About Housing Works’ Emergency Covid-19 Homeless Shelters

True to its “housing is health care” roots, Housing Works’ first priority at the onset of the Covid-19 crisis and lockdown in New York was to address the most critical housing and shelter gaps created by this new pandemic. The policy at NYC’s congregant shelters has been to screen people for Covid-19, to send those with symptoms or who tested positive to a hospital ER, and then prohibit their return until fully recovered—a protocol that effectively turns homeless people with Covid-19 out onto the streets, where there is no way to maintain the adequate physical separation and hygienic safety measures necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic.

Aware of the particular challenges that homelessness would pose as Covid-19 spread throughout the city, Housing Works wasted no time back in March and immediately partnered with Latino Commission on AIDS, the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, Treatment Action Group, and Callen-Lorde Community Health Center to form the Covid-19 Community Work Group. Housing Works then approached the NYC Department of Social Services to propose managing Covid-19 emergency shelters out of unused city hotels.

As a result of those timely pivots, since April, Housing Works has been operating two shelters for homeless people who have or are suspected to have Covid-19, the first housing 150 people and the second housing another 100. Amidst a city shortage of protective gear and medical supplies, Housing Works also turned to a former board member to locate face masks, gloves, and other supplies to protect the people they serve as well as Housing Works staff.

At the Housing Works Covid-19 shelters, onsite staffers conduct wellness checks, case managers are on hand to help secure public assistance or Medicaid, crisis intervention specialists deliver behavioral health services using telemedicine, and Callen-Lorde staff provide medical services to residents. As of mid-June, the shelters had served over 300 people so far.

Housing Works is also working to find upgraded housing and better care and living situations for the people served, rather than just returning them to congregant shelters. For example, some people who were living with HIV or who had suffered domestic violence or sexual assault in the shelters have been able to transition into Housing Works apartments.

Select press coverage of Housing Works’ Covid-19 emergency work:

• “Housing Works CEO Opens Coronavirus Homeless Shelters in NYC,” NY Post, April 11, 2020.
• “New York’s Patron Saint of PPE Went $600,000 in Debt to Outfit Workers—and Hospitals Keep Turning Her Down,” Washington Post, May 6, 2020.
• “How Do You Shelter in Place When You Don’t Have a Home?”, The New Yorker, March 26, 2020.
• “New York City Is Teaming Up With Nonprofits to Get COVID-Positive Homeless Folks into Medically Managed Hotels,” The Body, April 21, 2020.

To donate to support Housing Works via Braking AIDS Ride 2020: https://give.classy.org/mika2020