Homeless during Covid-19
 |
| Parking lot turned shelter in Las Vegas (ANSA) |
This is the story of Debbie, a homeless woman living in
Boston during Covid-19. She is one of many.
By Sr Bernadette Mary Reis, fsp
Debbie had a stable, good-paying job. She was a night nurse
at a hospital in Boston. Some of the last vacations she took were pilgrimages
to the Holy Land, Oberammergau to see the passion play, and Rome, and a
Caribbean cruise. Having never married, Debbie was supporting herself well.
Rough past
Shortly after she had moved from the mid-west to Boston as a
young women, Debbie began drinking. Later she added drugs to her drinking. When
her life began bottoming out, she began frequenting AA, something she does to
this day. She has been sober ever since. Through the help of a local Boston
priest, Debbie found her way back to the Catholic faith. Eventually, she became
a Eucharistic minister at her parish, and was active in the Cursillo movement.
Things were going well.
Jobless
Then the unthinkable happened. About ten years ago, soon
after the death of one of her parents, Debbie lost her job. She spoke about
what happened with Sr Bernadette.
“I took a while off. After about a year, I started job
hunting and just couldn't get anything, at which point, my depression kicked
in. Then I basically sat at home till the money ran out. I can remember every
once in a while thinking, ‘the money’s going to be gone’. And sure enough it
was. It was not long after that that I had to leave the apartment. I lived in
my car for three years and now I've been in the shelter for about ten months.”
In the shelter during Covid-19
Shelters in the U.S. adopted precautionary measures to
prevent Covid-19 from spreading among their guests. However, as Debbie tells
us, there is only so much that can be done when those living in shelters at
such close quarters.
“Well, at first it was social distancing when you went
outside. But in the shelter, we really were not able to – I mean there was a
lot of washing hands, they put up screens between the beds to try and help in
that manner. But during the evening, we were all in one room sitting at tables
together. Eventually the virus got into the shelter. It was just a matter of
time. We knew it would.”
Debbie’s worst fear became reality on Monday. She discovered
she had been exposed to the coronavirus. When she found out that she was going
to be moved to an unknown facility, shock set in.
“I was kind of in shock. So I did, in a sense, tell on
myself because rumors were running rampant. We had a meeting with the director
who said, ‘yes, a person was positive.’ Then they had pulled a bunch of people
out that they knew were exposed. They hadn't highlighted me, but I knew I sat
next to the person I'd been hearing. And I finally went into the office to talk
to someone and said, ‘I know you can't tell me but this is the name I keep hearing
and I sat next to them’. And the response was, ‘if you're that concerned, go
and see the nurse.’ And it was said in such a way that I thought, ‘Uh, oh, I
better go.’ And then after that it's pretty much a blur. A lot of ‘Yeah, you're
going to go to quarantine. We're going to put you somewhere’, and then just
sitting for a very long time and waiting.”
Quarantined
Debbie was quickly isolated and kept waiting until
transportation arrived to take her – somewhere. She was not allowed to gather
her own things from her locker. One of the women working in the shelter got her
things from her shelter. So where did Debbie end up?
“I'm at what used to be a rehabilitation center in a part
of Boston. It's been closed down for I'm not sure how long, for quite a while.
They reopened it specifically for this, to have a place to put patients. All of
us here are in quarantine, we’ve been exposed. There are no known cases and I
don't think there will be any here. This is like a staging area. If you develop
symptoms you go somewhere else.”
Care at the quarantine facility
Debbie describes the staff as “very nice” and caring. All of
the people there keep to themselves for the most part. They are provided
everything they need, and then some, as Debbie describes.
“Basically, you stay in your room. If you come out in the
hallway, you have to wear a mask and gloves. A nurse comes through in the
morning, checks our vital signs and then asks us a whole slew of questions:
‘Are you coughing? Are you achy?’ Anything about our history. ‘Are you short of
breath?’ and any of the symptoms – they really run through the whole list of
them. And then we're really kind of honor bound to answer honestly. There is a
doctor on premises.
“[The staff], they're very nice. They provide meals. They
come through constantly checking on us, ‘Are you okay?’ Several of us don't
have night clothes because, you know, you get whipped out of a shelter that
provides things for you…. They're working to get things for us that we need.
They're offering us books, [playing] cards. They seem to care, they really do.
I'm very comfortable with them.”
What next?
The ever-present question on the mind of a homeless person
is, “what about tomorrow”? I asked Debbie where she will go once she is out of
quarantine.
“I will go back to the shelter. I hope. Some people are
being farmed out. They're opening up dorms that are unused at universities and
that kind of thing. So that way they alleviate the crowding in the shelters.
I'm hoping that I will go back to the shelter I was in. My things are there.”
Counting on prayer
Just prior to the beginning of our interview, Debbie told me
that she is so grateful that people are praying for her. As soon as the
interview was over, she told me that she was going to add her name to some
prayer lists over the internet. Her last words on the interview were also about
prayer:
“I'm very pleased that so many people are praying for me
and I hope to stay healthy.”
I am sure that Debbie will be pleased to know that you, too,
will pray for her, and for other homeless people like her.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét