Trying to help the homeless and nearly homeless is a task that even in the best of times is fraught with frustrations.
Trying to do so in the midst of a global pandemic, when governments are telling people to avoid venturing out of their homes, it’s bordering on maddening.
“It’s the worst scenario, really, when you think about it,” said Jack Williams, executive director of the Berks Coalition to End Homelessness. “If you’re homeless or near homeless right now, if you’re the working poor, you’re in really bad shape.
“If you asked me two years ago what’s the worst-case scenario, I couldn’t even envision this.”
Williams said the spread of coronavirus has made an already vulnerable population even more so. And, it’s made providing them with the services they so desperately need a monumental challenge.
“In the short term, it’s misery,” he said. “We want to help people, we want to provide services, but we also have to restrict contact with them. How does that work?”
For example, Williams said, a food pantry he runs in Exeter Township had to be temporarily closed. Most of the volunteers who run it are over 60, he said, an age group at high risk of serious illness due to COVID-19.
“I can’t expose them to that,” he said. “We feel terrible, but we have to look at the big picture. We need to be here when this is all over.”
The coronavirus pandemic is causing changes in the world of nonprofits that service the homeless and poor. But leaders of those organizations say they’re trudging ahead the best they can.
Opportunity House
Modesto Fiume, president of Opportunity House, said the governor’s order to shut down nonessential businesses starting Monday until April 1 has already forced him to end several services provided by the homeless shelter. That includes its warehouse and thrift shop, its child care center and its administrative offices.
In total, the closures have led to the furlough of 60 to 65 workers, Fiume said, and hours have been reduced for a half-dozen others.
But the shelter itself – as well as a handful of other programs like veterans support and one for victims of sexual abuse – is still up and running. The shelter does close after lunch each day, from noon until 6 p.m., with residents forced to leave so the building can receive a thorough cleaning.
“That’s the new normal for today,” Fiume said. “And we’re prepared for anything else that may change. I have a funny feeling that April 1 is going to come and they’re going to say April 15 or May 1.”
Family Promise
Elise Chesson, executive director of Family Promise of Berks County, said Family Promise is considered an “essential service” and is continuing to operate.
“We’re serving a community that is always kind of forgotten, so it’s important for us to stay open and remain available to our clients,” she said. “A lot of them are having to navigate closures and food insecurity and finding ways to pay their bills.
“We’re working with them to make sure we can help fill in the gaps or provide case management and support so they don’t fall through the cracks.”
Of course, Chesson said, Family Promise isn’t exactly running as normal.
It’s short staffed, she said, and as much as can be services are being provided by phone or email instead of face to face.
“We haven’t shut down. We’re just reducing what we’re doing,” Chesson said.
One of the biggest challenges is keeping Family Promise’s family shelter program up and running, Chesson said. The program uses a network of churches to provide temporary shelter and meals to homeless families.
Because of the threat of coronavirus, the families are being kept in one location instead of rotating from church to church, Chesson said. Local congregations are still providing food for the families, but dropping it off at Family Promise’s main office on North Fifth Street.
Hope Rescue Mission
On North Sixth Street, Hope Rescue Mission is focusing on cleanliness.
“We are focusing on increasing our surface cleanings, and set up a temporary sink out front for everyone to wash their hands before entering the shelter,” said Robert Turchi, executive director. “We’re pre-plating salads rather than having an open salad bar, distributing silverware rather than doing self-serve.”
Turchi said staff are also taking everyone’s temperature and doing health screenings when they enter the building.
“We have been meeting regularly with Tower Health, and they have been very helpful in providing guidance and planning,” Turchi said. “I am so encouraged to see how many across the community are coming together to tackle this as a united team.”
Some of the other precautions being taken by Hope Rescue Mission include precluding volunteers from entering the shelter until at least March 30 and closing both of the shelter’s outlet stores.
How will it end?
While shelters and other organizations are feeling their way through the rapidly changing coronavirus world, they’re also focused on the future. The impact of the virus, and the economic toll it will take on the world, will likely make their service even more essential down the road.
“We’re going to see ramifications on household budgets, on the local economy, after this starts to pass,” Chesson said. “At the end we might find more need than when we started.”
Fiume said the current situation is a reminder of a problem that pre-dates the coronavirus.
“Long term, as a community, we need to come up with a plan,” he said. “This is a housing issue, not an Opportunity House issue. We’ve been beating around this for years, but we need to find a way to have more housing for people.
“As a community we really need to take a look at this, at how shelters operate, and we need to find permanent housing solutions for people who are homeless.”
Williams agreed, saying the coronvirus pandemic is shining a bright light on an on-going problem.
“Shelters are going to be dumping people on the streets, there’s no place to put them,” he said. “Say they’re sick, they can’t stay in a shelter. Where is that kind of person supposed to self-quarantine.”
Williams said the finding a solution is going to take compassion and some “radical, radical thinking.”
“The reason so many people are in the shelter is because there isn’t enough affordable housing,” he said. “That hasn’t changed.”
