VOA常速英语2020--疫情期间华盛顿的无家可归者（在线收听）

A Erickson doesn't look like your typical homeless person. He was once a counselor for teenagers in trouble. But these days he lives on the streets after falling on hard times. The torn it takes on a body, physically, psychologically and emotionally, you know, having to get back and forth just to get breakfast, lunch, dinner, clothing, shelter. Now there is COVID-19. Not having cleaning agents or disinfectants and spaces in regardless of where it is. I think opens up the potential for people to get the infection. Erickson is one of nearly 600,000 homeless people in the United States based on the most recent official count. In a pandemic they are at special risk. Of the 527 COVID-19 deaths in Washington 20 where homeless people. As a group, they risk of death is about double that of the overall population. As folks come in and as we do checks throughout the day. If folks say that they're feeling symptomatic, we'll take them out of the population of the shelters and we'll bring them to one of our isolation and quarantine sites. And we'll test them there. If that comes back positive, then we'll go back and we'll find the close contacts for that person and also ask them to come into our isolation and quarantine as well.

埃里克森看起来不像那种典型的流浪汉。他曾经是一名问题青少年的顾问。但是这些天，他历经磨难后流落街头。这些困难的日子折磨这他的身体、心理和情感，让他遍体鳞伤。为了获得早餐、午餐、晚餐、衣服和避难所，他不得不来回奔波。现在新冠肺炎爆发。到处都没有清洁剂、消毒剂和空间。我认为这会增加人们感染的可能。根据最新的官方统计，埃里克森是美国近60万无家可归者之一。在疫情中，他们面临特殊的风险。在华盛顿，感染新冠肺炎而死亡的527人中，有20个是无家可归者。流浪群体的死亡风险是总人群风险的两倍。我们整天都在检查进入人员。如果人们说他们感觉自己出现症状，我们会把他们带离避难所，并带到我们的其中一个隔离检疫场所。我们在那里对他们进行检测。如果结果呈阳性，我们将回去并寻找那个人的密切接触者，同样要求他们进入我们的隔离检疫场所。

Around the country, officials had to stop shelters from becoming a breeding ground. About a couple weeks into the pandemic, people quickly realized that it was spreading inside shelters very very very fast. And a lot of the focus was to do what we call de-concentrate shelters. So they started moving people out of shelters into larger spaces. Some jurisdictions rented arenas and others in hotel rooms. 61 year-old Mary Montalvo lives in a nearby park, she gets food and hygiene products from local nonprofits and churches. But a new mask that is tougher. They try give one I'd say every second or third day. But many of the people, we're lose them. Where do you go if you need to wash your hands? That's very difficult. Go inside the church here. But I have some cleanser that I carry in my jacket and I use that. COVID-19 has made it harder for those like Michael Williams who's looking for work. The centers have adopted strict social distancing. It takes extra long to get services you need because they only allow one person at a time. Without these spaces, it's kind of hard. I'm not able to apply for jobs. I can't get any income. And this is crazy. US unemployment is that a staggering 14 percent. A Columbia University study projects the homeless population may grow 40 to 45 percent this year. I expect that if unemployment continues to stretch for a long period of time, that we will start to see decreases in rent payments.And we will start to see eviction. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced almost three billion dollars in aid for homeless Americans and those at risk of loosing housing. But that's just temporary. In the capital housing is really expensive. And so until we start addressing how to have steady employment that pays closer to the cost of housing, were gonna keep seeing this crisis of homelessness. Marry Montalvo has been homeless eight times in 20 years. There is sufficient money in the United State to help the people who are homeless. It's just the distribution of those moneys The wealthiers are getting wealthier and they're ignoring poor. VOA Volaki Wana Iglesias Washington

全国各地的政府工作者必须阻止避难所成为病毒的滋生地。疫情爆发几周后，人们很快意识到病毒在避难所中蔓延极为迅速。很多病毒爆发的避难所都是那些被我们称之为中心避难所。所以他们开始把人们从避难所中转移到大的空间里，一些司法管辖区租用竞技场，另一些则租在酒店房间里。61岁的玛丽·蒙塔沃住在附近的一个公园里，她从当地的非营利组织和教会那里获得食品和卫生产品。但是想要获得新口罩就很难了。他们大概在两三天给我一个。但是人很多，我们会得不到。你去哪里洗手？那很难。我会去教堂。但是我夹克里有一些清洁剂，我会用它。新冠肺炎让像迈克尔·威廉姆斯这样正在找工作的人变得更加困难。这些中心采取了严格的社会距离。获得服务所需要的时间变得更长，因为它们一次只允许一个人。没有这些空间，有点难。我不能申请工作。我无法得到收入。这太让我抓狂了。美国失业率高达惊人的14%。哥伦比亚大学的一项研究预测，今年无家可归的人口可能会增长40%到45%。我预计，如果失业率持续较长一段时间，我们将开始看到租金下降。以及我们将开始看到驱逐。美国住房和城市发展部宣布，将向无家可归的美国人和有可能失去住房的人提供近30亿美元的援助。但这只是暂时的。首都的房价真的很高。因此，在我们开始讨论如何让稳定的就业能够更接近住房成本之前，我们会一直看到无家可归的危机。二十年间，玛丽·蒙塔尔沃已经八次无家可归。美国有足够的钱来帮助无家可归的人。只是这些钱的分配富人越来越富有，他们忽视了穷人。美国之音记者Volaki Wana Iglesias华盛顿报道