The social safety net is ripping

.. or so seems to be the case in our suburban area.

Events and their accompanying restrictions are moving quickly.  Two weeks ago, I was trying to remember to Purell before and after giving communion, and offering little waves during the Sign of Peace. By last week, masses had been shut down by the cardinal and we watched Sunday mass on television.  Now Illinois' governor has issued a stay-at-home order, and our parish buildings are locked to the public.

All private prayer opportunities, funerals, confession, rosaries, Stations of the Cross, the parish office, parish activities, council and commission meetings - it's all shut down.  The parish musical show is no longer able to rehearse.  The building and parking lot will basically be empty from now until April 7, and possibly - probably - a good deal later.

The one exception would seem to be our Outreach ministry.  That ministry began its current incarnation about 15 years ago as a St. Vincent de Paul Society, and over the years it has sprouted various branches, but the heart of it is a food pantry operation.  In his stay-at-home order, the governor humanely included food pantries on the list of essential services, so we have legal permission to continue operating.  Our ministry leadership team traded many emails with our pastor and staff over the last few days to work out the logistics of how we will operate during this time of stay-at-home.

During normal times, the ministry was open four days per week for several hours.  Clients would walk into the parish office, fill out an intake form, and a volunteer from the parish would attend to their needs.  The needs would vary somewhat depending on the client's specific circumstances, but the two major categories always have been people with homes and people without homes.  The former are apartment dwellers in our parish boundaries who need help with food and other financial obligations to make it to the next paycheck or public-assistance check.

The latter technically don't live in our parish boundaries because they are homeless, so simultaneously they live anywhere and nowhere.  A network of local churches (Catholic, Protestant and Evangelical) offer overnight homeless shelters which are staffed by church volunteers - who are at the top of my list of people who are storing up treasure in heaven.  According to a census conducted annually by one of the local social service agencies, there are several hundred persons experiencing homelessness in our suburban area.

The network of churches have consistent rules: the guests check in at 7 pm.  They are fed a hot supper.  They are given an opportunity to shower.  They are given a place to sleep (typically on the floor of the church's social center or gym).  In the morning, they are fed a breakfast.  Then they are sent out into the world with a sack lunch by 7 am.  Thus, these churches and their volunteers are a genuine lifeline for homeless persons: they are providing shelter for the night, food for a full day, some personal cleanliness, and safety for a few hours.

Our parish isn't one of the shelters, but we look to supplement the shelter network by providing additional assistance.  Typical needs we are able to satisfy are grocery store gift cards, and gas cards for those homeless folks who have automobiles. We also have provided McDonalds gift cards, which allow the clients to get  out of  the elements during the daytime (the clients are basically on their own during the daylight hours) and linger over a cup of coffee.

What I've described is what has prevailed during my time in the Outreach ministry over the last 15 years or so.  But today, when my wife and I worked an Outreach shift, we learned that this situation is changing rapidly - for the worse.

A number of homeless folks we worked with today told us that church shelters are closing.  Not all of them; but some of them.  Each church in the shelter network has a finite and limited number of sleeping slots available, so a typical evening would be covered by 2-3 churches.  But now some churches are closing down their shelters.  Undoubtedly, the chief reason is that pastors and church leaders have determined that having homeless persons sleeping in close quarters is too big of a COVID-19 risk.  Homeless populations are among the highest-risk demographics for the Coronavirus, because many homeless persons have underlying health issues and most of them receive substandard health care.  In addition, a high percentage of volunteers at shelters are seniors, many of whom understandably are declining to put themselves at risk during this crisis.

As these factors converge, the consequence for homeless clients is that there are fewer sleeping slots available to them from night to night.  I helped some clients today who had slept outside last night (it was quite cold in the Chicago area last night).  None of them were certain whether they'd be able to get into a shelter tonight.

Based on what I was being told today, more worrisome for them than the lack of shelter is the lack of food.  If they are not able to secure a shelter spot, they are at risk to miss a full day's worth of meals.  The clients I served today were more desperate for food than I've ever seen before.

In addition, a local Lutheran church which served breakfast and lunch on Saturdays for anyone who wished to come, served their last meals today.

The lack of daytime shelter for homeless folks also is becoming a big issue. Our homeless clients formerly could get out of the elements during the day by going into the municipal libraries, or into McDonalds or any other store that would put up with them. But the libraries all are closed, the McDonalds are drive-through and carryout only, and most other stores are closed down now.  Finding bathrooms during the day will be a major concern for them.

We also delivered food from our food pantry today to a 92 year old woman who lives in an apartment by herself and is unable to drive.  She relies on a Meals on Wheels service, provided by our local township, for most of her food.  She told us that Meals on Wheels is not delivering meals for the next two weeks (at least).

Our own ministry also has been adversely affected by the Coronavirus.  Most of our volunteers are seniors, and a number of them have elected not to serve clients during this time - and that's almost certainly the right decision; I could wish that all of the seniors would decide the same.  Consequently, we've had to cut down our service hours to one day per week, for three hours on Saturdays.

As of today, our food pantry still is pretty well-stocked.  But I don't know how long that will be the case; the food is donated by parishioners who bring food to mass with them on our monthly Sharing Sundays, and there are no Sharing Sundays anymore (or any other masses).  Not that the food pantry helps the homeless clients very much; grocery items are too bulky and heavy for them to carry around all day, and they have no way to prepare food.  But if our food pantry becomes depleted, it will be a blow to our other client profile - apartment dwellers who are barely staying afloat from month to month.  As the economy continues to slow down rapidly and the workers who work for "non-essential" services like restaurants, bars, hair salons et al are laid off, that population of barely-making-it apartment dwellers will grow, perhaps quickly. So demand for our food will grow at the same time that our supply of food diminishes and our service hours have been cut.

Employees of Catholic institutions may find themselves among the barely-making-it contingent (if they aren't already in that category).  According to the financials our parish publishes in its bulletin each week, two weeks ago (when we were still running a full schedule of Sunday masses), our weekly collection just about - not quite, but just about - met our weekly budget goal.  Then, last week, when the weekend masses were shut down, our collections accounted for only a third of our weekly budget.  We'll be laying off workers very soon if that trend prevails - as it surely will.

During the last couple of weeks, I've received solicitations from local restaurants, bars, theaters and others to please donate money for their workers, especially those who rely on tips for income.  Maybe government aid programs will help them in some way, and perhaps those of us who are fortunate enough to be working and don't really need a government handout will be willing to share ours with those in need.  If you find yourself in a position to help someone who is struggling, I would ask you to remember the homeless folks, for whom COVID-19 may turn out to be a terrible scourge; and also remember the burgeoning number of the barely-making-it.  Please help local shelters and food pantries.  Business is going to be distressingly good for them in the coming weeks and months.