ALVA Woodpeckers build home in Alva woman’s house You may have heard of squatters, but this woman is dealing with squawkers. Who needs a rooster to wake up when you have woodpeckers?
FORT MYERS Man claims he was trapped in a high-rise for 5 days A 77-year-old man wants justice after he claims he spent days trapped on the 24th floor of a high-rise apartment building.
PUNTA GORDA Charlotte Correctional prisoner arrested for death of another inmate State Attorney Amira Fox convened a grand jury, which decided to move forward with a case against a Charlotte Correctional inmate.
SANIBEL Construction near Dairy Queen eagle nest on Sanibel raises concerns While many eagle nests may be a bit difficult to see, one nest has always been a favorite for Sanibel residents and tourists.
The environmental effects of artificial sweeteners Experts are studying how the foods we eat affect the environment, especially after we flush our waste down the toilet.
Victim reacts to man exposing himself to her Ring camera You get a notification on your phone from your ring camera app that someone is at the door, only to find out it is someone exposing themselves. It’s the last thing victim Maria Kivi wanted or expected to see last week.
LEE COUNTY The art of capturing your eye and drawing you in How do you capture young, hip, trendy, fun, movers and shakers, all in a pose? We take you behind the scenes of a Gulfshore Life cover shoot.
FORT MYERS The lives of two SJC Boxers changed in the ring Two SJC Boxers, Mario Nunez and Arbon Kurtishi, help each other in the ring as each of them had their lives changed because of boxing.
FORT MYERS Chlamydia cases rising sharply in Lee County If you think about a crowded space- something with more than 250 people- if it’s in Lee county, statistically one person has chlamydia.
SANIBEL Sanibel resort day passes hope to get more business on the island A pass will allow vacationers to hang out at a Sanibel beach club for a day in hopes of drumming up some business.
Voting equipment tested ahead of Lee County elections Voting equipment is being tested in Lee County. This is to ensure all ballots are printed and counted correctly for the upcoming election.
Collier County teen assaulted after leaving party The teen has been charged and the sheriff’s office said they’re aware that many believe felony charges are in order, but under Florida law, there are very specific criteria that must be met for felony charges to be filed.
WINK weather team watching tropical wave over Atlantic Ocean The Weather Authority is watching a tropical disturbance over the Central Atlantic Ocean.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral drug bust leads investigators to fake fentanyl, cash and guns Cape Coral man arrest on drug charges. Investigators said they found, guns, drugs, and more than $32,000 in Richard Riley’s home.
NAPLES Naples youth flag football team to compete in Ohio tournament This weekend, the Naples Lunatics Green will compete in the Superhero Sports tournament in Canton, Ohio.
ALVA Woodpeckers build home in Alva woman’s house You may have heard of squatters, but this woman is dealing with squawkers. Who needs a rooster to wake up when you have woodpeckers?
FORT MYERS Man claims he was trapped in a high-rise for 5 days A 77-year-old man wants justice after he claims he spent days trapped on the 24th floor of a high-rise apartment building.
PUNTA GORDA Charlotte Correctional prisoner arrested for death of another inmate State Attorney Amira Fox convened a grand jury, which decided to move forward with a case against a Charlotte Correctional inmate.
SANIBEL Construction near Dairy Queen eagle nest on Sanibel raises concerns While many eagle nests may be a bit difficult to see, one nest has always been a favorite for Sanibel residents and tourists.
The environmental effects of artificial sweeteners Experts are studying how the foods we eat affect the environment, especially after we flush our waste down the toilet.
Victim reacts to man exposing himself to her Ring camera You get a notification on your phone from your ring camera app that someone is at the door, only to find out it is someone exposing themselves. It’s the last thing victim Maria Kivi wanted or expected to see last week.
LEE COUNTY The art of capturing your eye and drawing you in How do you capture young, hip, trendy, fun, movers and shakers, all in a pose? We take you behind the scenes of a Gulfshore Life cover shoot.
FORT MYERS The lives of two SJC Boxers changed in the ring Two SJC Boxers, Mario Nunez and Arbon Kurtishi, help each other in the ring as each of them had their lives changed because of boxing.
FORT MYERS Chlamydia cases rising sharply in Lee County If you think about a crowded space- something with more than 250 people- if it’s in Lee county, statistically one person has chlamydia.
SANIBEL Sanibel resort day passes hope to get more business on the island A pass will allow vacationers to hang out at a Sanibel beach club for a day in hopes of drumming up some business.
Voting equipment tested ahead of Lee County elections Voting equipment is being tested in Lee County. This is to ensure all ballots are printed and counted correctly for the upcoming election.
Collier County teen assaulted after leaving party The teen has been charged and the sheriff’s office said they’re aware that many believe felony charges are in order, but under Florida law, there are very specific criteria that must be met for felony charges to be filed.
WINK weather team watching tropical wave over Atlantic Ocean The Weather Authority is watching a tropical disturbance over the Central Atlantic Ocean.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral drug bust leads investigators to fake fentanyl, cash and guns Cape Coral man arrest on drug charges. Investigators said they found, guns, drugs, and more than $32,000 in Richard Riley’s home.
NAPLES Naples youth flag football team to compete in Ohio tournament This weekend, the Naples Lunatics Green will compete in the Superhero Sports tournament in Canton, Ohio.
Credit: WINK News. When the Centers for Disease Control extended eviction protections for renters one more time last month, to July 31, it said in no uncertain terms the extension would be the last. But a surge of COVID-19 cases around the country is causing housing advocates to raise the alarm, worried that a surge of evictions could fuel yet another wave of COVID-19, especially as the hyper-infectious Delta variant spreads across the country. They have reason to worry. A recent analysis shows that millions of the nation’s distressed renters are living in COVID-19 hot spots where the Delta variant is surging fastest. Citing this research, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York has called for the Biden administration to extend the moratorium, saying, “We must protect the vulnerable and do everything in our power to prevent a mass eviction crisis.” New data also suggests the vast majority of the 6 million households with rental debt are in counties with high transmission rates of the delta variant. We must protect the vulnerable and do everything in our power to prevent a mass eviction crisis. — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@RepAOC) July 23, 2021 National Low Income Housing Coalition President Diane Yentel also referenced the research in testimony during a House subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, saying, “The Biden administration or Congress must extend the federal eviction moratorium.” “The newly surging Delta variant, low vaccination rates in communities with high eviction filings, and the slow distributing of [rental assistance] make the necessity of an extension abundantly clear,” Yentel said. The analysis from Paul Williams, a housing policy researcher and a fellow at the Jain Family Institute, found that 78% of households behind on their rent as of early July live in COVID hot spots — or about 4.7 million households of the 6.5 million behind on rent. Considering the typical U.S. household has 2.5 members, that translates into more than 11 million people at risk of eviction in counties with rising numbers of COVID-19 cases. Williams noted that his estimate probably undershoots the true number of renters at risk, since the underlying data, from the National Equity Atlas, excludes six states — including states like Arkansas and Mississippi, where the coronavirus is raging. “Putting people out on the street is probably not going to have good effects on community transmission rates [of coronavirus],” Williams told CBS MoneyWatch. Indeed, new research published this week adds to the evidence that keeping renters housed is an effective public health measure. Academics from the University of California, Johns Hopkins University and Wake Forest University compared states that allowed evictions to proceed in the summer of 2020 with those states that implemented eviction bans. They found that allowing evictions contributed to an additional 433,000 cases of COVID-19 and an additional 10,700 deaths. What’s more, evictions are unequal, with ZIP codes that have lower vaccination rates seeing higher rates of eviction filings, according to a recent analysis from the Eviction Lab at Princeton University. Both eviction rates and vaccination rates are correlated with income, with high-income people more likely to be vaccinated and more likely to have stable housing. And it’s not just coronavirus: Eviction is a driver of poor health, with years of research linking eviction rates to higher instances of heart disease, HIV and depression. “[F]rom a public health perspective, stopping an eviction crisis is of paramount importance,” Emily Benfer, a professor of law at Wake Forest and one of the paper’s authors, told CBS MoneyWatch in an email. “There is ample evidence that the 1) Delta variant is highly contagious and spreading at alarming rates, 2) eviction increases transmission of respiratory disease (i.e., COVID-19), 3) lifting eviction moratoriums is associated with increased COVID-19 infection and death, [and] 4) vaccination rates are low in high-risk areas,” she said. “All of this evidence indicates that an eviction crisis would only propel the U.S. deeper into the throes of the pandemic and its catastrophic consequences.” While many of those renters facing eviction could qualify for federal rent assistance, that money’s been slow in coming. Only about 12% of the $46 billion Congress appropriated for rent aid as part of its pandemic-relief efforts has been distributed as of the end of last month. Reasons range from overly complex application requirements to understaffing at government agencies and housing nonprofits to landlords simply unwilling to wait any longer for their money. “States and cities, renters, families need more time,” Yentel said. Williams agrees. “It would be shameful if there were a bunch of people who applied for this money, didn’t get it because the program was too slow and then ended up getting evicted,” he said, adding of the fast-spreading Delta variant: “The circumstances of public health have very much changed since June.”