Shelter to close its doors in Rochester because of COVID-19

As reported by the Democrat & Chronicle on Monday, March 23, Bethany House, a well-established Rochester shelter for homeless women and children, announced that it must temporarily close its doors to the homeless on Wednesday, March 25. The building houses up to 10 women and children at any given time. All services are free, but they’re provided entirely from volunteer resources that have dried up.

All of the residents are now facing homelessness once more. Although Bethany House’s director Meg Burkhard has been assured that the residents will receive housing assistance from the Department of Human Services and food via Foodlink, the New York public assistance systems have suffered delays because of a surge of similar requests. At least one resident fears that she might have to live out of her car.

As Burkhard explained, she’s now in a situation where all that she can do is try to transfer her remaining supplies to other organizations that have the means to stay open: “All of us little tiny nonprofits that have nothing are sharing with each other because we know we’re all we’ve got. Places like us don’t get any attention.”

Bethany House is merely one of many volunteer essential service organizations that have been forced into this predicament. In Rochester and other regions throughout the country, groups of high-risk people can’t receive the services they need because non-profit and volunteer organizations have been overtaxed with requests for assistance. Additionally, social distancing measures to stop the spread of the virus and supply accessibility problems have resulted in the suspension of face-to-face services.

This is an ongoing story.

Sources:

https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2020/03/23/bethany-house-homeless-shelter-rochester-ny-closes-due-to-coronavirus/5042742002/

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/03/23/820243693/as-economy-struggles-nonprofits-ask-congress-for-help