Women’s shelter faces COVID
Staff, mothers and kids in quarantine after virus outbreak
A COVID-19 outbreak has sent infected staff and residents of the Houston Area Women’s Center shelter into quarantine and forced the organization to place clients in hotel rooms and other facilities.
Eleven staff members who have tested positive for COVID-19 are self-quarantined at home, and nine survivors of domestic violence — three adults and six children over age 10 — who have also contracted the virus are quarantined in the shelter.
Also quarantined are clients who came into contact with those who are infected but have not tested positive; as of Thursday, there were 23 residents in that category, including 13 children, seven mothers and three single women.
All 41 of the clients who tested negative for COVID-19 were moved into a nearby hotel, officials said. There are eight mothers, 13 children and 20 single people in the emergency hotel shelter provided by HAWC.
The organization is also helping place survivors through subcontracts with five new agencies that began sheltering clients recently.
The shelter is working to help the women and children in their isolation — quarantined mothers and their children are confined to a one-room quad with four twin bunk beds, said Chau Nguyen, spokesperson for HAWC.
Staff members known as advocates are checking in with the women and families with regular phone calls and in-person visits through the doorways of their shelter quarters. Meals and snacks have been delivered to their doors, and an ice cream and toy cart makes the rounds for kids.
Advocates are visiting the clients staying in hotels in person, still taking precautions like wearing face shields and PPE.
While most meetings are being conducted over the phone, services like therapy, help with housing applications and case management are still being done inperson when it’s possible to physically distance in a large meeting room, said Nguyen.
The Houston shelter isn’t alone in dealing with COVID-19 cases. Multiple advocacy groups that offer emergency temporary housing across the state are also reporting outbreaks, according to Gloria Terry, CEO of the Texas Council on Family Violence, which has 100 local agency partners.
“Every organization that I talk to, their biggest fear is how to maintain people’s safety — not just from violence, but how can we keep them healthy?” said Terry.
The challenge has played out differently for shelters, depending on location and available resources, Terry said.
Smaller agencies in rural towns, she said, have needed more funding and support to meet changing needs. Larger agencies with more space have had more success because they are able to spread clients out more effectively.
Up until three weeks ago, HAWC’s shelter, which is a lifeline for many escaping life-threatening violence, hadn’t seen any confirmed positive cases.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, officials at the shelter understood the vulnerabilities of staff and residents to the virus, because it’s an environment in which large groups of people used to gather.
Knowing that, staff have taken precautions like extra sanitizing and limiting the capacity of its onsite shelter to spread families out, said HAWC President and CEO Emilee Dawn Whitehurst.
Since the outbreak, the Houston Health Department has assisted the shelter in containing it. Another round of testing was planned for Thursday.
“It’s an ever-moving target,” said Whitehurst. “We’re doing our best to make sure clients feel cared for and supported.”
She said it is likely the person who first contracted the virus did not get it at the shelter.
“We’re just in the epicenter here in Harris County,” she said of the pandemic.
The outbreak also comes at a time when demand for emergency shelter is higher than HAWC has ever experienced, due to increasing rates of domestic violence during the pandemic.
“Since this disaster has no end in sight, we can’t afford to wait until it’s over to make resources available to people who are hurting,” said Whitehurst. “We are still serving people in crisis right here, right now.”