I’ve been doing more interviews with reporters lately than ever before. It turns out the homelessness crisis and the #Covid19 crisis are on a collision course and people want to know what’s going on. Why are our lines so long? Are there more homeless people today than there were a week ago? If so, where are they coming from? And why don’t we do a better job of practicing “social distancing” with this already vulnerable population? All valid questions. First of all, I don’t think we have experienced the full force of an increase in the numbers of homeless people... YET.
I believe we are experiencing the simple physics of what happens when the same number of people are forced by circumstance into a smaller container of services. Lots of organizations and direct service providers are cutting back (New York City Relief has trimmed our hours). Most places are either switching to to-go meals or to no-meals at all. So, in a nutshell, more hungry people, fewer options.
The other problem is that we often forget the vital role that coffee shops and restaurants play in serving the homeless community. These are public spaces that they can go during the day to rest, use WiFi, and get a bite to eat. This is no longer an option. So where do they go? What do they do? The vast increases of people that we have witnessed in the streets is simply the natural consequence of few options and services. Today. But tomorrow... well tomorrow could look much much worse.
The number of people filing for unemployment has gone up 1500%! Yes, that is not a typo. Also, as the virus spreads through the staff and service agencies that are currently serving the homeless population, more organizations will close their doors. We are on a razor’s edge right now ourselves. So what happens when a small percentage of this newly unemployed group of people loses their housing? And what happens when more organizations close their doors? The math is not our friend. We are only just seeing the initial rumblings of this economic earthquake.
Please pray for our team and ALL the other organizations that are serving the homeless community. Pray for safety, provision, and sustainability. Also, invest. I know it’s not a good time economically for many of you. But if you are in a good spot, consider giving to a nonprofit that is trying to stay put. We want to do everything right. We want to practice social distancing and help mitigate the spread of Coronavirus. We are genuinely changing everything that we do to keep people as safe and as fed as possible. I literally draw chalk lines on the sidewalk every 6 feet for an entire city block. We parol the line and firmly ask all of our guests to stand one person per chalk line. We have hand washing stations. We don’t set up tables anymore. We are bleaching down all surfaces. We are giving to-go meals. We don’t even have the ability to one-on-one assessments onsite because that would be too close for too long.
We are trying. Really really hard. But we are far from perfect. We are learning and adapting everyday to new scenarios. We are making a lot of mistakes. For example, I don’t often wear n95 masks so I rarely wear it correctly. We can’t keep people as far apart as we’d like and they sometimes form a “large gathering” that upsets the neighbors. We have huge lines and I really, really need to find a way to change that.
We risk so much by showing up during this health crisis, personally and professionally, but we also know that these people are soon going to be competing for even fewer resources and it is equally risky to leave them behind just because we can plan ahead.
It is going to get a lot worse. I hope I’m wrong. I hope this virus dies out and the economy roars back to life. Nothing would make me happier. But we are planning for the worst while we hope for the best. We are bracing for impact. I believe these are tremors. The tsunami is still a few miles out. We should brace for impact.
