Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Homeless During COVID-19 Social Distancing

I have been curious how our homeless population is dealing with social distancing during the COVID-19 outbreak. It seems that under normal circumstances I see them gathered in groups, large and small. So I took a short drive downtown to see.

People waiting for breakfast at the St. Vincent DePaul Center seem to be socially distanced at least somewhat. We have a church assignment coming up soon to help prepare or serve. I don't know the status of the assignment. When I've worked here before, we were in pretty close quarters that I wouldn't want to be in, but people do still need to eat. 

The courtyard behind St. Vincent is pretty crowded. 

There were a bunch of homeless camps on Main Street near the 700 South intersection. 

But police were breaking these up. 

The car in this picture is a police car with red and blue lights on. The police are dispersing the people camped here. 

Some police wore serious masks. 

These people are all cleaning up their camps. 

These people are taking down their tarps. 

This guy is taking his tarp down. He had something that looked like ski poles as corner posts and bicycles inside the tarp as walls. 

This couple was folding blankets and stacking them on their cart. 

I don't know where all this stuff goes during the day. And the people.

It's still early in the day, but this taco trailer looks pretty lonely. The taco businesses here usually have a line of customers anytime of day or night. 

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