TOLEDO, Ohio — Local shelters are learning how to navigate bringing people in off the streets during the winter months, while also keep them safe as COVID-19 cases are on the rise. That includes St. Paul's Community Center.
"Yes it's COVID, yes it's cold, yes it's winter, but everybody has to pitch in," said president and CEO Joe Habib. "Everyone has to cooperate: our staff, our clients, our cooks, myself."
Habib said staff is able to sanitize and clean the facility throughout the day. But when people are there day in and day out, not every protocol is followed all the time.
"People stay here until they get housed, so this is their 24/7 house. It's hard to keep this on 24/7. So the barriers get broken down."
He explained when a staff member has to quarantine, they don't have the option to work from home because the shelter operates 24/7. And when it's understaffed, that raises the chance of closing the doors.
"It's a big dilemma. You get somebody in with COVID, you can't because it's going to spread it. It spreads so fast," Habib explained. "We have some rooms with bathrooms in the very back of the shelter. We were just meeting today and we decided at least for tonight, to make this the COVID quarantine room."
Thanks to several local organizations, St. Paul's Community Center has been able to pay for hotel rooms to house people at night.
This creates extra space in the shelter so more people can get off the streets during these winter months. Unfortunately, the funds won't last forever.
"I don't usually call for direct monetary donations, but we need rooms in the hotels, we need money to make things go round. We need money to hire people."
Habib said the two things the shelter is in need of the most right now are monetary donations and more employees.