This LevittownNow.com multi-part series on homelessness during COVID-19 has been supported in part by funding from In The Know Club members.
This LevittownNow.com multi-part series on homelessness during COVID-19 has been supported in part by funding from 
Credit: AHTN
Adapt, adjust, and persist.
Those are the main keys to aiding the homeless during the time of the coronavirus, said members of local agencies who provide temporary shelter and help find permanent housing for those in need.
Advertisements
“It’s been challenging this past year,” said Fairless Hills resident Penny Martin, who founded a nonprofit called Advocates for the Homeless and Those in Need in 2009. She continues to serve as board president and volunteers for the group.
The organization provides temporary shelter and meals for the homeless in Lower Bucks County on “Code Blue” nights when the temperature, including wind chill, is 26 degrees or below.
While the operation normally rotates monthly during the winter to various churches and other facilities, the coronavirus has forced some changes. Advocates could find only one church able to take on the chore, Calvary Baptist in Bristol Township, which is housing the Code Blue program for its entire four-month duration this winter.
Advertisements
Virus concerns have also reduced the group’s normal volunteer base by half, down to 18, Martin said. That has placed more stress on the remaining volunteers, who recently worked a stretch of 27 straight Code Blue nights, she added.
Credit: AHTN.
“That doesn’t bother me, I don’t really think about that,” said Martin of the long stretch, where the same group of 18 volunteers worked every night.
Advertisements
“I’m a woman of faith, and believe this is God’s mission and he will provide. If you’re volunteering for something like this, you have a servant’s heart and believe it is something you are called to do. And, being in one spot has actually turned out to be a blessing because we don’t have to pick up and move every month.”
The pandemic has also impacted the AHTN meals program, where volunteers would transport the homeless to various locations for sit-down meals. It’s been a strictly meals-to-go operation since the virus hit full force.
Virus concerns have also affected the Bucks County Emergency Homeless Shelter in Bristol Township’s Levittown section, which is operated by the Family Service Association of Bucks County. The need to social distance has reduced capacity from 75 to about 40 to 44 people, FSA Housing Services Director Murielle Kelly said.
Advertisements
However, the agency has adapted by sheltering many more homeless at a local hotel, she added. The 100 people being accommodated either at the homeless shelter or the hotel is actually more than in many previous years, Kelly said.
The waiting list to get into the shelter has increased from about 50 to 75 to a little more than 100, FSA officials said. But, it’s unclear if COVID-19 has increased the number of homeless in Bucks County.
Credit: Submitted
Advertisements
According to a count done on Jan. 29, 2020, there were 333 homeless people in the county, officials said. That included those in the shelter, other forms of transitional housing or living outside.
More recent numbers haven’t yet been updated and finalized but should be soon, Bucks County Housing and Community Development Director Jeffrey Fields said.
Advertisements
“I don’t know that the pandemic has increased the numbers of homeless,” said Erin Lukoss, executive director of the Bucks County Opportunity Council. It assists with various services for the homeless, including being part of a coordinated street outreach program along with United Way of Bucks County and other agencies that provides food and other necessities for homeless people living outside, attempts to get them shelter and provides other services.
“Moratoriums against evictions and foreclosures and things like that have probably mitigated the homeless numbers,” Lukoss continued. “However, the pandemic has exacerbated the problems of the homeless. Some of the places they would normally go for a little break and some refuge, like libraries and Starbucks and many retail stores, have been closed for a large part of the pandemic.”
Advertisements
COVID-19 factors have increased the average time its takes homeless shelter residents to find permanent housing from about 65 days to 85, Family Service CEO Julie Dees said. As one example, families are more reluctant to take in homeless relatives because of coronavirus worries, she added.
“Everything during the pandemic is more difficult and more stressful,” Dees said. “Multiply that by 100 for the homeless.”
It’s important to remain focused and committed because the homeless need help more than ever, Advocates for the Homeless and Those in Need program consultant Crystal Myers said. She consulted extensively with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other agencies on setting up masking, social distancing, cleaning and other protocols for the Code Blue Shelter.
Advertisements
“To give them (homeless) a sense of having somewhere warm, safe and secure to go, even if it’s just for a night, that is what keeps us going,” Myers said.
Report a correction via email | Editorial standards and policies
