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brandonscottmclean · 6 years

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Residents worried they’ll be forced out after San Pedro Creek renovation

San Pedro Creek construction (Alma E. Hernandez, Folo Media). In October, the Soapworks apartments were purchased by the Barvin Group of Houston (Lynda M. Gonzalez, Folo Media). The Soapworks and Towne Center apartments are located in west downtown (Lynda M. Gonzalez, Folo Media).

SAN ANTONIO – Donnie Dawson, 70, is grateful he’s able to afford a three-bedroom downtown apartment on a caregiver’s salary. He can afford such spacious digs because he lives at the Soapworks apartments on North Santa Rosa Street, one of a handful of affordable communities left in San Antonio’s urban core.

But it may not be affordable for long.

The $175 million transformation of San Pedro Creek, the channel that winds through the western half of downtown, is beginning to threaten the affordability of the two Soapworks properties and the neighboring Towne Center complex — all of which abut the creek. Led by Bexar County, the massive public project will revive what has been a decades-long dried-up ditch into something like the next River Walk.

About a year into construction, which began late 2016, Dawson wasn’t too worried. But in October, when a Houston-based investment group bought Soapworks and Towne Center, and immediately began renovating them, he became frightened.

The apartments “needed a fixup, but what they are trying to do is not that,” Dawson said over the incessant cacophony of downtown traffic and nearby construction vehicles. “We all think that they are trying to push us out.”

Dawson feels the renovations, the likes of which he hasn’t seen in the 38 years he’s lived there, are less for him and his current neighbors, and more for attracting higher-paying tenants, improvements for others to enjoy. Dawson’s rent has not yet increased, but empty units that are renovated are being offered at much higher rates than current residents pay.

Dawson, for example, pays 76 cents per square foot, but some of the renovated units are being advertised as high as $1.63 per square foot on the properties’ website.

Many of the residents of Soapworks and Towne Center — which combine for 381 units — are low-income, elderly or disabled, and some walk to their service industry jobs downtown. They believe the owners, the Barvin Group, are trying to capitalize on the San Pedro Creek project, which is expected to draw major investment from housing developers and other private sector players, just as the Museum Reach, another urban ditch turned linear park funded by public dollars, helped catalyze the Pearl.

Even if the Barvin Group doesn’t push out current residents for more immediate profits, residents worry that increasing property values in the area will leave them no choice. (The Barvin Group did not respond to requests for comment.) Some residents have already left on their own.

Some don’t expect to be around for San Pedro Creek’s grand opening, currently scheduled for May 5.

While San Antonio is already strapped for affordable housing — 153,000 units are needed, by last estimate — and while Mayor Ron Nirenberg has recently expressed his desire for affordable housing to be included in downtown development henceforth, what happens when some of the last existing affordable stock in a community is endangered by continued efforts to revitalize that very community?

A familiar cycle

Soapworks and Towne Center occupy three corners of the West Martin and South Santa Rosa intersection and offer some of the last affordable housing units left in a fast-gentrifying downtown.

The way some residents see it: because city and county policies are the driving force behind all of downtown’s recent and potential growth, shouldn’t it be the city and county’s responsibility to offset potential damage to long-term and vulnerable residents?

As San Antonio’s center continues to grow with the help of public money, this dilemma plays on repeat. Specifically, major transformations of segments of the San Antonio River — the Museum Reach to the north, the Mission Reach to the south — have had an impact on communities built along the waterway.

During the late 2000s, when the Museum Reach was completed, a handful of residents and organizations along that portion of the San Antonio River were displaced as development moved in and property values rose. In 2014, 300 residents were uprooted from the Mission Trails mobile home park along the Mission Reach to the south to make room for a luxury complex.

Recently, to help curb this trend while simultaneously addressing downtown’s lack of affordability, Mayor Ron Nirenberg placed a moratorium on a downtown incentives program known as the Center City Housing Incentives Policy. Also, Nirenberg’s housing task force is currently meeting to solve dilemmas like Soapworks and Towne Center.

“We created the Mayor’s Housing Policy Task Force to address issues just like this one,” Nirenberg said in a statement to Folo Media. “Understanding that the challenges of growth and development are complex, we expect the Task Force to deliver a set of compassionate policy recommendations that would help us ensure that affordable housing stock exists throughout our city and that our residents can age in place.”

A 2013 economic impact report predicted that in its first 10 years, the San Pedro Creek project would bring in new 7,300 residents to the area, increase property values by 150 percent and draw in $227 million in ad valorem tax revenue.

Though Dawson and other residents like where they are living, most just want to move — if they can afford to.

A handful of tenants have approached District 1 Councilman Roberto Treviño to request financial help with a move.

Treviño met with the San Antonio Housing Authority and the Department of Human Services on Friday, Jan. 13, to discuss the situation. Treviño said he will find a way to get moving assistance for any resident that is priced out.

“My goal is to help them however they want me to,” Treviño said. “I want to help them if they want to stay or if they want to leave … that is their choice.”

Treviño said he is still analyzing how he can help residents stay if their rent increases dramatically, but so far no one who has approached him has wanted to stay.

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said county officials have not discussed the situation at Soapworks and Towne Center, nor has he heard complaints from its residents. However, he said the county will not allow a scenario like Mission Trails to happen again.

“It is one thing when residents are being displaced, but that is not what is happening here,” Wolff said.

Most residents describe their relationship with the new owners as shaky. At best, they feel management isn’t worrying about them because they’re so focused on the upgrades. At worst, they feel management is intentionally being difficult and uncommunicative in an attempt to drive them out.

Several residents, Dawson included, say management has not explained to them how the price increase will occur. They see their floor plans listed online for significantly more than they are currently paying, and thus they worry. Dawson currently pays $746 a month for his three-bedroom, 972-square-foot apartment, but on the Soapworks website, it’s listed at $1,350.

Michelle McMillan, a representative of Capstone Real Estate Services, Inc., said they intend to create “middle-income housing” at Soapworks and Towne Center. Residents will not be forced out by management or intentionally priced out, she said.

Instead, rent will only be raised on units once they are rehabbed, she said. They will not begin the renovations while someone is living in a unit, nor will they ask residents to leave so they can renovate, she said. McMillan said Capstone will work with an apartment locator service to identify affordable properties in the area for residents who want to leave.

In two or three years, McMillan expects all of the apartments at Soapworks and Towne Center will have been renovated, meaning they will all be rented at the higher rates quoted on the website.

The residents Folo Media interviewed — seven, in all — had not heard these terms.

The current lease terms offered at the properties range from four to nine months, exacerbating fears among the residents that they will be kicked out around the time renovations along the San Pedro Creek are finished in May.

Maureen Galindo, 30, a single mother of three children — ages 1, 5 and 7 — has been offered a four month lease. She worries Capstone will push her and her kids out after the four months are up, or raise her rent in retaliation for her vocal opposition. Others fear retaliation for speaking out as well.

“Not having housing security is literally debilitating on the brain and on the mind,” Galindo said.

“I’m going through that once again, as well as all of our neighbors. It’s bad from a moral viewpoint and also from an economic (viewpoint). You can’t just kick people out on the streets.”

McMillan said Capstone does not consider these leases to be short-term because they offer the same terms at other properties they manage. She also said residents will be able to extend their contract for the same price when the current lease expires.

All of the residents Folo Media interviewed complained about how management has treated them, from expired fire extinguishers, to missing rent statements, to faulty water heaters. Residents say Capstone won’t accept $1 bills for washing machines tokens, only $5. And when the machines eat the tokens, the management won’t refund the lost coins, the residents say.

“I feel like they are hitting us with a wooden knife,” said a Soapworks resident who wished to remain anonymous. “It’s enough to hurt, but not make us bleed.”

McMillan denies that management is trying to force out residents under the table. She claims most of the residents have not voiced their concerns to the staff, and insists the staff would assist them if they did so.

She also added that management has not looked at the incomes of any of the current residents, but that many of them will possibly be able to afford updated units. According to the website, the new prices for Soapworks and Towne Center range from $1.35 to $1.63 per square foot, which is nowhere near the $2 per square foot offered at complexes in and near the Pearl or even higher luxury apartment rates cropping up elsewhere, such as the $3.14 per square foot at the Cellars in the Pearl.

Even if some of the rumors floating among the residents are false, their fear represents a very real concern about the availability of affordable housing along the San Pedro Creek as the renovations go forward.

The residents are planning to meet soon to discuss what is happening and what needs to be done. For now, they say, all they can do is wait.

“Everybody sort of just feels clueless in that realm,” Galindo said. “I just bring it up to people, outside, walking around, ‘How do you feel about everything?’ They say, ‘I don’t know, I don’t know what’s going on.’”

This story was originally published by Folo Media. Folo Media is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization focused on the challenges and opportunities for vulnerable communities in San Antonio, Texas.

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schoolsafetyops · 7 years

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Marshall Law

Fire Marshalls play an important role in keeping our society safe from potential dangers associated with fire hazards. But the question that needs to be asked is when does their enforcement of some antiquated fire codes become detrimental to school safety instead of enhancing it? I'm referring here to enforcement of fire codes that are left up to the interpretation of the fire marshall when it comes to door security enhancement during school lockdowns.

Shortly after the Sandy Hook School massacres in December of 2012, the Department of Homeland Security recommended enhancing door security in schools. The recommendation was based on the fact that the children and two teachers who were killed in the attack died behind two unlocked classroom doors. The DHS recommendation was that any classroom door that could not be locked from the inside without opening the door and without using a key should be enhanced. Loss of fine motor skills during an attack can prevent someone from locking a door, even if they have the key in their hand. We saw this happen in Sandy Hook. DHS recommended barricading doors with heavy furniture as a last ditch effort to enhance door security in a lockdown due to a violent attack. The photo above of the door barricaded with chairs is a training photo. This door opens outward, so the barricade would not be effective. The other photo is an actual door barricade used by college students during the June 1, 2016 UCLA shootings. Even if these barricading systems worked, would the first graders in Sandy Hook have been able to erect them in the short time it took the killer to enter the unlocked door to their classroom? That question answers itself.

Fire codes say doors in schools must be able to be opened from the inside with one motion, even if they are locked from the outside. There are some excellent door locks on the market that are compliant with this fire code and are able to be locked from the inside without a key, but most schools don't use them due to cost. So the question we faced in school safety after the post Sandy Hook DHS recommendations was how to enhance door safety to keep the kids safe, stay within fire codes, and accomplish this at an affordable cost?

The answer I came up with in my school district was to create "Safe Rooms" inside of the schools with enhanced door and window security. Shortly after the DHS recommendations, several door security devices hit the market. I began checking every device I could find, and didn't like what I saw. The devices I looked at didn't address my needs as most of them required opening the doors to engage them, required use of fine motor skills, could not be opened from the outside by emergency responders, or just didn't work on the types of doors in my schools. None of these devices were compliant with the aforementioned fire code, but then again, neither was the DHS recommendation about barricading doors.

In July of 2013 I found a door security device called the Anchorman Anti-Crisis Tool (ACT). I am not affiliated with this company, but I use their product name here with the owner's permission. This device was designed by two of the most highly trained SWAT cops I have yet to meet, and had everything I was looking for in terms of door security enhancement for my safe rooms. It was well made, did not require opening the door to engage it, did not require use of fine motor skills to engage or disengage, could be opened from the outside by emergency responders using a special tool the company supplied to them, and could be engaged and disengaged in about 2-3 seconds by a person of any size. And in my interpretation of the fire codes, it was compliant. There is an exemption to this fire code that kicks in when a facility is used as a place of detention and not a public use facility. Safe rooms are not used unless a school is in lockdown and something bad is happening, so the school is now a place of detention. It made sense to me, but as I knew from my law enforcement career, common sense is not issued with authority and is often not used when enforcing codes or laws.

I started my safe room project in July of 2013 using the Anchorman ACT on doors and shatterproof window coatings on glass to create areas of safety to be used in schools during lockdowns. We started with the elementary schools first, as these are our softest targets requiring our maximum efforts to secure them. Parents thanked us for this and the local cops endorsed the idea. We worked with local law enforcement agencies so they could mark the location of safe rooms on their diagrams of the schools and work the concept into their Active Assailant Response training. The company supplied law enforcement agencies and the schools with the tool needed to open the door from the outside, and we also worked that into our lockdown planning and training. All was good, until a fire marshall came to town.

A local fire marshall and I disagreed about the interpretation of the fire code regarding opening a door with one motion. The irony here was this particular fire marshall was O.K. with the DHS recommendation of barricading the door with heavy furniture, even though that violated the same fire code and was not a viable solution to quickly securing a door during a violent attack, especially in a room full of kindergartners. This goes back to my prior statement about common sense not being issued with authority. The fire marshall ordered the security enhancement devices removed from the doors, but since fire codes are recommendations and not laws, I declined the order and continued with the safe room project.

When assessing Hazards and Vulnerabilities, we look at frequency and likelihood of occurrance, and the intensity of impact a man made or natural hazard presents. We have not lost a child in a school fire in the U.S. since 1958, but we had just lost twenty-one babies and five adults to a school killer in Newtown Connecticut six months prior to our beginning the safe room project. After doing the math, I was reasonably certain there was a better chance of losing a child in a school killing than to a fire. Unfortunately I was correct in that assumption, so my decision to continue with the safe room project was based on the evaluation of the threat posed to children who can't get behind a locked door when bad things happen. It was also unfortunate that some fire marshalls did not agree with my assessment of, and response to, this violent threat to school safety.

During the course of the next three years, we continued with the safe room project, installed more door security devices, never removed a single device, and I engaged in multiple and sometimes heated discussions with fire marshalls about code compliance of the project. One of those discussions occurred in a 2015 meeting were seven fire marshalls from the city, county, and state level came to my school district to "ask" us to remove the door security devices based on their fire codes. Not one of those fire marshalls knew about the exemption in their fire codes that allowed use of these devices during a lockdown, and they couldn't supply documentation that the devices weren't allowed for use during a lockdown. Not a single one of them knew how many babies we lost behind unlocked doors in Newtown Connecticut on December 14, 2012, but I let them know. I also let them know that when I heard the mother on one of those angels stood up at an Arizona conference, held up an Anchorman ACT, and told the crowd "if this was on my daughter's classroom door that day, she'd still be alive today," my decision was made that logic trumped antiquated fire codes in my schools. The fire marshalls left that day, and the door security devices remained.

My parting statement to the fire marshalls was that when they get together and write a code specifically saying the door security enhancements were illegal, I'd make sure they were removed. I would not personally remove a single device as I could not live with that decision if a child was ever injured because of it, but I guaranteed my school district would be in compliance with any such code. They told me that day that new codes addressing this at the state level "were coming down the pike." I don't see that day coming, because fire marshalls in other areas of my state of California, ones in many other states, and ones at the federal level have approved the use of these devices in schools to create safe rooms. I respectfully told them until they could get their house together and agree on this issue, my house would remain safe, because my house contains our most precious assets and we'll do whatever it takes to protect them.

I have the utmost respect for my colleagues in the fire services and have worked side by side with these brave women and men in countless emergency incidents, including ones where their life saving skills kept wounded cops alive. I mean no disrespect to them here, but I do ask each and every one of them to get behind our efforts to provide safety in our schools when it comes to locking them down when a bad thing is happening. The fire codes cited here were written in the 1960's. We didn't have killers coming to schools then, but unfortunately that has changed. Different tactics are used today in law enforcement to address active assailant threats. We've changed our tactics and rules of engagement, and it's time fire services took a look at doing the same.

We're all in this together, and we all have a common goal. When I retired from my school district position in October of 2016 the safe room project was still in place, and the Anchorman ACT devices were still secured to the doors in safe rooms. I recently learned the same fire marshall visited my former school district and cited the same code to try to get them to remove the door security devices. He told them "there were new laws coming down the pike" that would address the use of door security devices. The fire codes had not changed since I started the safe room project almost four years prior, and neither had the wording of the fire marshall about new laws "coming down the pike." That idiom means soon to happen, and it is the same one they used with me in July of 2013. I do not foresee a code ever being passed that specifically prohibits use of door security devices, since they are recommended at the federal level. I do hope the fire marshall is correct that the codes will be updated in my state of California and elsewhere, but I hope those updates reflect proactive changes that approve the use of door security enhancements as long as there is a written plan for their use, accompanied by a training program. This is what we're seeing in other states, and it makes sense. In the meantime, we are deep in the fight to interject common sense into the application of these fire codes, and will never sacrifice the safety of our students based on a vague interpretation of an antiquated fire code.

The good news is proactive school districts, hospitals, and businesses throughout the U.S. are setting up safe rooms and practicing door and window security enhancement to protect against threats. I witnessed this firsthand when I was putting on training in a small school district in central Nevada. The superintendent had installed Anchorman ACT devices on every door in his four schools. These were older schools and some of the classroom doors couldn't be locked quickly. I stood in the hallway of the district's high school and asked the superintendent if he had any problems with the fire marshall when he had the devices installed. The superintendent told me the fire marshall's kids went to his schools, he wanted them safe, so there was no problem. As we say in emergency management and response, common sense is encouraged, but you have to learn how to use it. I saw it in use by the fire marshall in that small town when he made the determination between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law..

We read and hear over and over about people having to barricade themselves in rooms during random acts of violence because they can't lock the door. This was the case during the San Bernardino terrorist attacks on December 2, 2015. On June 1, 2016 the L.A. Times reported that "Thousands of students built makeshift barricades against classroom doors that wouldn't lock" during the UCLA shootings. On June 19, 2017 the San Diego Union Tribune reported that "students were quick to flip over tables and barricade doors when a student with a gun was reported in the area of Bonita Vista H.S. in Chula Vista, CA. The list goes on, but you get the point. Naturally, fire marshalls did not issue citations to any of these folks who were violating the letter of the law to stay alive. But if you ask any one of those persons who were behind barricaded doors if they would have traded belts and chairs for an effective and simple door security device, I'm sure you can guess what the answer would be.

If there is a fire, the school won't be in lockdown and the door security devices won't be in use. Schools evacuate during a fire, and the fire department responds to put out the fire. Law enforcement responds to violent incident at schools, so why are we not getting their opinion and feedback on this? Fire marshalls are not citing folks for violating fire codes by barricading doors with furniture, even though it violates their codes. But ask any cop if they'd rather get inside of a classroom using a tool to unlock a door security device, or try to get through one barricaded with heavy furniture, you'll get the same answer every time. Seconds matter and can mean the difference between life or death.

As I mentioned at the start of this, it all comes down to individual interpretation of the law. Every cop, myself included, has dealt with that situation when interpreting criminal law based on a particular situation. For example, when I was a young motor cop in Reno NV, I got into a high speed pursuit one night that ended up with the car I was chasing crashing at a downtown intersection. It turned out that the driver was trying to get his wife to the hospital, as she was giving birth in the back seat of their car. As highly trained cops, we determined she was indeed in the midst of child birth when we looked into the car, as we could see her baby trying to make an early entry into the world. We did our thing, the paramedics did theirs, and they completed the delivery in the back of the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Mom and the baby were fine and no one got hurt in the wreck. The dad had been in a couple of scrapes with the law and figured he was going to jail. I remember him looking at me and asking if we could take him by the hospital before booking him so he could see his new baby. This one was a no-brainer for me and the other cops. I told the dad he wasn't going to jail and explained the difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. One of my partners gave him a ride to the hospital and we left it at that.

I never gave that incident much thought, till about five years later when I was working a uniformed assignment at a University of Nevada Reno football game. I didn't recognize the guy who came up to talk to me, but he recognized me. It was the same guy who I chased that night while he was trying to get his wife to the hospital. He said he never forgot what we did for him and his family, or what I said about the letter of the law vs. the spirit of the law. He also introduced me to his five year old son named Jeffrey. Maybe the name was just a coincidence...

This is a true story I share with my fire service colleagues to show that no law is written in stone, and we're allowed to use common sense when interpreting the letter of the law vs. the spirit of the law. Some of them get it, and some never will. Hopefully the ones who get it will be the same ones who can someday update fire codes to help us address threats of school violence. We won't give up the fight till the do. Stay safe...

Jeff Kaye CY6

#schoolsafety #staysafe #firemarshall

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type2diabetestreatments-blog · 7 years

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Insulin Availability for Those Who Need It Most (Remembering Shane Patrick Boyle)

New Post has been published on http://type2diabetestreatment.net/diabetes-mellitus/insulin-availability-for-those-who-need-it-most-remembering-shane-patrick-boyle/

Insulin Availability for Those Who Need It Most (Remembering Shane Patrick Boyle)

This is a story we wish didn't need to be told.

By now, no one should be surprised by the high cost of insulin and how broken the drug-pricing system is in this country. We continue our coverage on this complicated #InsulinPrices issue -- from calling out Pharma, following the money in the distribution chain, and engaging in national advocacy efforts to address this affordability crisis.

Last Fall, we shared a story about the human cost of unaffordable insulin. Fortunately, the woman highlighted in that story was able to find help, so there was a positive ending.

Sadly, that's not always the case.

Some of you may be aware of the story of Shane Patrick Boyle, who died in mid-March as a result of not being able to afford or obtain insulin. He isn't the first, and won't be the last, and the facts that it's 2017 and we live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world makes this even more of an outrage.

It's unacceptable, and something has to change!

Remembering Shane Patrick Boyle

We never met Shane, nor did we connect with him online in any way.

But he was one of us. A member of our Diabetes Community, someone who had lived with type 1 for many years and just like us, relied on insulin to stay alive.

From accounts of those who knew him, inside and beyond our D-Community, Shane was an incredibly kind and gentle man with a huge, giving heart. He was a gifted creative writer and graphic artist who in 1993 founded the first unofficial ZineFest Houston event aimed at the do-it-yourselfers in the comics and artistic community.

As we understand it, Shane had recently moved back home from Texas to Arkansas to take care of his sick mom, Judith (who died on March 11). As a result of the move, Shane apparently lost access to healthcare and prescription coverage. He was also between doctors and in need of insulin… apparently, he was waiting for his Affordable Care Act (ACA) coverage to be approved and was stretching out his insulin until he had enough money to see a doctor to prescribe more insulin, and purchase it.

In early March, Shane set up a GoFundMe crowdfunding page in order to raise $750 for a month’s worth of insulin (!) to get him by. Tragically, that didn't materialize in time to save him.

Our community lost Shane on March 18, and according to his GoFundMePage (which has now been revised to provide for funeral expenses for both Shane and his mom), "Shane died because he was trying to stretch out his life-saving insulin to make it last longer."

Now, to reiterate: We don't know Shane, and we don't know exactly what happened. Maybe he did try to get some insulin through existing resources, but just couldn't manage to do so. And to remind you, he's not the first to find himself in this predicament.

Remember Kevin Houdeshell in Ohio?

He's the 36-year-old who died in January 2014 after not being able to get an emergency prescription at a local pharmacy for insulin on New Year's Eve. He died from high blood sugars leading to DKA. Kevin's death sparked an Ohio law change that is carrying over to other states, prompting revisions to how pharmacies are able to dole out prescription insulin in case of emergency.

There is a national conversation happening picking up steam about why insulin prices have become so very unaffordable -- not to mention Congressional action, federal legislation and class-action lawsuits -- all working to tackle this big issue. And obviously, outside the US and in developing countries the access issue is often even more dire.

But in the US right here and now, there are people literally trying to figure out where their next life-sustaining insulin dose is going to come from.

That's why it is so incredibly important to spread the word about the options that do exist.

Insulin Access Emergency Resources

Some of those resources available to those who might need it most include -

Samples of Insulin: Doctors offices and health clinics often keep small samples of insulin on hand -- whether it be vial or pen -- to give to patients on a sample or emergency basis. Sometimes, if a patient is interested in trying out a different insulin, running out of their particular insulin, or can't get immediate access to a new prescription, this can be a stop-gap until they can afford or obtain a full prescription.

Older, Lower-Cost Insulin: While it's certainly not as effective as modern fast-acting or basal insulins like Humalog, Novolog, Lantus or Levemir, there are older varieties of insulin available at both Walgreens and CVS. For many years under the brand name ReliOn, Walgreens has sold this insulin for a much more affordable price -- currently about $25. This has been a contract with both Lilly and Novo insulin over the years, but it's currently Novo R/N and 70/30 insulin brands sold under the ReliOn name. Most recently, CVS began a ReducedRx program, and in May 2017 will start selling Novo's R, N and 70/30 for the discounted cost of $10. While this may not be great insulin by today's standards, and it won't be compatible with those hoping to use insurance Rx coverage, it certainly can be used for cash buys in an emergency situation when there's no other alternative.

Savings/Discount Programs: As controversial as these may be, because insurance deductibles may not apply and because those on Medicare/Medicaid and government insurance may not be eligible, these are also options for some people in trouble. In early 2017, Lilly started working with BlinkHealth to develop a discount program for its brand of insulins. Sanofi also tells they're finalizing changes on their own expanded discount program, and details will be announced soon. Each of the three big insulin manufacturers offer their own Patient Assistance Program (PAP):

Lilly Cares: (800) 545-6962

Novo's Cornerstones 4 Care: (866) 441-4190

Sanofi's Patient Assistance Connection: (888) 847-4877

These programs may not be an answer to the bigger pricing crisis, and there are certainly opinions that these PAPs cost more in the long-run overall, but they can be a life-saving option in a time of need. We must make sure PWDs and doctors know about them.

Hospital ERs: OK, this may be a last-ditch option. The potential high cost of ER visits and hospital care is certainly a factor in all of this, but if someone is looking at a life or death choice, why wouldn't this be an alternative?

These are some of the more official resources our D-Community can turn to, but another less visible avenue is the resource-sharing going on between patients themselves.

Diabetes Community Paying It Forward

The reality is that members of our D-Community are not afraid -- and increasingly motivated -- to help each other, myself included.

As noted in my human cost post last year, in order to be sure I was giving away prescription medications to strangers safely and responsibly, I chose to help by donating my excess insulin vials and pens to my endo's office and nearby clinics, to let them distribute to patients as they see fit.

If you Google "pay it forward diabetes," you will find a lot of forum discussion about this, where people are connecting individually to help each other.

You'll also quickly run into the Type 1 Diabetic's Pay It Forward group on Facebook founded about eight years ago by Bill Patterson in North Carolina. Bill was diagnosed almost 30 years ago with a rare form of T1 known as type 1b idiopathic diabetes, and he's personally been without insurance for years and struggled to obtain healthcare and insulin. Before getting needed coverage through the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Bill says he obtained insulin from his doctor's office as well as generous pay it forward gestures from others in the D-Community.

“There are long-term resources out there, but they take time to obtain… possibly weeks to months,” he says. “But there were no short-term options at the time. So I created my group to bridge that gap.”

While other groups exist, as well as a mobile app designed to help all manner of pay it forward efforts, Bill says his group is the largest online diabetes effort that he’s aware of with just about 14,000 members from Canada and the United States. Each day, as many as 50 to 100 people request to join the group and Bill says it’s very active in helping those in need. He allows the trading of unused diabetic supplies, but strictly enforces the policy of no selling of any prescription products.

“Pay it forward donations have helped me help others in need – from insulin to pump supplies,” he says. “The group has saved lives, and I want people to know that there is a resource available for short-term help if you need it.”

More Grassroots Help Needed

In the end, for whatever reason, the resources that exist weren't able to help Shane.

Something more has to be done, without waiting for sweeping fixes in drug pricing structures and healthcare policy. NO ONE should be dying because they couldn't obtain a single vial of insulin, which is not in short supply in this country.

Here at the 'Mine, we're big proponents of crowdsourcing innovative ideas... so here is possibly the most important challenge ever put to our community:

What else can we do, at the local and grassroots level, to help people like Shane and Kevin and so many others who are falling through the cracks?

One idea is to set up roving donation centers, like those Recycle Your Electronics centers you often see in local parking lots, that would be manned by volunteer health professionals who can make sure that all the donated insulin and supplies are sealed and safe.

Another idea would be setting up a national hotline people can call for help if they are completely out of insulin and on the brink.

What else, Friends? What other emergency resources might we build, and how might we get the word out about them to those who need help the most?

We'll be attending a Lilly-hosted insulin pricing advocates' forum in Indianapolis later this month, and we plan to make sure all of this is discussed there. It's our responsibility in honoring the memory of Shane and Kevin, and all of those in our Diabetes Community who face this scary scenario of not being able to get the insulin we need to stay alive.

Disclaimer: Content created by the Diabetes Mine team. For more details click here.

Disclaimer

This content is created for Diabetes Mine, a consumer health blog focused on the diabetes community. The content is not medically reviewed and doesn't adhere to Healthline's editorial guidelines. For more information about Healthline's partnership with Diabetes Mine, please click here.

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