Eileen Hayes | CEO, Amos House
1. What changes have been instituted since the COVID-19 pandemic became an issue for Rhode Island? Amos House serves a community that traditionally has less access to options in food, housing and personal care. Our soup kitchen has not stopped or reduced meals provided. Quite the opposite. We have actually added an evening meal to our service. In order to offer the safest option for our community, we have moved to offering all meals to go, which greatly increases our costs. Our winter emergency shelter has been expanded to additional spaces … to allow for healthy distancing and has gone to 24/7 operations as people who are homeless have no safe place to spend the day.
2. Have you experienced an increase in requests for shelter as a result of the job losses related to this pandemic? The current moratorium on evictions and utility shutoffs has certainly helped the recently unemployed not become ... displaced. However, we know that the economic implications of this disaster will be long term and far-reaching. We anticipate that the need for housing and emergency assistance will skyrocket in the coming months.
3. How has the population served by Amos House changed over the past few years? Amos House continues to serve our most vulnerable citizens. In the past few years, we have seen a 15% increase in the number of individuals and families using our soup kitchen to supplement their income. Our shelter programs are providing recovery services to close to 200 men and women each year who are battling substance use and behavioral health disorders.
4. Even before the pandemic, you recently created an emergency shelter in your facilities. Can you explain what happened? There are nearly 4,000 men, women and children experiencing homelessness in Rhode Island. Each year, the state provides funding for winter shelter beds to meet the needs of [those] who are homeless and unsheltered in order to prevent hyperthermia. This year we saw an increase in the number of individuals and families that were unsheltered and staying in places not meant for habitation. When no other agency came forward, we stepped in and opened a winter shelter at our main campus at 460 Pine St. for up to 45 men and women.
5. Is there a lot of turnover in the individuals and families Amos House serves? Some of our guests come for a period of time to get a specific need met, while others have been eating in our soup kitchen and involved in our community for many years.
Mary MacDonald is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Macdonald@PBN.com.
