As the novel coronavirus spreads, Austin’s homeless shelters are weighing safety changes to their operations that could leave the city’s most vulnerable residents with even fewer options.
The Austin Resource Center for the Homeless, which provides shelter, storage, bathrooms and showers to hundreds of people each day, took initial steps toward limiting access this week. Those coming through its doors now are required to sanitize their hands. Staff are also asking clients how they are feeling, and cleaning more frequently in high-traffic areas like stairwells and common spaces.
But stricter measures could be put in place in coming days. To protect those staying and working in the dormitory-style shelter, which houses around 130 people each night, Greg McCormack, executive director of Front Steps, which runs the ARCH, said management is considering changes. The ARCH could limit access to day services, like mail, storage and restrooms, for people not staying in the shelter. Staff also are weighing whether to turn away people who are sick in coming weeks.
Such a move from any of Austin’s care providers could further leave those who are homeless at risk at a time when bars, restaurants and many local businesses have closed their doors, and restrictions on gatherings of more than 10 people go into effect. Shelters, however, are considered critical facilities, and are exempt, a city spokeswoman said. McCormack says the choices shelter leaders make are about weighing the risks to clients and staff with providing the care people so desperately need.
“We had some real difficult conversations (Monday) as our leadership team and managers,” he said. “What would happen if we started taking temperatures for everyone who came in the doors and someone had a temperature. Are we willing or thinking that we might not allow access to our building?
“We’re kind of one of the last places that someone can be and be safe.”
Next door at the Salvation Army’s downtown shelter, which houses close to 250 people, similar questions are being raised.
Major Lewis Reckline, Salvation Army Austin Area Commander, said people still come and go as they please for overnight stays, but he has concerns about what he would do if the coronavirus found its way inside.
“If it does become an epidemic in our shelter, how (do) we quarantine and kind of segregate all that from the rest of the population,” he said. “We would probably just quarantine the entire population.”
Reckline said staff have been closely monitoring guidelines coming from the Centers for Disease Control on Prevention, and he would look to experts to help make those decisions if the time comes. But right now, the facility and many others are struggling to get supplies to keep both workers and clients safe and clean. He said he is short on cleaning supplies, hand sanitizer and toilet paper, like everyone else.
“I’ve gotten several emails this morning of folks saying that they’re running low on product and trying to see what we can do to to get some of that into our facilities,” he said.
Risk for exposure
McCormack said officials know dormitory-style shelters, or anywhere large groups of people are held in close proximity, create some of the greatest risk for exposure and spread of coronavirus.
He said the homeless care community has been brainstorming other options to get people out of the elements, but not necessarily in confined quarters.
Reckline and McCormack said clients haven’t expressed much fear over the virus yet. The same is true for many of the hundreds still living on the streets in Austin. Under Texas 71 in South Austin, people still live in tents in small clusters, sharing water, beer, food and space.
Christopher Huff, 26, said he has been living on the streets intermittently as the coronavirus has spread across the world, but he didn’t know much about it until he went into a nearby Walmart and found bare shelves.
“Some things I needed for my daily life were gone,” he said listing off necessities like bottled water and baby wipes.
Huff said he tries to stay by himself most of the time, but if the people near him got sick, he thinks he would too. There is little he could do to follow CDC guidelines on hand washing and other cleanliness measures, he said.
About a mile away, a man who frequently panhandles on South Lamar Boulevard lamented that people no longer were giving out money.
“I can’t make a dime,” he said. “Nobody will roll down their windows and give anything.”
Cara Welch, a spokeswoman for Austin Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said the city has been working with partners to find places to offer showers or emergency shelter and other basic needs as the city closes more facilities. The details of those plans, however, were not immediately available.
Prepare for more homeless
In the meantime, Assistant City Manager Chris Shorter said care providers have been handing out kits with sanitizing wipes to help people wash their hands and disinfect their surroundings.
“As a city in the community, we need to be prepared, with closures and other things that are happening, that we might see more people outside who are homeless, gathering in different areas outside,” he said. “I hope … we can get through this supportively and not react to, potentially, that increased visual of people being homeless.”
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