All of this changed dramatically as soon as the COVID-19 pandemic hit in the spring of 2020. While social distancing can be an inconvenience to those who are more comfortably situated within our communities, for those who are isolated, abandoned and otherwise left for dead by both governmental bodies and social services, this kind of enforced distancing can be absolutely death-dealing.
During the pandemic, everyone has suffered in some way, but the most vulnerable, to say the most oppressed, suffer in ways that are unbearable, humiliating and extremely painful. As one woman who came to our space early on in the pandemic said to one of our coordinators, with tears in her eyes, “You are my last hug.”
First off, overnight at SafeSpace, we were no longer able to host community members within our small space. Instead, we were only able to offer a very brief, socially distanced peer contact with community members outside of our space, in the parking lot, with no privacy or shelter from weather.