Thanks to the generous and swift support of our community, Housing Matters has been able to respond quickly and definitively to the coronavirus pandemic.

Here’s a recap of some of the actions we were able to take in the first month of the crisis:

  • – With City support, we closed Coral St. to all non-essential traffic, and it is now a one-way street for the few essential vehicles. We will use the additional street space for sheltering, staging, and other COVID-19 response purposes.
  • – We purchased and fully outfitted dozens of tents, 20 of which were deployed immediately to create proper social distance for current residents of the Paul Lee Loft. We have more tents waiting to be set up for shelter expansion. See below for a photo of our team setting up our new tents!
  • – We’re serving more meals to more shelter residents so they can more effectively shelter in place without leaving campus.
  • – We upgraded technology for staff working from home so clients don’t have any interruption in supportive services.
  • – To create more usable indoor space, we purchased a large shed to move the facilities team’s workshop to.
  • – Our biggest move: We purchased ten Pallet shelters, allowing us to pilot a sustainable and scalable format that we hope will allow for expansion of our current shelter capacity. They arrive tomorrow!

There’s more in the works. Stay tuned in the coming weeks, as we send out more in-depth updates on how your generosity is having an impact. Want to stay in the loop? Sign up for our newsletter here >