Due to COVID-19, Father Joe’s Villages faced the dual challenges of an increased demand for services while also needing to reduce our capacity to allow for physical distancing. As a result, we decreased the number of beds offered in several of our shelters to increase spacing. At the same time, we worked with public entities to create an additional safe, sanitized facility in order to move more individuals off the street overall.

At Operation Shelter to Home in the San Diego Convention Center, we provided comprehensive services to neighbors occupying 486 beds. Through these efforts, we were able to add over 140 beds to our shelters and keep COVID-19 cases to a minimum.

Additionally, starting in March 2020, finding food became more difficult for people living on the street as fewer restaurants were providing food and smaller providers closed their meal programs. During the height of the COVID-19 crisis, we expanded our food services to new locations and added new community meal times through the Franklin Antonio Public Lunch Program to meet the growing need and hunger we were seeing in San Diego.

At Father Joe’s Villages, we are always in a heightened state of preparedness for serious health issues. People on the streets don’t have easy access to preventative hygiene practices, such as handwashing and sanitation. They also don’t have a safe place to recover if illness is contracted, and live in close and often unsanitary conditions in encampments, in canyons and on streets. Even more critically, our neighbors are at higher risk of negative health effects due to an added layer of health challenges, including compromised immune systems and pre-existing chronic illnesses.

For these reasons, in 2020, the Village Health Center worked harder than ever, providing 30% more services than in 2019. In addition to continuing to provide critical medical, dental and behavioral health services, the Village Health Center provided thousands of screenings and tests to proactively identify possible symptoms of COVID-19 and mitigate the risk of spread. We offered health care, screening and testing on-site to thousands of residents staying in the Convention Center shelter.

Additionally, Village Health Center leadership provided consultation to the City, County, HUD, and the CDC on best practices for serving people who are homeless during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under normal circumstances, children experiencing homelessness face far greater challenges in achieving success in school and life than children who are housed. So, in 2020 when most San Diego schools began limiting classroom education, leaders at Father Joe’s Villages worried that the stay-at-home orders would even further widen the educational divide between homeless and housed children. Families overcoming homelessness face additional challenges with online learning such as the inability to access necessary resources, tumultuous work environments and inadequate academic support.

That’s why, when Therapeutic Childcare was forced to close due to State restrictions from March to May, our team of Childcare Specialists continued to provide daily safe touch points with children and families staying in our Joan Kroc Center shelter. Therapeutic Childcare delivered nearly 1,100 family activity kits during the pandemic providing meaningful educational and engagement opportunities for children. They also checked-in daily to ensure the developmental and behavioral health of the children and provide parenting support while families sheltered-in-place.

Additionally, Father Joe’s Villages created a Distance Learning Lab to support critical educational opportunities for the over 150 school-age children we serve in our shelters. Through the Lab, we offer technology tools, including Wi-Fi, devices and ear buds, supplies, and an Educational Coordinator to assist with technology and offer educational resources.

To protect the safety of neighbors in need and adhere to state guidelines, the Employment & Education Services (EES) Resource Center and Computer Lab was closed intermittently throughout the year. However, the EES team quickly transitioned to phone- and computer-based services, connecting with clients daily to support their job search efforts.

Additionally, in light of increased unemployment rates, EES staff shifted their focus to helping neighbors secure jobs in growing industries, including security, cleaning and sanitation in the business sector, custodial and cafeteria work in hospitals, and packaging and delivery.

Our Culinary Arts Program began teaching students about commercial meal preparation and packaging in the Joan Kroc Center kitchen. The meals produced from these lessons were frozen and distributed to people living in our affordable and supportive housing programs.

Throughout the pandemic, Chaplaincy provided non-denominational services every Sunday evening and Catholic Mass every Wednesday and on the first Sunday of each month, without exception. Chaplaincy also provided a non-denominational service every Wednesday night at the Convention Center.