ANGIE MILES: Virginia's Native American tribes are celebrating some victories this year as they aim to reclaim sacred land.

We'll tell you about the wins and some of the remaining struggles.

The cost of housing is rising out of reach for thousands of Virginians.

We'll meet someone who's looking and someone who's rebounded from being homeless.

Solitary confinement is an issue that has stirred tens of thousands of Virginians, while the Department of Corrections has been assigned the task of studying solitary housing.

We'll have an update.

And we'll see why making a way for others is so important to one woman who's addressing the needs of an entire community.

This is a special edition of VPM News Focal Point.

Production funding for VPM News Focal Point is provided by Dominion Energy, dedicated to reliably delivering clean and renewable energy throughout Virginia Dominion Energy Actions Speak Louder The estate of Mrs. Ann Lee Saunders Brown and by ♪ ♪ ANGIE MILES: Thank you for joining us for this special edition of VPM News Focal Point.

I'm Angie Miles.

We're sharing stories and updates on news from earlier episodes.

We begin with the work of Virginia's tribal nations.

State legislators have had mixed success this year as they tried to pass laws to protect and expand the land holdings of recognized tribes.

We spoke with members of the Monacan Nation, Virginia's largest tribe, to see what acquiring and protecting land means to them.

>>Angie Miles: This place in Fluvanna County is known to the Monacan Nation as Rassawek.

It's where Captain John Smith documented the Monacan people in 1607 and was the Monacan capital for thousands of years.

>>Kenneth Branham: I feel like if we cannot protect that site, there's no site in Virginia that we'd be able to protect because of the significance to us.

>>Angie Miles: Monacan Chief Kenneth Branham is talking about the tribe's fight to protect Rassawek from a planned water treatment facility.

He says he and other tribal members have no objection to the project but, There are other places along the James River that is just as good, if not better to put pump stations than on a sacred piece of property that may have our ancestor remains there.

You know, you wouldn't disturb a large cemetery just to put a pump station when you can go a half mile down the road and put it up.

>>Angie Miles: The Monacans, other tribal nations and other people of color have more power behind their convictions because of former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam.

Before leaving office, he pledged 22 million dollars to Indigenous, Black and other citizens of color, to protect their culturally significant or sacred places.

Also, Northam ordered that native tribes must have input before the state approves development projects.

>>Ralph Northam: Looking at the Native Americans, they were here long before people came from Europe.

This was their land and that land was taken from them and so I've always felt it important to to respond to, to their needs and requests.

>>Angie Miles: Headquartered in Amherst County the push to protect and preserve history and honor Monacan ancestors has been ongoing.

Years ago they acquired this property in Amherst, the site of a tribal school that dates back centuries, and they established a museum that houses images, artifacts, and untold stories.

>>Lou Branham:So this particular display here of course are pieces of pottery.

This is stuff that was found on archeological digs in Fluvanna County up on the other side of Charlottesville.

>>Angie Miles: The tribal complex was just a start.

A government cares grant has funded this complex with offices, a meeting hall, a community food pantry and both a clinic and a senior center in the works.

>>Adrian Compton: We've found that you can't do anything in a tribe without land.

Land is the basis for everything.

So to actually have funds to buy land that historically was occupied by the Monacan tribe, is a great step forward.

>>Angie Miles: Along with that support and funding the tribe paid more than 5 million dollars for 1,300 acres they refer to as "the farm."

And they have grand plans that may mean a subdivision, a wedding venue, and much more to benefit not only tribal members, but also the community at large.

>>Herb Hicks: I'm not bitter with the state of Virginia, but I think it's been a long time coming but not just for here in Amherst County and Virginia, all over this United States.

We have more or less always been the underdog.

>>Angie Miles: The elders are seeing things beginning to change.

Each says they don't feel entitled and don't expect handouts, but they also recognize there is the reality of what happened to their ancestors.

And they say there is a welcome opportunity for state leaders and laws to try to restore some of what was taken.

ANGIE MILES: Since we first aired this story, the James River Water Authority has decided to move the planned location for their treatment facility further away from Rassawek.

Two bills, HB 141 and SB 158, which provide for the protection of land for Black, Indigenous and other people of color, passed in the General Assembly and received partial funding in the state budget.

Both await Governor Youngkin's signature.

SB 482, which requires the state to consult with tribes before embarking on development projects, stalled in subcommittee and will be revisited in 2023.

ANGIE MILES: A place to live is a basic necessity that many people are finding increasingly unaffordable.

More than a fifth of renter households are considered extremely low-income and struggle to meet their monthly obligations.

Dennis Ting, our special correspondent in Charlottesville, shows us how nonprofits and advocates are trying to help.

[peeling vegetables] DENNIS TING: When she's not at work or unwinding after a long day you can find Glenda Hill busy around the house cooking and cleaning.

After all, she likes her kitchen spotless.

GLENDA HILL: As they say, cleanliness is close to godliness.

Now, but I don't go to church.

(chuckles) DENNIS TING: Glenda has lived in Charlottesville for more than 40 years raising children and grandchildren.

Over the years, she's bounced around living in different apartments and communities.

Last year, she learned she would have to move again.

GLENDA HILL: I figured, oh well, since they wouldn't renew my lease I'll live with my son and them for about a year until I can get on my own feet.

[running water] DENNIS TING: Glenda recently moved into a house with her son and his girlfriend's family.

She says it's a temporary living situation until she can find a place of her own.

But that's proving to be a challenge.

GLENDA HILL: As far as affordable housing out here there is none.

I don't care what they say.

There is none.

SUNSHINE MATHON: We own and operate about 700 apartments throughout the region and we have waiting lists on all of them.

And sometimes the waiting lists are over a year.

DENNIS TING: Mathon works with the nonprofit Piedmont Housing Alliance serving Charlottesville and several surrounding counties managing several communities.

The organization is working on developing new communities and expanding existing ones to add homes.

Something Mathon says is desperately needed.

Affordable housing is a national crisis.

Here in Virginia one in six families spend more than half of their income on housing and there's still not enough of it.

For every 10 families who need affordable housing they're only four homes available.

In Charlottesville, there are 1,000 people on a waitlist for an affordable housing voucher and there's a shortage of 4,000 homes.

VICTORIA HORROCK: Well, I have multiple clients who are staying in housing that they know is making their children sick, like their children have asthma, the houses are full of mold but they're staying there 'cause there's nowhere else to go.

DENNIS TING: The Legal Aid Justice Center is focused on housing issues.

Horrock says affordable housing is a civil rights issue that disproportionately affects communities of color.

And while she helps clients with eviction prevention rent relief, housing discrimination cases and other legal remedies, she says these are only band-aid solutions.

VICTORIA HORROCK: We ask these questions well why can't we have better housing and it's like, 'cause we're not paying for it as a society.

(bulldozer going) DENNIS TING: Habitat for Humanity for Greater Charlottesville is trying to do just that.

Its latest project, redeveloping the Southwood Mobile Home Park into a multi-income community with the goal of not displacing any of the current residents.

(drilling) Habitat for Humanity is hoping to fill these new homes with residents in need.

People whom Larry Scott works with every day.

[opening door] LARRY SCOTT: I don't look at it as coming to work.

I'm coming to Habitat, 'cause I know I may help somebody.

You know Somebody just like I was.

I was homeless in Jersey.

I was sleeping behind dumpsters, Uhhm-didn't have no life, didn't really care.

DENNIS TING: Larry eventually moved to Charlottesville, got married and found work but he was stuck living in transitional housing and facing a similar problem finding a home of his own.

LARRY SCOTT: I thought that I was too deep in a hole that I was going to still be paying high rent drifting from one place to another.

DENNIS TING: That changed in 2006 when Larry received the keys to his house from Habitat for Humanity.

Discovering this building means more than just a roof over his head.

LARRY SCOTT: Oh man, it's a future for my daughter.

DENNIS TING: While the task may seem daunting there is room for optimism.

Habitat for Humanity says in the last five years there are around 2,000 families who are either in or on the path to better housing in Charlottesville.

That's people like Larry.

LARRY SCOTT: I just walk around with my head up high.

I'm just so happy.

DENNIS TING: It's a feeling that Glenda and many others looking for homes of their own hope they'll find soon.

GLENDA HILL: I will continue trying to be on my own.

DENNIS TING: In Charlottesville I'm Dennis Ting, reporting for VPM News Focal Point.

ANGIE MILES: Solitary confinement is used to restrain, to punish, or sometimes to protect prisoners, but this practice of prolonged incarceration in isolation is widely considered inhumane.

For a second consecutive year, Virginia's General Assembly voted "no" on a bill that would outlaw prolonged solitary confinement.

Instead, lawmakers have assigned the issue to the Virginia Department of Corrections, VDOC, to study.

Human rights advocates say there is a problem with asking the same organization to investigate itself, and VDOC says their practices are humane.

>>Angie Miles: In the scenic rolling hills of Virginia are two of the most notorious prisons in the country.

Wallens Ridge and nearby Red Onion are "supermax" facilities operated by the Virginia Department of Corrections.

Intended for the worst, most dangerous offenders.

Demario Tyler served three years.

The last of it at Wallens Ridge.

>>Demario Tyler has never met Natasha White, but she is one of his defenders.

White spent time in prison outside of Virginia and she is the coordinator of a statewide coalition of lawyers, faith leaders, and civil rights advocates working for laws against long term solitary confinement.

>>Natasha White: Good morning.

We're trying to pass a bill in Virginia to end long term confinement in... >>Miles: Solitary confinement is keeping a person isolated in a cell that can be as small as a parking space most or all of each day deprived of meaningful interaction with others.

White is part of a growing movement to limit or eliminate solitary confinement.

>>White: Thank you.

You have a nice day.

So I was in solitary confinement for a total of four years.

However my husband was also in solitary confinement for 12 years.

And the impact it had on him when he came home is the reason I do this.

He couldn't function in a normal busy environment.

How do you handle that when you've been with somebody for 20 years and they come home totally traumatized with natural life?

>>David Smith: I spent 16 and a half months in solitary confinement.

I got out twice a week for a five minute shower, and then once every other week for a one hour time of rec time by myself.

It basically tore me mentally down.

And I saw people around me that suffered so much worse than I did.

There are people that would lay in bed all day.

Not even get up to use the toilet.

>>Miles: Coalition Chair David Smith is describing a Virginia jail which is not operated by Virginia's prison system.

But his description is consistent with experiences shared by jail and prison inmates all over the country.

Solitary, isolation, segregation, restricted housing, all names for what prisoners call being "in the hole."

In 2011, the United Nations ruled solitary confinement amounts to torture and should be banned in most cases.

Symptoms like headaches, delusions, and suicidal thoughts can set in after just a few days.

But some in America's jails and prisons are held in isolation for weeks, months, or years.

In Virginia, one of the most publicized cases is that of Tyquine Lee.

In isolation for nearly two years at the end of which his mother says he had lost 30 pounds and was unable to speak except in barks, growls, and numbers.

>>White: The purpose of corrections is just that.

To deal with the underlying issue of why people are committing crimes.

Not to make them into people that can't take care of themselves.

>>Miles: When comparing prisoners who experience solitary and those who never did, multiple studies correlate any time spent in isolation with increased risk of self harm, suicide, and early death.

Also higher unemployment and likelihood of repeat offenses.

Looking at a study from UNC Chapel Hill, those who spent time in solitary are 127% more likely to die of an opioid overdose within two weeks of leaving prison.

>>White: You should not be defined by the worst mistake you ever made in your life.

I don't care what it is.

We've all made mistakes.

But you cannot say you're truly a good person if you're willing to torture other people.

If you have human moral standards, and you're compassionate towards other human beings, then you will agree that solitary confinement needs to go.

>>So, we want to reduce the use of solitary confinement in Virginia.

>>Miles: Religious leaders from numerous faiths have held news conferences and prayer vigils.

>>Miranda Elliott Rader: To keep people in solitary confinement for more than just a few days is literally torturing people, definitionally torture, and we could end that practice.

Just chipping away at the cruelties that we've constructed for each other.

>>Miles: Virginia's Department of Corrections has one of the lowest recidivism rates in the country.

Meaning that those who serve time tend not to re-offend and return to prison.

VDOC has also earned awards and praise for progressive education and reentry programs.

But what about solitary confinement?

>>Lois Fegan: No, the term you mentioned doesn't apply here.

So our program... >>Miles: This brings us to the debate over the definition of solitary confinement, which for some is merely an exercise in semantics.

There is a general consensus among reputable health and human rights organizations that solitary confinement is 22 or more hours in isolation without meaningful human contact.

But Virginia's prisons claim inmates only spend 20 hours per day in isolation.

That's a two hour difference.

>>Fegan: So our program actually goes above and beyond that because we offer at least four hours every day of meaningful, structured/unstructured programming for all the inmates that are in this specialized secure pod.

So our program was called restrictive housing and now we've called it restorative housing.

>>Miles: The prisoner's rights community calls the distinction between 20 hours and 22 hours meaningless, especially if time outside the cell is also spent in isolation.

Legislation that advocates have proposed for Virginia say every inmate is entitled to at least four hours of meaningful interaction outside of a cell.

And if solitary confinement should be necessary for extreme situations, not minor infractions, it should last no more than 15 days.

>>Fegan: But just to reiterate that we do offer the most progressive program in the country of opportunities, programs, and pathways for every single inmate that's in our care, but particularly the ones that come to us in sort of a crisis.

Whether it be a difficult situation, a behavioral issue.

>>Miles: Demario Tyler has been in crisis his whole life.

This is the crime that landed him in prison.

He broke into two restaurants in 2016 looking for money or food.

Before that, he'd spent more than 10 years in foster care.

His mother died when he was 10.

His autobiography is painted in shades of anger, frustration, sadness, and worry in the letters he's written from prison over several years.

In 2019, The Washington Post featured excerpts of Tyler's letters without using his name.

He wrote "It's taking all the mental power I have to cope here."

"These people make me want to hurt them one minute due to the treatment I'm receiving, and the next minute I want to hurt myself."

>>Miles: Tyler finished his time at Wallens Ridge in 2020, but is now re-incarcerated in Hampton on new charges.

Those stem from when he called police to stop him from trying to kill himself.

Six months after his release from Wallens Ridge.

While at Wallens Ridge, Tyler's way out of isolation was the Prison Step Down Program.

Through which inmates earn their way back to general population.

Step Down is a prized element of what VDOC calls restorative housing.

>>Fegan: The core component of the program is called interactive journaling.

And so the inmates have the opportunity to do it together with other people in the restorative housing program.

>>Miles: The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a class action suit to end the Step Down program.

They allege that the program in practice is arbitrary, sometimes retaliatory, and mostly a ruse to keep inmates in solitary confinement indefinitely.

Do you feel comfortable saying everyone who's incarcerated in Virginia's prison system is treated humanely?

No issues with people being placed in a restorative housing or segregated situation against their will if that individual does not pose a real threat to the institution?

>>Fegan: I'm comfortable saying that.

I feel that all the inmates in our system are treated humanely and fairly with respect and with compassion.

And again our whole mission, you can see it on the wall here in this building, is we're in the business of helping people be better.

>>Miles: Letters and calls from inmates and family members allege that restorative housing and the Step Down program don't work the way administration describes.

>>White: As a formerly incarcerated woman I know that the issues that surround incarceration are not for me if they don't involve me.

I'm the only one that can tell you the truth.

>>Miles: To some, people convicted of crimes deserve whatever happens to them.

It's also true that people serving time can have credibility issues when they make accusations of mistreatment.

White says ending solitary confinement should be less about prisoners' credibility and more about our regard for basic human rights.

ANGIE MILES: The Virginia Department of Corrections report is due later this year.

Critics say the department needs independent oversight instead of being allowed to investigate itself.

Demario Tyler is being released from jail this month, he's making plans that don't include a return to jail or prison, and since our story first aired, Natasha White was recognized as the Virginia and Washington, D.C. Public Citizen of the Year by the National Association of Social Workers for her work to end solitary confinement.

ANGIE MILES: A Dominican-born Virginian who knows what it's like to be hungry turned her experience into action.

Waymakers Foundation grew out of a need to serve culturally sensitive food to Virginia's immigrant community.

The foundation serves those facing food insecurity with Latin flavor in mind.

More than 600 families visit the foundation's food pantry each month.

(truck engine roaring) (upbeat music) (cart screeching) (upbeat music) NATASHA LEMUS:¿Por qué Waymakers?

Porque tiene que ver algo diferente.

Algo que levante la voz de la comunidad latina y que tenga representación hispana.

Porque no la hay y a veces es el trabajo que lleva.

Y por eso es que está este banco de comida.

NATASHA LEMUS: Waymakers Foundation, it came from a preaching that I was listening to.

I have always said that there is a way to a problem, to a solution.

No matter what it is, there is a way.

But I have noticed that I don't do that by myself.

There's always people with me.

So that's when I say, well we find a way and we have makers.

So everyone that comes in here and pitches in your time are Waymakers.

They're making ways for others.

(loud indistinct) My parents migrated me to the United States at the age of eight.

I always wanted to empower myself just because of the financial crisis that I always saw my family going through.

Economically, in my country, I was okay.

But when I came here, it was a little different, I had more responsibilities.

I had to become a babysitter and I had to hear a lot of discussions of, "We're short on rent.

"We have to pay the car or the car's not working "or we don't have money for this."

It was never really in front of us but everything echoes behind the walls of the house.

It's very hard to walk a grocery store and see your parents pick the sale items.

It happened with me when I opened Waymakers.

When I started providing certain products that were more just directly to the Latinos.

When I used to ask for donations.

They're like, "Well, if they need it, they'll eat what there is."

And I was like, "No, everybody eats differently."

That's why we're all from different countries, different tastes, diversity involves culture.

What you eat, what you listen to, everything's different.

If my mom could come, if I can go back to where I was eight or nine and my mom will walk in to a food pantry or a food bank that will provide plantains, that will provide beans, that will provide a papaya, that will provide anything like that.

I'm pretty sure my mom would have saved $150, $200 that week and could have paid the light bill on time.

(paper scrunching) My experience for generations, not just me, but anyone else born after or before, they have experienced almost the same.

When you are from a different country and coming to get a resource as essential as food, picking up something that you're not accustomed to eating.

We have carambola, which is star fruit.

We have plantains, we have papaya, we have cilantro, we have onions, potatoes, oranges, green bell peppers.

(man speaking foreign language) We have fresh meats, chicken, pork, beef.

I think in any Latino family, depending where you're from, you can make something out of that.

Dignity to me, is to be served equally.

So when I serve food here, I feel like I serve it with dignity because anything that is in here, I will take it back home and use it for myself and give it to my kids.

(man speaking foreign language) (car door bangs) ANGIE MILES: Waymakers Foundation is more than just a food pantry, it's become a hub for Latinos in Central Virginia, by offering bilingual programs like paint night with dad, workshops on how to register to receive federal and state aid, and COVID-19 vaccine appointments.

To get connected or to register, follow Waymakers Foundation on Facebook.

That is all for this edition of VPM News Focal Point.

We offer even deeper coverage online and we're always interested in your feedback and story ideas.

Just go to vpm.org/focalpoint.

I'm Angie Miles, thanks for being with us, we'll see you next time.

Production funding for VPM News Focal Point is provided by Dominion Energy, dedicated to reliably delivering clean and renewable energy throughout Virginia Dominion Energy Actions Speak Louder The estate of Mrs. Ann Lee Saunders Brown and by ♪ ♪ ♪