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Homeless shelters in Syracuse are continuing to serve the community despite the pandemic.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a stay-at-home order in March that closed all nonessential businesses but allowed essential services, such as homeless shelters, to remain open. Although they served fewer people in the early days of the pandemic, several homeless shelters and organizations in Syracuse said they have successfully adapted to operate under new health and safety precautions.

Many homeless people avoided shelters at first out of fear of catching the virus, said Gina Lazara, the special events and public relations manager for Salvation Army Syracuse Area Services. Lazara and her team worked to explain to community members that their organizations would keep them safe.

Syracuse has also taken steps to provide for shelters during the pandemic, said Michael Collins, commissioner of the Department of Neighborhood and Business Development. The city formed a budget council to allocate funds toward homelessness prevention initiatives, such as the Homeless Housing Coalition of Central New York, an organization that addresses homelessness and housing vulnerability, Collins said.

Collins said the city is “still moving forward” to provide affordable housing despite the pandemic.

The Salvation Army Women’s Shelter in Syracuse started seeing fewer people as a statewide moratorium on evictions went into effect, said Stephani Klumpp, the director of the shelter.

The Women’s Shelter continues to operate with the bottom floor acting as a temporary, short-term shelter, while the three upper floors are for women staying for an extended period of time.

The Onondaga County Department of Social Services helped provide the shelter with personal protective equipment, hand sanitizer and an on-site doctor, Klumpp said.

Booth House, a runaway shelter for 12 to-17-year-olds, saw a similar issue, noticing a decline in youth coming into the shelter at the start of the pandemic, said Mithila Hasan, director of Booth House.

Those numbers slowly began to rise after Booth House provided additional resources and family outreach, with August setting a record for the number of people seeking help at the shelter, Hasan said.

The Booth House team also developed new ways to keep their residents active during the pandemic, such as backyard movies, beach trips and walks in the city, Hasan said.

“(We’re) very blessed that (we) did not experience a deficiency during the pandemic,” Hasan said.

Published on September 9, 2020 at 10:48 pm

Contact Ryan: rspivey@syr.edu