Street Angels shuts house over COVID surge
Street Angels has announced it is shutting the doors to its new warming house, pointing to a concerning rise in COVID-19 infections among guests and staff.
The organization called it a “difficult decision” that came months after it opened a new wheelchair-accessible warming room that was to remain open anytime the temperature dropped below freezing at 32 degrees.
Street Angels is a volunteer outreach group that provides clothes, food, sleeping bags and tents for the homeless, as well as resources to help them find temporary and/or permanent housing. In November, it opened its warming room in the basement of Ascension Lutheran.
However, the coronavirus pandemic — now surging due to the new and more transmissible omicron strain of the coronavirus — has proven difficult to control among a transient population with an uncertain vaccination history.
In a message written on its Facebook page Monday, the organization revealed that it had seen a 20-30% increase in guests and staff testing positive for the coronavirus, and after several meetings and consultation with the Milwaukee Health Department, concluded that it was too dangerous for guests to continue operations. “We tried to make the church basement as safe as we could and really hoped to make it through the winter months,” the organization wrote. “We met a lot of friends along the way and undoubtedly saved a lot of lives. We couldn’t have done it without all of your support.”
Just days before the closure, Street Angels had announced that it was no longer accepting donations to keep the risk of transmitting the disease down.
Since January, Milwaukee has also experienced some of its coldest temperatures this winter, reaching minus-5 degrees in some spots in Milwaukee.
On Monday, wind chills in Milwaukee reached between minus-15 and minus-18 degrees.
The organization acknowledged that closing its doors will further overwhelm the system and consequently, said their members will intensify outreach, support those who were in last year’s city hotel program and continue “pleading that the City of Milwaukee find safer warming options for our friends experiencing homelessness.”
The warming room will be closed for the remainder of the season.
Have an issue with your housing, tenant or landlord? Call reporter Talis Shelbourne to tell your story at 414-403-6651.