Here’s how Midlands area homeless organizations are coping with COVID-19
Lila Anna Sauls, president and CEO of the non-profit Homeless No More, describes herself as “a strategic planner.” So back in March, when she caught wind that school districts might be sending students home because of the COVID-19 pandemic, she knew her organization would have to make some changes to keep the homeless families they serve safe.
“We sprung into action and within 24 hours we implemented our plan,” she said.
Common spaces across their facilities were closed off. Two housing units were converted into isolation chambers. Case managers started doing check-ins over the phone instead of in person. Each family received masks and a thermometer.
Though some of those restrictions have since been relaxed, Sauls said her team’s rapid response has helped keep all of their clients COVID-free over the past seven months.
Homeless service agencies across the Midlands said that during the chaotic early days of the pandemic, they adapted their operations to continue serving society’s most vulnerable.
“The idea of not taking people in because of COVID is dangerous because if you’re homeless you don’t have anywhere else to go.” said Craig Currey, CEO of Transitions, the largest homeless shelter in the region. “Where are you supposed to self-isolate? Under a bridge? We weren’t going to let that happen.”
Currey said Transitions has focused on aggressive social distancing and mask wearing. Common rooms have been marked off to ensure everyone sits six feet apart. Temperature checks are mandatory for all visitors. Meals are now served in prepackaged containers instead of doled out cafeteria style.
So far, only three clients at Transitions have contracted the virus.
Other organizations, like Family Promise of the Midlands, have had to make more drastic changes.
Before COVID-19, Family Promise relied on a network of faith-based organizations who volunteered to house families inside their congregations, but that practice was suspended back in March.
Left without a site for clients to stay, Family Promise has had to find other ways to help.
“We’re focusing on triaging some of those emergency cases while also trying to keep families that have already been through our program in stable housing during this crisis,” said Executive Director Jeff Armstrong.
The organization has paid to put families facing immediate crises in hotel rooms. It’s also provided small stipends of up to $300 for those at risk of being evicted.
Travis McNeal, CEO of Oliver Gospel Mission, a homeless ministry that operates two shelters in Columbia, said his organization has had to cap its men’s shelter at 50% capacity.
“The rooms where we house people there are too small to allow us to keep the full number of beds and still be safe,” he said. “I think it’s important to remember that our clients are afraid of getting sick just like anyone. So they don’t want to put themselves in a situation where they’ll be crammed in with other people anyway.”
Since the pandemic started, Oliver Gospel Mission has yet to have a confirmed case. McNeal said he hopes new intake procedures will help keep it that way.
“Anyone who comes here now is asked to report their symptoms and if they have a fever or a cough they’ll have to be tested,” he said.
Both Oliver Gospel Mission and Transitions have partnered with Prisma Health to provide rapid testing for clients who show COVID-19 symptoms.
“They call a number that we provide and our dispatcher sends our [Mobile Integrated Healthcare] team over to test the patient on site,” said Brenda Rankin, system director for children’s services at Prisma Health who helped form the partnership with the two shelters. “Then the patient is isolated while we wait to get their results.”
Rankin said results typically are available in just a couple of hours. If the test comes back negative, the person is allowed inside the shelter. If it’s positive, the patient is either transported to the hospital or quarantined in a hotel room paid for by the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.
Though Currey of Transitions acknowledged that the system is not 100% foolproof, he said that during this time, everyone is being forced to make calculated risks.
“It’s the same problem you run into when you go to the supermarket,” he said. “You don’t know what anyone else there has done. So I can’t control everybody else around me but we can at least make sure that when people are in here they are being safe.”
