While citizens of Lubbock hunker down in response to the Coronavirus, a looming question remains: What happens when this hits our homeless population? Two Lubbock nonprofits are working to tackle this predicament.
Grace Campus and Open Door both worked swiftly to adjust their operations in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak in Lubbock. The two organizations immediately implemented COVID-19 screening processes for their clients and increased their sanitation efforts. While no known cases of the virus have emerged in the community yet, both groups are working to establish emergency quarantine facilities before those needs eventually do arise.
Chris Moore and his wife are the founders of Grace Campus, a nonprofit organization that provides shelter, food and other essentials to the homeless throughout Lubbock. On any given day they serve groups of 90 to over 100 people. “There’s a stigma associated with homeless,” Moore says, “They’re really no different from the rest of us, but when we get sick, we can go in our homes and just veg out until we feel better. They don’t have that going for them.”
At Grace Campus, their rows of colorful small houses are not at capacity currently, which has provided the opportunity for those to be converted into housing for the sick. “It would be great if this just blew over and nobody else got sick, but I don’t think that’s going to be the case,” Moore says. “We have an entire row of houses dedicated for [quarantining sick people]. We’re not full and so we’re able to do this,” he says.
Chad Wheeler, the CEO of Open Door, says that once COVID-19 made its way to Lubbock, one of their first priorities was limiting the number of organizations their clients visit by offering more services. Over the last two and a half weeks, they extended their community center hours from 7a.m.-2p.m., six days a week, to 7a.m.-5:30p.m., seven days a week.
He explains that hopefully, if a person is in infected with the virus, this will prevent it spreading to another shelter. “We’re inviting people into a congregate facility, which is not ideal, but short of having a hotel or dormitory where we could put people in separate spaces, at least in this scenario we're able to monitor people on a daily basis and hopefully catch things early," Wheeler says.
"At least in this scenario, we're able to monitor people on a daily basis and hopefully catch things early."
The homeless population is particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, which pushed the city of Lubbock to work with organizations like Grace Campus and Open Door to establish a plan before the outbreak reaches their community. According to Moore, most of their clients do not have access good hygiene. They often do not have access to clean clothes or showers on a regular basis. Also, they often have pre-existing health conditions. For these reasons, they are considered immune compromised.
Katherine Wells, Director of Public Health in Lubbock, believes that thoroughly monitoring the homeless population will be their biggest obstacle. “It’s going to be a lot of work trying to get that individual tested,” she says, “Especially if they don’t have insurance or access to a primary care doctor.”
As of now, both Grace Campus and Open Door have reported no known cases of COVID-19 within the homeless community.
