Alvaro Salas, VOA-Greater New York Sector Director who oversees SAS, began working around the clock with his team to change the configuration of beds, establish isolation rooms, keep the facility disinfected, distribute PPE, and—the biggest task of all—coordinate the relocation of approximately 100 clients to an emergency hotel.

Within just a few days, hundreds of decisions needed to be made. Which clients were independent enough to be placed there and what to do about existing locks on the hotel room doors (a safety hazard as staff needed to be able to access rooms to check on clients). Alvaro set up contracts for food delivery, but had to figure out how to store the food. He had to decide whether metal detectors or additional security cameras were needed.

At the same time, usual operations at SAS had to continue. Suddenly, there were two sites and the same number of staff.

Although fear was high across the city because nobody yet fully understood the virus, the team at SAS showed up day after day, despite the risks to their health.

New clients would arrive in need of a bed for the night, sometimes by the busload at 2AM, especially after the City instituted a nightly shut down of the subway system for cleaning. Staff attended to their immediate needs—food and a place to sleep—all while managing heightened anxiety and focusing on keeping everyone safe.

At one point, the entire SAS maintenance team became sick and an emergency cleaning company had to be brought in. And when public schools closed, childcare became an issue for many of our staff. But we still needed to keep our doors open around the clock.

At times it felt like the challenges and setbacks during the pandemic were endless. But through it all, the team at SAS is proud to say that there were no deaths and the COVID-19 positivity rate remained very low compared to the city’s numbers overall.

‍This is the true definition of heroism. This is what it means to be “essential.”

And every night, as the city clapped for essential workers at 7PM, our staff knew they weren’t in it alone. We were all in it together.

A mere week after schools closed, they had adapted all lesson plans and moved classrooms online—ahead of many public schools, despite the learning curve associated with the technology. Teachers prepared at-home activity packages and purchased school supplies with their own money for families who couldn’t afford them, hand delivering them during quarantine. The school nurse remembers when the sibling of a student was admitted to the ICU. She spoke to that parent every single day for two weeks, reassuring her.

When the Thanksgiving Feast was cancelled—a beloved annual event that creates connection and celebrates the diversity of the BELC students and staff—everyone at the school was disappointed. To keep the tradition alive and spread a little joy, staff put together a crowd-sourced recipe book, full of all the dishes that families would have otherwise made and shared in-person.

With COVID tests still scarce, George was never formally diagnosed, but staff suspected he had the virus as they learned more about its presenting symptoms. Erring on the side of caution, each time he returned to Rose House they asked him to isolate and George complied.

Staff were ready to keep George as comfortable as possible, physically and emotionally. They checked in on him daily and lined up a meal delivery service through the City’s emergency food program. They even brought him his favorite homemade chicken soup from a takeout place down the street. They made trips to the pharmacy and ran other errands, whatever he needed.

When George finally recovered, he felt touched that the staff would care for him like they did.  It made him realize that he was not alone and that it was ok for him reach out for help, especially in times of crisis.

Today, George is much more engaged with staff and—for the first time since living at Rose House—has expressed how appreciative he is to be there. He is grateful to VOA-Greater New York for supporting him during one of his most vulnerable and difficult times.

Linda knew what she had to do but the decision to abandon everything she knew—everything she had worked so hard to achieve—was difficult. Finally, in June 2020, she picked up her daughter from school and went straight to one of VOA-Greater New York’s emergency shelters for families escaping domestic violence.

At first Linda and her daughter struggled to adjust to life in the shelter where they shared a room with another young woman. “I cried a lot,” Linda explained. “It was all so new.”

She found it difficult to talk about her experience in the shelter’s support group but VOA-Greater New York staff were patient and helped Linda become more comfortable. They also strongly encouraged her to attend therapy. Eventually she agreed.

Little by little, thanks to the tremendous compassion and support shown by VOA-Greater New York staff, Linda began to feel a sense of peace and hope for her future. Staff began to see a positive change in her too.

Linda turned her focus toward obtaining safe, stable housing for herself and her daughter. Although she initially feared she would have to navigate the process alone, Linda’s VOA-Greater New York case manager was right by her side every step of the way, willing to do whatever was necessary to help Linda regain her independence.

One day Linda came across a beautiful two-bedroom apartment for rent. It was clean, within budget and a safe distance from her abuser. But the landlord didn’t want to rent to Linda. He kept asking for more and more documentation to prove she was trustworthy and could pay rent.

Disheartened, Linda felt ready to give up.

Her case manager dropped everything to help Linda obtain all the documents the landlord asked for, even writing a letter of reference advocating for the family. The requests were relentless, but her case manager persisted.

Eventually, that persistence paid off and Linda and her daughter were approved for the apartment.

Linda still drops by the shelter from time to time to pickup her mail and update VOA-Greater New York staff on their progress. Shortly after moving, Linda sent a thank you card to staff, expressing her gratitude for the care they received. VOA-Greater New York staff gave Linda and her daughter hope when they thought there was none and helped put them on the path to a better future.

*Name and image changed for privacy.

Matthew, who is in his thirties, lives with autism spectrum disorder and severe anxiety. At the beginning of the pandemic, he was terrified to leave Grasslands Shelter in Westchester, the place he called a temporary “home” while issues with his benefits were being resolved. Matthew struggled with life in shelter but enjoyed taking walks outside which helped to calm him. But when the pandemic hit, Matthew became too fearful to venture outdoors. This became a big problem when an important off-site, in-person housing appointment was scheduled and Matthew refused to attend, putting his housing case at risk of being closed. Knowing Matthew would be without a stable, permanent home for even longer if his case was not approved, the entire Grasslands team got to work, patiently convincing Matthew to go with them to the appointment—and he eventually did.

In the months that followed, staff continued to accompany Matthew to future appointments, no matter how busy their own schedules were. Thanks to their support, Matthew was back on track with his housing case and was able to get his benefits reactivated. He even relaxed enough to resume his daily walks outside the shelter.

While Matthew’s needs were more extreme, many VOA-Greater New York staff simply tried to bring a sense of normalcy to clients’ lives. At programs including Richard F. Salyer House, one of our affordable, supportive housing programs in Manhattan, Recreation and Front Desk staff brightened common areas with seasonal decorations, and put together activity books with crosswords, sudoku puzzles and coloring pages for residents young and old.

And at Regent Family Residence, our transitional homeless shelter in Manhattan, Recreation staff organized a special graduation celebration for students and families via Zoom, complete with awards delivered door-to-door to help make the occasion memorable. They weren’t going to let the pandemic diminish that exciting accomplishment.

The Wells Fargo Foundation made a gift to help with our COVID-related expenses including PPE and temporary staff. Allen & Overy ensured the food pantries at our family shelters were stocked for residents who couldn’t get to the store or were too fearful to go outside. Bronx Community Board 9 donated food to residents at Commonwealth Veterans Residence, and thanks to an introduction by RIVER Fund, Feed the Frontlines NYC has delivered more than 40,000 nutritious, chef-prepared meals to staff and clients at ten of our programs, relieving them of a worry and showing them the community cares.

New and returning partners pivoted with us as our community service campaign Operation Backpack® was totally upended by the pandemic, forcing us to purchase hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of school supplies normally collected and donated by the community. It would have been easy to say “not this year" but thanks to gifts from Trinity Church Wall Street and long-time partners Murex and Select Equity, as well as Duane Reade/Walgreens and their customers, we were able to meet the needs of all 16,000 students who needed a backpack and school supplies. RXR Realty once again donated prime warehouse space to use as a sorting space for this campaign.

As students struggled with remote learning, further challenged by the lack of a reliable internet connection, the "digital divide" became even more apparent. Thanks to contributions from the Arman Roy Foundation, staff created WiFi-enabled learning pods at our domestic violence shelter in Brooklyn. We’re now working with Concordia Foundation to set up pods at our domestic violence shelter in Manhattan.

We were also able to purchase assistive learning technology benefiting children with developmental delays at our Bronx Early Learning Center thanks to funding from the Joseph LeRoy and Ann C. Warner Fund.

Grants from the Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation and the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation this year allowed us to hire a Wellness Coordinator and soon we will hire social workers for our newest residential facility for older adults, East Clarke Place Senior Residence. The New York Community Trust funded our outcomes evaluation work, made possible in part from a bequest from LuEsther Mertz. And a grant from the Northfield Bank Foundation will allow us to purchase much-needed furniture and iPads needed for telehealth appointments for our supportive housing program in East New York.