COVID-19 could surge homelessness in Bradenton by summer. Is agency’s new leader ready?

There are a lot of unknowns when it comes to the long-term fallout of the novel coronavirus pandemic, but one possibility is a surge in the homeless population.

“We are fortunate that the government has seen that was going to be a problem so we have seen some funding come down for COVID-related homelessness,” said outgoing Turning Points Executive Director Adell Erozer, who announced her retirement on Tuesday.

Erozer said the Bill Galvano One Stop Center, 701 17th Ave. W., is already seeing an increase in first-time homeless people, “who have never had to ask for help before. But the surge hasn’t happened yet because many have their stimulus check or been able to work with family or work things out with their landlord, but that’s not going to last for two or three months.”

The federal government put eviction protections into the national CARES Act stimulus bill amid the pandemic, but those protections are due to expire in July.

“I think in late June to early July you’ll see that surge,” Erozer said.

Turning Points has put itself in a position to handle it by obtaining multiple COVID-19 relief grants. That funding will also pay for three new case managers and an additional veterans services case manager.

“When I started 15 years ago, the homeless were mostly men, transients and a few women who were sort of inhabiting 14th Street,” Erozer said. “So now it’s totally changed. We get about half women, half men, but the largest and fastest growing segment of the population are the homeless families.”

Erozer predicts it will be the struggling families who get hit the hardest by the pandemic and find themselves in need of Turning Points’ services.

“It looks a lot like the 2008 recession when we saw such a huge increase in the number of people facing homelessness,” she said. “It’s more and more people, especially families becoming homeless.”

Pandemic welcomes new Turning Points director

Incoming Executive Director Kathleen Cramer said the potential fallout from the pandemic has occupied much of the discussion between herself and Erozer since she arrived.

“We talked about how COVID is accelerating the potential for homelessness for families,” Cramer said. “When I first got here, Adell said she wished it was business as usual, but it’s not. So it’s about building on the foundation laid down already for COVID response. It’s not business as usual so we have to stay focused on COVID and being able to respond when an avalanche happens in late summer.”

Cramer said all focus is on that response and how Turning Points can provide needed services.

“We are doing that right now,” she said. “With compassion and care. In a way, it allows us to hyper focus and narrow down these areas.”

While funding is helping to increase staff, which will help to increase and expedite services, Erozer said the facility is in desperate need of younger volunteers.

“Our volunteers are typically an at-risk age group so we don’t want them coming in and putting themselves at risk,” Erozer said. “But I’m hoping for some of these younger people who aren’t working right now who can come in and help.”

Testing the homeless for COVID-19

Florida Senate President Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, successfully pushed for targeting the homeless for testing in Manatee County at the end of April and testing began a few days later.

Galvano secured 100 tests for Turning Points and about 23 homeless volunteered to be tested.

All 23 tested negative.

“It was going pretty well,” Erozer said. “Until some of them went through and then went over and told their friends what it was like. Some of them didn’t particularly like the swab up their nose so that put a damper on the number of people that came over.”

Turning Points will host another testing day in the near future and in the meantime, the agency is encouraging their clients to go to the county’s first walk-up testing site at Lincoln Park in Palmetto.

Though 23 tests is hardly a picture of what the pandemic is doing in the homeless community, it’s encouraging all 23 tests came back negative.

“The testing is really important,” Erozer said. “But I think we are getting a pretty good picture. If you look at the hot spots where COVID is, almost 50 percent are in the nursing homes and assisted living kind of situations. Unless these people are exposed to those people working in those environments, they really don’t have as much exposure.”

Erozer said a lot of businesses like popular gas stations have stopped allowing the homeless to use the bathrooms through the pandemic, “So they aren’t going to the places we all go to. As long as they stay in their own little realm like they have been doing, I think they have less risk than you might think.”

Erozer said that’s why it has been important that Turning Points remained opened through the pandemic.

“They don’t have too many places to go to have their basic needs met, which is why we have remained opened the whole time,” she said.

The future of Turning Points

If there is a silver lining within the pandemic when it comes to Turning Points it’s the additional funding, which includes a grant to implement a tele-health program and a focused vision on expanding services to help the homeless get off the streets and preventing homelessness for at-risk families.

Part of that approach that will be undertaken by Cramer is to organize the various homelessness groups to be better effective and not duplicate services already being provided. It has been a surprisingly daunting task over the years with many organizations providing similar services.

“The vision is how we provide these services to the community, and not just one neighborhood,” Cramer said. “So it’s definitely about growing services off site. It’s also trying to be smart with tele-health and mobile health, and partnering with other organizations is critical.”

Cramer said the duplication of services is wasting resources.

“We don’t want to duplicate services, we want to coordinate services,” Cramer said. “Things like COVID pushes us out of our comfort zone in accelerating those things not just during COVID, but into the future.”

Coordinating with other homeless organizations has been a challenge over the years, but Cramer isn’t shying away from the challenge.

“I’m the new kid to the community so I can use that to my advantage,” she said. “Why are we doing the same thing? I can ask that as the new kid. I can’t solve the problems of the city or county, but I partner well with others, so that’s where I’m going to start. I am not afraid to speak my opinion and to point out inconsistencies and duplication of services.”

Erozer said the pandemic has definitely presented an opportunity for all of the organizations to come together for a common good.

“One silver lining of the COVID situation, is that it has forced people to look at different ways of doing things and how we can do it better with limited resources and a large demand.”

Community perception of Turning Points

Most agree there is a need for Turning Points, but the location has long been a point of frustration for city leadership and others trying to develop the Ninth Street West corroidor.

Despite the obvious successes of Motorworks Brewing and Darwin’s Brewery and millions of dollars of investments into LECOM Field, the sight of homeless people gathering nearby continues to make some business owners shy about investing in the neighborhood’s future.

Turning Points, in turn, has continued to strive to be a good neighbor and will continue to do so. But there is a bigger picture for the community, Cramer said.

“First of all, homelessness is everyone’s problem,” she said. “I think businesses know that more than others. It’s important because it is a community issue. When we do better for the homeless and those at risk of being homeless, the community does better, the state does better so we are all lifted. That is the responsibility of a community, to lift one another up.”

Cramer said Turning Points is focused on expediting services in order to keep the on-site gathering at a minimum.

“Unfortunately people see some of the more mentally ill homeless and that’s difficult,” Erozer said. “But most understand that we have nowhere to put these people. If we want to solve the problem, we need their help, not their complaints.”