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Living 20 To A Room, NYC Homeless Face High Risk Of Coronavirus In Congregate Shelters
By
Mirela Iverac
Published Mar 29, 2020
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By
Mirela Iverac
Published Mar 29, 2020
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Bernard Ward was so worried about the state of the homeless shelter he was living in during the COVID-19 outbreak that he began to clean it himself.
“I was cleaning the dining hall after the meal was over,” the 61-year-old said. “I was taking out the garbage. I was mopping, sweeping for the safety of everybody.”
Ward was staying in one of around 100 “congregate” shelters in the city -- facilities where residents share rooms and eat meals in communal areas. Residents of such shelters are considered particularly vulnerable to the new coronavirus because they live in such close quarters with one another.
“You actually got people that are sick,” said Ward, who shared a room with 20 other homeless individuals in Brooklyn. “They're coughing. They’re not covering their mouths.”
City officials reported Friday that a second homeless person has died from COVID-19, while the total number of cases in the shelter system increased from 17 to 59 over the past week. Only one unsheltered homeless person has been found to test positive for the virus, though far fewer individuals live on the streets in New York City than in shelters.
In a meeting with the shelter’s director and staff, Ward even asked if residents could get gloves and masks.
“They just said it wasn’t in the budget,” he said. “After they said that, I had to shut my mouth because now I know they don't care.”
Isaac McGinn, a spokesman for the city’s Social Services Department, said masks are provided only for symptomatic clients because that’s what health experts recommend. He also said shelters are being comprehensively cleaned.
Ward moved out of the shelter this week when he got his own room.
“I'm happy that I'm out,” he said. “But what about the ones who are still there?”
Listen to Mirela Iverac's radio story for WNYC:
Dr. Kelly Doran, an assistant professor of emergency medicine and population health at NYU Langone Health who studies homelessness, said she worries the most about people in congregate shelters.
“This is a vulnerable, very vulnerable population,” Dr. Doran said. “They're disproportionately older. And we know that people who are homeless in their 50s are essentially health-wise equivalent to people who aren't homeless in their 80s.”
Doran thinks the city should find other accommodations for homeless people who are at higher risk to protect them.
“I worry a little bit that in some ways we've already missed the boat in New York City,” she said.
On average, 8 to 12 people sleep in a room in a congregate shelter. Victoria Wolf, 66, shares a room in a Brooklyn shelter with half a dozen people, but says it’s still impossible to stay six feet away from other residents, especially during meals.
“I try to maintain my distance from people when I'm on the food line, but other people just get right up on you,” she said.
Wolf said she wishes the city was doing more to protect her and other residents.
“You feel like a second- and third-class citizen,” she said. “You're at the bottom of the societal life ladder. And it's almost as if it doesn't really matter if you got sick or not.”
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coronavirus
homeless shelter
homeless
Mirela Iverac
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