Wheeler Mission expansion may provide COVID-19 pandemic relief

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Homeless shelters are bursting at the seams, and the coronavirus isn’t helping.

A Wheeler Mission project already in the works to expand the Center for Women and Children hopes to help relieve some of that burden if the pandemic continues.

Being homeless during a pandemic is reality for hundreds of people. The Wheeler Mission is doing what it can to help ease the burden, but it’s not quite enough … at least not yet.

Colleen Gore, executive vice president of women services at the shelter, said, “Many times in this process, we’ve said we wish we were already in that building because it just would have been a game-changer.”

COVID-19 has changed the look of emergency shelters and is forcing many to stretch resources. In a typical year by now, shelters would have started clearing out. With crowding, staff and people living in the shelter have to work together to ensure safety.

“We are still running winter contingency at the end of May, and the way that we have seen those numbers is we’ve stayed full,” Gore said.

Of an estimated 1,680 homeless, 580 are women, according to data from the shelter. Women make up the fastest-growing homeless population, and many of them have children.

The Center for Women and Children expansion project has been in the works for a while. While not ready yet, it could provide some relief in the pandemic lasts longer than expected.

“That will allow us to overall double our capacity. For women and children with an emergency shelter services, we are going to be able to triple our capacity,” Gore said, “which is really exciting because we’ve had high turn-away numbers for a very long time.”

The capacity improvements also could allow for better social distancing with increased privacy and personal space.