Can you tell us more about Pine Street Inn?
Founded in 1969, Pine St Inn is New England’s largest homeless services provider. We serve over 2,000 people daily and we provide services including emergency shelter, permanent supportive housing, outreach, and workforce development/job training. For our emergency shelters, we provide beds for about 700 guests and 850 tenants in our 40+ housing locations around Boston. We have 550 full-time and part-time staff members, 250 of whom work front line.
At Pine St Inn we have a “housing first” model, where our ultimate goal is to end homelessness by making permanent housing a reality for all. During COVID-19, we know and see that by providing housing, we truly are providing healthcare.
How has COVID-19 affected your workplace?
We are still fully functional during COVID-19. We had to hire a deep cleaning service, install additional hand washing stations, sanitizing stations, increase the amount of space between beds for proper social distance, and we put up plexiglass in between tables and office spaces. When the city shut down in March 2020, we had to shut down our volunteer services as well…we definitely still have a need for volunteers especially in our food services operations (kitchen meal prep, service). A lot of our full-time and part-time staff, myself included, were re-deployed to fill these gaps. We now have small groups of volunteers coming back to help out on-site and other volunteers who are helping us out virtually and helping out in different ways, which we are so thankful for.
Between May to July 2020, we were able to partner with the City of Boston to secure additional housing by utilizing the Suffolk University dorms. It allowed our medically marginalized and immunocompromised guests to avoid overcrowding and ensure proper social distancing. Recently we were also able to partner with 891 Mass Ave to secure a one-year lease and provide additional space/housing for our tenants.
We were able to provide universal COVID testing to all of our guests starting in April, and we tested every two weeks. We had a 36% positivity rate in April, and slowly but surely, we saw that rate decline to 25%, then 10% then 1% in July... we currently have a 0% positivity rate for 15 weeks.
How did you first hear about the Boston Area Mask Initiative?
At the beginning of COVID-19 in March 2020, there was such a need for masks and it was so difficult to find and get masks. My colleagues and I were using our own personal social media outlets to find masks for Pine St Inn and we placed a call to action for masks. We heard about the Boston Area Mask Initiative (BAMI) and we requested about 2,000 masks, and BAMI was one of the first organizations that reached out in a few days and supplied our needs. It was a very quick turnaround time and we are so thankful.
How did you first get involved at Pine St Inn?
I moved to Boston three years ago to be part of the Peace Corps and I stayed to pursue my Master’s in Public Health. I’ve always been a social justice warrior and advocate for civic engagement. I applied to Pine Street Inn and I was a complete novice to Boston and Pine Street Inn’s impact on the city but I fell in love with their mission statement and the organization. We want to set up our tenants and guests for success and fulfill their basic hierarchy of needs (food, shelter, and other issues) and when I see that happen in front of my eyes, I’m so glad to be able to do my part to engage and help others.
How have the masks been distributed at Pine St?
We have distributed the reusable cloth masks from BAMI to our guests and tenants as well as staff members here. The masks are wonderfully made and it's a joy to see all the different patterns, it's definitely a source of joy when we receive a requested batch! The guests and tenants love it. We still have a need for masks and we are so grateful for your mask-making efforts!
Any last thoughts?
Permanent supportive housing is a true public health issue, and during COVID-19, to be able to have housing and be socially distant is something that we hope everyone can have.
