COVID-19, Houselessness, and What Now: coming weeks at HOMEpdx
Like all of you we are paying attention to what’s going on with COVID-19 and asking how we can best support our community (a community we understand to be at particular risk for a variety of reasons). In the past we have worked hard to remain consistent. Whether it’s a holiday or a snow day our outdoor friends got to eat. That’s still true with COVID-19.
A number of years ago I remember buying lunch for a friend of ours in an all but abandoned downtown on a chilly New Years Day when everywhere he regularly had access to food was closed. This week we are hearing of closures and limited services, including the de facto largest day shelter downtown – the Library.
As we work to be present with food and friendship we are also working hard to keep our staff, volunteers, and outdoor friends healthy and safe. We meet outdoors so social isolation is easy – just spread out. We are packing additional cleaning options for gear and for our friends – gloves, soap and water, and sanitizer. We are committed to keeping even vaguely sick staff and volunteers away from our gatherings.
Things are changing fast and most are out of our control. We will adapt as best we can to serve our friends as best we can. We suggest that people follow us on Facebook for updates in the coming weeks.
We also have noticed that the mayor’s office claims that sweeps, something we’ve talked about before, will not be stopping:
Advocates have been calling on the city to place a moratorium on homeless camp sweeps amid fears it could worsen a COVID-19 outbreak.@PDX_OMF, which oversees cleanups and removals, says today they’re not stopping entirely. But they are cutting back. pic.twitter.com/0g5GWy0yy1— Rebecca Ellis (@Rjaellis) March 13, 2020
On the other hand Portland Bureau of Transportation has made changes in policy for the time being allowing folks living in cars a little more stability while parked on city streets.
Also we recommend following Portland Street Medicine, medical professionals who specialize in supporting folks living outside.
We know this is a high stress time for everyone, especially our friends who are outside loosing the benefits of many places that offer warmth and hospitality in an attempt to flatten the curve of infection. Thanks for being patient with us and with each other right now.
If you’ve read this far you are truly interested. Would you like to support our work, especially in this time of special need?
