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Looking Past Parking Lots: Socially Just Interventions for Our Homeless Neighbors During COVID-19

by Kira O’Brien, LMSW, and Tara Ryan-DeDominicis, LCSW

     The impact of COVID-19 is not something that can be outlined in an introductory paragraph. Statistics, vignettes, or graphs can’t accurately encapsulate the influence the virus has had on our society, and there is not a person in this country who has not been touched by it. It is the gradient of this impact that we need to explore; it is the only way that we can illuminate the experiences of our most marginalized neighbors and the many ways in which we fail them. Folks who continually experience systemic injustices are now dying at our feet, or more accurately, in our parking lots.

     In 2018, more than 500,000 individuals experienced homelessness on any given night in the United States (see National Alliance to End Homelessness). The need for services for the homeless is apparent now more than ever; yet, the COVID-19 virus has resulted in a severe gap in resources. Shelters are closing their doors to keep their current guests as safe as possible. Mental health services, immigration services, and housing-first services are being offered remotely, which is extremely difficult for people currently experiencing homelessness, considering they may not have a place to charge their phones with the local coffee houses and soup kitchens unable to let them inside. Currently, people experiencing homelessness (who we refer to as guests) pick up meals in to-go bags from the front door, unable to access dining rooms where they are usually able to come in and rest or to get out of the rain. Social work services are offered from the lawn six feet away or over text message, as that does not use precious phone minutes. In a time when our guests need the support and friendship we usually offer, we are relegated to shouting across open spaces.

     Despite the upset in usual services, guests have demonstrated an incredible outpouring of grace and kindness toward others. Rose, a woman who has been living on the street for 36 years, offered me her face scarf when I told her I needed to find a mask. Peter stops by to pick up bags of food for his friends, who are too nervous to leave the one small room in the rooming house that seven of them share. And Christine spends her quarantine hours raising funds for the local food pantry on social media. 

     Most people in the U.S. are one major illness, one loss of a job, or one financial hiccup from needing to come to the soup kitchen for food instead of as a volunteer. For this population, the loss of a single work shift could put them in a housing crisis, if they are not already surviving on the street. During this time of communities banding together against a microscopic and deadly enemy, we cannot leave our homeless neighbors out. One way we can extend our hand to them during this time is offering hotel placement.

The Potential of Hotel Placement

     Hotel placement could potentially address many of our concerns. Such placement would move shelter guests from overcrowded “tinderboxes”  or those who are street homeless into a room where they can quarantine appropriately, which is vital for everyone’s health as we abide by shelter-in-place orders.

     Allowing people who are homeless to shelter in place in a hotel setting allows them to attend to recommended activities to best avoid contracting and spreading COVID-19. It would afford them more opportunities to wash their hands, something the CDC has said is a game changer from the start, and shower more regularly. It would allow them to comply with physical distancing protocol, a proven method to reduce chances of infection and promote public health. It would allow them the opportunity for adequate rest, which, between constant vigilance from sleeping unprotected outside or in crowded shelters, is hard to come by. It would allow the chance for potentially infected persons to treat symptoms in a safe environment and hopefully reduce emergency room admissions. And it would allow agencies like ours to do what we do best and make sure they have adequate food and nutrition that is needed to help keep the human body healthy. Yet, these doors (and keycards) remain inaccessible to such guests. And it’s not just because of the hotel industry’s bottom line.

     In contrast, for the past 15 years, the hospitality industry has made great strides to reduce its carbon footprint and increase the bottom lines by implementing eco-friendly practices. The World Green Building Council has established a 100-point checklist, so hotels and other businesses can evaluate their practices and achieve specialized certifications like LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). These have been instrumental in many of the institutional changes that have taken root in the hospitality industry and now feel commonplace; such as that card reminding you to hang your towel if you don’t need it cleaned or the reduced flow toilets you find in the bathrooms.

     These practices serve three main purposes. First, they are incredibly beneficial in reducing the consumption of precious resources and modeling environmentally friendly processes. These hotels also capitalize on their practices by attracting patrons with an eye for green practices. Finally, and often most important, these come with sizeable financial benefits for hotel chains - it literally pays to go green!

     In the end, it comes down to purchasing power. How do we create programs and standards that encourage businesses to do the right thing? We influence their consumer base.

     We are those consumers. We are the ones who set the standard with our purchasing power. We are also one of the reasons why these hotels won’t open their doors to our most vulnerable neighbors.

     Hotels are not the final answer to the rising numbers of individuals and families who find themselves homeless. That is a system that needs re-working from almost every angle. However, hotels are the answer right now, during this pandemic. People who are experiencing homelessness are at greater risk during this time of COVID for many reasons, including being unsheltered and, therefore, unable to shelter in place; being unable to socially isolate, and having an increased likelihood of underlying health conditions. Additionally, even those who are sheltered and not street homeless are in danger, as well, as a result of shelter overcrowding and use of bunk beds, in many cases less than two feet apart. As we are sadly seeing with the nursing homes across the country, Richard Cho, chief executive of Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, said it best by stating, “We’re racing to get ahead of an outbreak. Homeless shelters could become a tinderbox in terms of rapid spread of the outbreaks.”

     The persistent bias against individuals who are currently experiencing homelessness is pervasive throughout our society. We are willing to make sacrifices and give and care - up until a point. Up until it gets uncomfortable. Up until you’re confronted with a smell you don’t like or a bag that could carry lice. Up until you’re confronted with a person who reminds you just how fragile your own stability is and how much you have to lose. This is well demonstrated by the protests currently taking place in Orange County, where individuals are willing to defy physical distancing if only to protest the use of a vacant hotel to house homeless neighbors.

     It should not be a privilege to quarantine, just as it is not a privilege to not freeze to death. Code Blue is a system that comes into place in the state of New Jersey (other states have similar protocol under different names) when the temperature drops below freezing and it becomes dangerous to the population of people living on the streets (NJ211). On Code Blue nights, emergency centers and hotel rooms are to make sure our homeless neighbors do not die from the cold. They should be offered the same chance to not perish from COVID.

     Why do hotels close their doors to the homeless and leave thousands of beds vacant? Because we turn up our noses. Because in a year, two years, when we start going on vacations again, hotels are afraid that there will be a part of your mind that creeps back to this critical moment, and you’ll instinctively check for bedbugs. Why do these beds remain vacant while we paint lines in a parking lot for our homeless populations to "safely" sleep? Because of how closely we clutch our purses and turn away from those who are most needy.

     It is time for a paradigm shift. We need to continue to build upon the success of other movements, such as the work done to green our hotels. We need to recognize the power we hold as consumers to hold industry accountable. It’s time for a type of radical kindness and compassion that goes from our hearts to our wallets. And to the ballot box.

Shifting the Needle of Compassion

     So how do we shift the needle of compassion for our neighbors?

     It starts with us; with our purchase power, our advocacy, and a healthy dose of self-reflection. If you sit with yourself and recognize the gratitude you have for your ability to safely weather this storm, if you can imagine going into a hotel knowing their ability to use that bed to house a homeless person and potentially save their lives, if you can pass by a homeless neighbor and not avert your eyes, then it’s time to act.

Resources

Esqueviel, P. (2020, April 4). Retirement community protests O.C. plan to house homeless people with coronavirus at hotel. LA Times. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-04-04/ayers-hotel-coronavirus-protest-orange-county-laguna-woods-village

Jan, T., & Johnson, J. (2020, April 14). Hotels sit vacant during the pandemic. But some locals don’t want homeless people moving in. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/14/homeless-hotels-coronavirus/

National Alliance to  End Homelessness. (n.d.). The State of Homelessness.  https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness-report/

Kira O'Brien, LMSW, is a licensed social worker currently in the field of higher education. Kira received her undergraduate degree from Rutgers University and a Masters in Social Work with a dual focus in clinical practice and client-centered management from Fordham University. She currently works at Princeton University's Pace Center for Civic Engagement, where her focus is on immersive and experiential learning opportunities and the cultivation of civic identity in emerging adulthood. Through this work she thinks about what it means to serve others and the impact that service/field work has on an individual's identity development, connection to social justice and capacity for empathy.

Tara Ryan-DeDominicis is an LCSW in New Jersey and a DSW student at Rutgers University. Tara is the Director of Programs and Services at nourish.NJ and serves on the social work advisory councils for Sacred Heart University and the College of Saint Elizabeth.

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