News

Helping the poor and homeless in the time of COVID-19

by Michele D.  Maniscalco
Friday Mar 27, 2020

This article is from the March 12, 2020 issue of South End News.


Changing operating hours of Boston businesses due to COVID-19.  Photo by Michele Maniscalco
Changing operating hours of Boston businesses due to COVID-19. Photo by Michele Maniscalco  

Under Monday's executive order from Governor Charlie Baker, non-essential businesses were ordered closed and Bay State residents were urged to stay at home. Grocery stores have limited hours and big-box stores have reduced staff on the sales floors.
Social distancing of at least 6 feet from other people is the rule. All well and good for those who have homes, but what becomes of those who don't have stable housing and a living wage?
The South End News approached the neighborhood's shelters, including Pine Street Inn (PSI) and the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC)-run Woods Mullin and Southampton Street shelters as well as service providers such as Project Place, Rosie's Place, the Women's Lunch Place, the Salvation Army, and Boston Health Care for the Homeless (BHCH). Some organizations did not respond by press time.
PSI, the largest homeless-services provider in New England, provides emergency shelter, permanent housing, and meals to over 2,000 people per day. Given the dormitory-style accommodations in the shelter and the fact that guests vary in physical health and mental health, it is a challenge to maintain a safe social distance and to ensure prescribed hygiene practices among guests.
According to vice president of marketing and communications Barbara Trevisan, PSI is continuing as many of its services as is safely possible with practical modifications such as screening guests with assistance from BHCH before they enter the shelter each night, and guests showing symptoms of COVID-19 are referred to another location for quarantine.
Once admitted, guests are
assigned to the same bed each night, and the beds are surrounded by plastic barriers to create separate spaces. Guests are also receiving guidance and reminders about proper handwashing and hygiene to prevent virus spread. Meals are being served in shifts to smaller groups to keep guests at a distance, and the dining area is cleaned in between shifts and volunteer activities and food donations are suspended until further notice.
The usual cleaning routine has been ramped up to prevent the spread of infection, with cleaning contractors doing frequent deep-cleaning, particularly in "high-touch" areas. PSI president and executive director Lyndia Downie commented, "This is an unprecedented health threat and we are greatly concerned about our community. We continue to put precautionary measures in place, working closely with public health partners as we take action to keep our staff, guests and tenants safe."
Rosie's Place, which provides a wide range of housing, educational and vocational training, health, nutrition and activities to poor and homeless women, has also restructured its services to meet the COVID-19 restrictions. Rosie's Place director of communications Michele Chausse said that while Rosie's does not keep a strict head count of guests it serves each day, the number of guests showing up seems to be lower than usual, and most are homeless.
Guests are guided to wash their hands upon entry and before and after meals, and high-touch areas are cleaned frequently throughout service hours. Rosie's Place offers meals and a food pantry, both of which are being distributed on a take-out basis, and guests in the facility are asked to keep six feet apart from other guests. Guests with a cough are given a face mask, and guests with a fever are referred to BHCH.
Under the current restrictions, guests are not being seen with their children. Chausse summarized, "Generally, we are committed to giving our guests the services they need while being creative in everything we do. We want to continue our core programs while keeping folks safe."
The Salvation Army facility at 1500 Washington Street has moved all of its food distribution, both meals and food pantry packages, outside the building to avoid contact, and only essential staff are permitted inside the building as of Friday, March 20, according to Major Kimberly Smith.
Food pantry packages are being distributed by appointment on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with emergency provisions provided as needed on Wednesdays. Smith said that the facility is being cleaned frequently and staff wear gloves and are complying with prescribed COVID-19 preventive measures provided by state and local officials. In terms of the number of clients showing up for food, Smith observed, "As of late February, we had seen a decrease; however, over the last week, we have seen an increase. We suspect the number of clients is the same, yet people are fearful and cautious to come and receive the services."
Clients are being asked not to bring their children when they come to food distribution. Smith added, "We are limiting contact to try to have zero contact, which is the opposite approach we normally take."
Project Place is continuing its mission of offering low-income and homeless residents education and job skills and job search training by switching from in-person to on-line sessions and lessons. Project Place director of development Katy Dirks reported that staff are calling and emailing current and former clients several times a week to support their work searches, and staff and volunteers are conducting mock interviews with clients by phone.
Project Place Enterprises participants were offered two weeks of paid leave from their job placements during the virus restrictions, although some who prefer to continue working on-site are doing so in sites where they can maintain the prescribed social distance. Dirks spoke proudly of Project Place's recent efforts to give participants without access to smartphones or a tablet, such as providing donated Chromebooks and "learning bags", backpacks containing materials on resumé writing and job search skills, and self-care tips such as managing stress.
In the Work Ready class, most students are using Google Classroom, with three doing lessons on paper, while PP is continuing to enroll new students. Dirks shared a March 20 comment from a participant that read, "I wanted to thank you for your support through this hard time. Project Place has been one of the most useful resources I've ever had in my life. Project Place helps me so much in good times and in bad. And for that I wanted to say thank you because I don't know if I could do any of this without your help. Even though the facility has been shut down, you have found a way to continue to work with us from home and stay connected. Thank you for checking in on me and answering all of my questions. Even though we aren't physically at Project Place, the amount of support and communication is the same. That is something I was scared of not being consistent in the beginning, but was proven wrong. So thank you once again, Victoria, and thank you Project Place."
In a telephone interview, Project Place executive director, Suzanne Kenney talked about the Coalition for Homeless Individuals (CHI), a coalition of 40 organizations that came together about five years ago to preserve funding in the state budget line item for support to homeless individuals as opposed to families, and the support the state has been providing to CHI in the current crisis. CHI, which began with a core group of 6 or 7 organizations including Project Place, St. Francis House, PSI and others, has been having weekly conference calls including representatives of all 40 CHI members with officials from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) and other state agencies to discuss how to adapt programming to the COVID-19 guidelines and the needs of the homeless service providers.
Kenney said, "Lyndia, Barry Boch from [BHCH], Karen LaFrazia from St. Francis House and I initiated CHI because the needs of homeless individuals across the state are pretty diverse. Clients of Project Place are trying to get a job to support themselves and their families. We are all part of a continuum to help people transition out of homelessness."


Empty highways of Boston due to COVID-19. Photo by Michele Maniscalco  


Empty highways of Boston due to COVID-19. Photo by Michele Maniscalco