The pandemic has caught homeless service providers in a crosscurrent: demand is high, but their ability to provide services are constricted.
Many are hesitant to enter the reduced number of spaces available to escape the cold for fear of catching the virus.
In Troy, New York, Joseph’s House and Shelter is renting 19 rooms in an old convent for a seasonal shelter.
The Poverello Center in Missoula, Montana, cut its capacity by half in April and scrambled to add 150 socially distant beds at a new winter shelter in a warehouse.
As a result, the organization temporarily closed its doors, stopped daily meal distribution, shut down its thrift shop and briefly shuttered another winter shelter.