force and arrested 182 people, including several journalists.

[ashlynnicoleramirez]

Starving for affordable housing in the shadows of Orange County’s wealthy

Starving for affordable housing in the shadows of Orange County’s wealthy

Taken during the 2017 Point In Time Count outside of Downtown Fullerton. By Ashlyn Ramirez Fullerton Mayor Bruce Whitaker tries to walk a fine line on the city’s housing crisis. He acknowledges the growing problem of homelessness but then throws up his hands and says he’s powerless to do anything about it.  “I think it’s very important that people can find adequate living space without…

[jimbotimes]

On the Soul of Echo Park: Looking at primary results from June for the neighborhood and beyond

On the Soul of Echo Park: Looking at primary results from June for the neighborhood and beyond

This article is from the June 7th, 2022 edition of our new Making a Neighborhood Newsletter. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber today to get more stories like it, plus work from our colleagues Samanta Helou Hernandez (@Samanta_Helou) and Ali Rachel Pearl (@alirachelpearl). Nearly a year-and-a-half ago in one of L.A.’s most popular hangouts, at the direction of L.A. City councilmember…

[buddylistsocial]

OC Board Votes to Buy Hotels for Homeless

OC Board Votes to Buy Hotels for Homeless

SANTA ANA, Calif.—The Orange County Board of Supervisors on Aug. 25 unanimously approved the purchase of up to eight hotel properties as part of California’s Project Homekey program to provide housing for transients affected by COVID-19.

The county is currently leasing five hotelsas part of Project Roomkey, which provides temporary housing for homeless people with COVID-19. The action will allow…

[focusonthegoodnews]

Coronavirus: More than 14,000 homeless Californians now in hotels Good News Notes: "In an effort to get people off the streets and out of shelters during the coronavirus pandemic, the state has moved an estimated 14,200 homeless Californians into hotels and motels since April, Gov.

[fatehbaz]

Homelessness in Southern California during pandemic, from 15 May 2020. And I would note that this ruling specifically requires authorities to house only those living near freeways, with the ruling referencing the danger of being hit by a vehicle and breathing in lead and other exhaust. What of the other tens of thousands of homeless people in LA County? (And the others of Anaheim, Orange, Riverside, etc?) The state governor’s Project Roomkey ostensibly means to provide hotel rooms for California’s homeless people (1) over 65 years of age, and (2) with medical conditions that leave them more vulnerable to the virus. But there are still more empty rooms, to provide shelter for those that the state doesn’t consider “most vulnerable.” So, again: What of the other tens of thousands of homeless people in LA? Excerpt: ‘The city and county of Los Angeles must find shelter for thousands of homeless people who are living near freeways, a federal judge ordered Friday, saying their health is at risk from pollution, earthquakes and the novel coronavirus. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter issued a preliminary injunction requiring relocation of an estimated 6,000 to 7,000 people camping near freeway ramps and under overpasses and bridges. He gave officials one week — until May 22 — to come up with a plan for providing humane housing. [...] A 2019 count by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority reported that there were close to 60,000 homeless people living in L.A. County, including 36,000 within the city limits. Both figures were up more than 10% from the previous year.’

Excerpt:

‘Carter said alternatives to shelters could include ���safe parking sites” to camp, or hotel and motel rooms that the county is renting under a state program known as Project Roomkey,  which was established during the pandemic to get thousands of homeless off the streets temporarily to avoid transmission of COVID-19. The injunction was issued in a lawsuit filed by the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights, which accused officials in greater Los Angeles of failing to comprehensively address the homelessness crisis. [...]’

‘Project Roomkey was created in April by Gov. Gavin Newsom and uses mainly federal money to acquire hotel and motel rooms for the homeless to shield them from the virus. Los Angeles County has by far the largest number of homeless in California, and officials there set a goal of obtaining 15,000 rooms through the program. But so far only about 2,200 rooms have been leased in the county and homeless advocates have criticized the slow pace. There are 2,067 people sheltered with an additional 375 rooms available, said Christopher Yee, spokesman for the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

There are hundreds of other rooms under contract, but they haven’t been certified as ready to receive people. Some Project Roomkey rooms would conceivably be available to house some homeless people covered by the judge’s order, although Yee noted that the rooms are specifically reserved for those considered most vulnerable to the virus: those 65 and older and those with underlying health conditions.’

---

Meanwhile, another headline from the LA Times, from the same week:

[”Mass unemployment could grow homelessness by 45%” across the US within the next year. Report from 13/14 May 2020.]

[radicalurbanista]

3.25.21. Los Angeles

Last night LAPD set up what residents have called "an open air concentration camp" and likened to an outdoor prison, by fencing in a tent community in Echo Park Lake. Councilman O'Farrell has deployed LAPD to enclose unhoused people in Echo Lake Park with the intention of evicting them tonight, despite massive resistance to the evictions earlier in the day. The councilman gave only a few days notice about the evictions and lied about offering housing to every person living in the park.

Los Angeles county has promised over 48,000 rooms for temporarily house unhoused residents. Over the past few months, it's housed people in only 1,724 rooms. This number has decreased this year despite FEMA now reimbursing 100% of the city's costs.

[appleseedhumanity]

'Project Room Key' is a H.U.D. program to put homeless folks in Motels to avoid #Covid_19, then into housing. It ends on Sept 30th and 1,000's won't get a home.

They're not pleased...

[sheliesshattered]

Over the last couple of days I’ve been working on the paper mock-up and the flat patterning for the wedge-shaped pouch I talked about in my last cosplay post. The goal is to replicate the oddly shaped thing on Oswin’s belt, and turn it into a way to carry my phone, roomkey, ID, cash, and chapstick on me when I’m in costume -- planning for the eventual return of conventions and costuming events, someday. The screen-used version is almost certainly a toy that the prop department repainted, but since this costume has no other pockets or bags, this seemed like a good way to carry the essentials with me.

I’m making my version out of scraps of stuff left over from previous projects that have been taking up room in my stash. The inner-most pouch will be black wool -- left over from the Jorah Mormont costume I made for Jack in 2011 -- with an open upper pocket for my phone and a lower pocket accessed by zipper for everything else. The pattern pieces for the wool bits are the three on the right of the last image, the only ones with seam allowance as they’re the only ones that’ll actually be sewn. The divider between the pockets will be reinforced with some horsehair boning I have lying around, and even the zipper is something I’ve had in my stash for so long I have no idea what I originally bought it for.

To the exterior of the wool I’m going to glue pieces of black suede cut to size -- the three pattern pieces in the middle of the photo. The suede is left over from an Aragorn-inspired vest I sewed for Jack waaay back in 2002, though I’ve used the scraps for that for several other projects over the years, too. The back panel will also have belt loops attached to the suede, and then continue as one piece into a flap that covers the top and front of the pouch -- that’s the largest piece there in the center of the last photo.

Then on the exterior of that flap, on the top and the outward face of the wedge, I’ll glue craft foam cut to size -- the two pattern pieces farthest to the left -- that will be decorated up and painted to look like the wedge from the original costume. The foam is left over from a cosplay prop I made for Supernatural costumes back in 2012 (I think?), and I’ve collected a bunch of bits and bobs to build out the face. The flap will then be closed with magnet snaps along the lower edge, so when I’m walking around in costume, the only thing that should be visible is the wedge itself, but I’ll easily be able to get to all my essentials stashed inside.

I may decide to also glue a layer of suede to the wool front panel even though it’ll be under the flap, just to give more strength to the pouch, but I’m going to wait and see how it comes together, it may not need it. My goal is to have this costume completely finished for Halloween two weeks from now. I don’t actually need this pouch to be done for Halloween, since I won’t be leaving the house. But I’d rather just build this weird wedge thing once and get it right the first time, and then this costume will be really finished, ready to be packed up for whatever my next costume event ends up being.

I did the paper mock-up yesterday and started drafting the pattern based on what I learned from that, then finished drafting the pattern today, and this evening actually got all the wool and suede pieces cut out, so tomorrow I should be able to start by sewing the welt zipper for the lower pocket and then the pocket structure, and hopefully get to the glue phase pretty quickly.

Funny story to go with all this: when I finished the paper mock-up, Jack was in a zoom call for work, so I showed it to him silently, standing just off camera, since I was feeling pretty proud that the weird 3D shapes in my head had actually worked out in real life. He took the paper wedge from me, turned it over in his hands, nodded in a “not bad, not bad” sort of way -- and then promptly put it on his head like a jaunty hat.

“Aren’t you on camera??” I mouthed at him, juuust as all his coworkers started laughing at him. Apparently he’d completely forgotten that his camera was on, lol. Luckily he works for a very laid-back company and everyone there has known him long enough that no one even questioned what he was up to. xD

[citymaus]

“The initial statewide stay-at-home order, which was issued after the Bay Area's, excluded homeless people.

Then, in April, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced a statewide initiative, Project Roomkey, which aimed to open up 15,000 hotel rooms to the state's homeless population. As part of the initiative, the state would receive a 75 percent reimbursement rate from The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), in which California county leaders were supposed to use to work on housing the vulnerable, unsheltered population. As part of Newsom's emergency action, $150 million was set aside for local California governments to purchase trailers and lease rooms in motels, hotels, and other facilities, prioritizing counties with high homeless populations. Kushel was part of shaping this plan.

It was the first initiative of its kind in the nation, hailed as a "win-win," and aimed to prioritize homeless people from the following categories: people over 65 and/or who have certain underlying health conditions, homeless people who have been exposed to COVID-19, and those who are COVID-19 positive, but didn't need hospitalization.

hemlock street, san francisco. flickr/sirgious

“But in Alameda County, only a small percentage of its homeless population have actually been housed as part of the two countywide programs that are part of Project Roomkey: Operation Comfort and Operation Safer Ground.  According to numbers provided by Alameda County, at least 641 rooms have been leased, but the county itself has at least 8,022 homeless people; 14% of whom are over the age of 60, which means that there isn't enough housing for even the most vulnerable of the vulnerable to self-isolate. More than half of Alameda County's homeless people are in Oakland. 

As of June 19th, 390 homeless individuals in Alameda County have been housed in hotels as part of Operation Safer Ground, which is meant for people over the age of 65 or those with underlying conditions to shelter-in-place. Sixty-three unsheltered people have been transferred as part of Operation Comfort, which is for homeless people who have tested positive for COVID-19 or have symptoms. At least 83 homeless people have been diagnosed with COVID-19. 

fulton street, san francisco. flickr/sirgious

“In San Francisco, Board Supervisor Matt Haney told Salon he believes that some of the eligibility criteria became a bottleneck for the program in San Francisco, limiting its efficiency, adding that it has been interpreted "very narrowly." In San Francisco, homeless people have to be on a list that deems them eligible for a hotel, which is sorted by people over the age of 60 or those who have documented underlying conditions.

"They get a list of names of people that they're looking for, and then they go out and spend all day trying to find those people . . . . and then pass nine people trying to find John when most of those nine people should qualify," Haney said.

read more: salon, 21.06.2020.