By Bill Badour
UNIVERSITY CENTER – Homeless people are more likely than others to be infected with COVID-19.
“People experiencing unsheltered homelessness […] may be at risk for infection when there is community spread of COVID-19,” states the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dan Streeter is the CEO at Rescue Ministries of Mid-Michigan. Streeter manages the Good Samaritan Rescue Mission in Bay City and the Saginaw Rescue Mission in Saginaw.
“We now have a much more stringent cleaning policy,” says Streeter. “We clean commonly touched objects such as doorknobs and light switches every couple of hours.”
Streeter also said that both shelters have started to stagger meal times. This provides an opportunity to clean between meals and have more space between people getting food.
“The last thing we’ve done is put a hard cap on the number of people in each building, which is something that we’ve never done before,” says Streeter. “Our Saginaw mission is limited to 175 people and Bay City is limited to 100 people.”
In addition to limited resident numbers, there are also more stringent requirements to be granted access to a bed.
“One change that we’ve had to make is before anyone can come in, we have to ask them a few questions outside such as: ‘Have you recently had a cough?’ If they say yes, then we take their temperature. If we feel as though they need to be checked by a doctor before they check-in, then we can provide them with transportation to get medical care,” says Streeter
Streeter noted that the building is completely closed to visitors. Aside from no longer accepting used donations, he is also asking those who donate to the shelter normally to wait until the pandemic passes.
As for supplies, Streeter mentioned the shelter is experiencing some shortages, but that gloves and masks were coming in. They also have enough hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies for now, but Streeter acknowledged he was uncertain how long those would last.
“Our shelters rely on donations,” says Streeter. “As money gets tighter, people won’t be able to give as much.”
A lower amount of donations and a possible increase in homeless populations because of economic struggles increases uncertainty about being able to provide for everyone who needs help.
“One difficulty that we may be facing is that there is a potential wave of homeless people due to economic difficulties,” says Streeter. “If that happens, we would have a larger need of resources like providing more meals.”
Streeter made mention of a separate site for those homeless with COVID-19 to stay at, but the date of opening was not available at the time of the Collegiate’s interview.
“We greatly appreciate service providers, workers and the county health department that helped prepare us,” says Streeter. “We saw great teamwork within the community.”
