Since the school district agreed to share the Santa Maria High School gym as a temporary homeless shelter a little more than three weeks ago, usage of the satellite shelter has only gone up.
The shelter was established in late March under the county’s Unified Command, including the Office of Emergency Services as well as the Community Services Department. Director of Community Services George Chapjian told the Sun that at first, homeless individuals occupied 50 to 55 of the available 72 beds on an average night. But as COVID-19 continues to spread and stay-at-home orders become increasingly vital, the shelter is now seeing near-maximum capacity every night.
While the Community Services Department continues to operate some services at the shelter, including laundry and cleaning, Good Samaritan took over the majority of operations starting Monday, April 6, Chapjian said.
“We’ve been anywhere between 68 and 72 people on an average night,” Kirsten Cahoon, Good Samaritan’s director of shelter operations, told the Sun. “We’re pretty much full every night.”
Cahoon said that, given the emphasis on sheltering in place to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, providing shelter to Santa Maria’s homeless population is now necessary not just at night, but during the day, too.
“When many of us can shelter at home and stay safe, these are the most vulnerable clients that need places,” Cahoon said. “The shelter is giving them that space to be able to wash their hands, keep clean, and have a space to stay in during the day so they’re not coming into contact with a lot of people.”
The efforts appear to be working. There are no known positive cases of COVID-19 in the homeless community so far, Cahoon said. She emphasized that if a member of the homeless community is experiencing symptoms, they should not be afraid to reach out for help.
“We have a great partnership with the Public Health Department, so there’s a protocol in place that we all know we need to follow,” Cahoon explained. “We’re doing things like a health screening when they enter the Santa Maria High campus. If somebody was to display any symptoms, we know exactly the process we have to follow … . We have the ability to isolate them at that point until Public Health can step in. We get them tested and then further isolated while waiting for the results to come back.”
In addition to cots to sleep on, the temporary shelter also provides basic necessities like three meals a day and shower stations. Good Samaritan is also making efforts to keep the homeless community informed on the rapidly changing pandemic.
“We’ve put in a TV to keep them updated on the news. A lot of the time with the homeless community, they’re not connected to the media like the rest of us are, so they don’t actually know the facts about what’s going on,” Cahoon explained. “This gives them an opportunity to hear it from our public sources.”
The shelter is also aware of those who might need addiction resources, especially during this extraordinarily stressful time.
“We also run NA meetings on the TV during the day so that if anybody is struggling with addiction or just needs a positive note, they’re able to do that,” Cahoon said.
Cahoon said the shelter is looking for creative ways to share that positivity throughout the local homeless community.
“We are going to have a Zumba class out there because one of the clients is able to teach that,” Cahoon said. “We’re trying to come up with things so we can still have social distancing, while following all our safety protocols, and give them something fun to do.”
Cahoon said that while the shelter is currently well stocked on supplies, this is only made possible by generous donations and strong community partnerships. Locally, the Chumash Casino Resort made a large water donation to the shelter. And some donations are from as far as the other side of the country.
“HFactor Water, which is actually based out of New York, gave us 2,000 pouches of hydrogen-infused recovery water,” Cahoon said. “It was really neat: They’re a company out of New York that cares about Santa Maria.”
Cahoon said that their partnerships with local organizations like the Salvation Army have been crucial to getting homeless people the meals they need to stay strong during this difficult and uncertain time.
“The Salvation Army is starting to provide the meals at Santa Maria High today,” Cahoon said on April 14. “And they’ve been doing our food over here at the regular shelter for weeks now. They’re an amazing partner.”
This article appears in Apr 16-23, 2020.