Shelter staff risk
Homeless services workers cry out for critical gear
Homeless service workers are begging the city and state for gear to protect them against coronavirus, but are being armed with only wet wipes, hand sanitizer and masks they procure on their own, sources said.
“We started dropping like flies,” said one Department of Homeless Services peace officer who works at the Wards Island Men’s Shelter and has been sidelined with COVID-19 since mid-March. “Eventually everyone is going to get it.”
Since testing positive, seven coworkers have contracted the virus, said the peace officer, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation. About 50 peace officers in total work at the
Ward’s Island shelter.
“They don’t give us no equipment,” he said. “We used the same masks we came out of the academy with — the paper masks that come with the NARCAN equipment.”
Nurses, doctors and transit workers have been clamoring for personal protective equipment, or PPE, for weeks now. But other front line workers, like those who work for the city’s Department of Homeless Services, are exposed to the virus on a daily basis as well.
Another peace officer who contracted COVID-19 and is recovering at home fears he’ll pass it on to his elderly parents.
“God forbid,” he said. “They knock on the door and leave me my food. Nobody can come in.”
That man, who is employed by DHS and also asked to remain anonymous, said workers are expected to do their jobs with “no face masks, no gloves, no hand sanitizer.”
“It’s a domino effect,” he said. “Soon they’re not gonna have anybody over there. Everybody’s going to get sick.”
The problem is also being felt among city Homeless Services drivers and people who work for private nonprofits contracted by the city and state, a union official told the Daily News.