Boise Community Partners Take Lead On Providing Essential Services To Vulnerable Community

Press release from the City of Boise:

Our Path Home, the public-private partnership working to end homelessness in Ada County, anchored by the City of Boise and several key homeless service providers, is working in partnership with Ada County’s emergency shelters to provide necessary, urgent services to vulnerable community members. Although homelessness, and the health and safety needs this population experiences, is not new, the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic amplifies the risks. To ensure that the pandemic does not disproportionately impact people experiencing homelessness, Our Path Home, alongside local shelters, including Interfaith Sanctuary, the Boise Rescue Mission and Corpus Christi House are taking immediate steps to ensure continuity of services and augment resources.

• On Thursday, March 25, Corpus Christi House and Interfaith Sanctuary will modify their service delivery to better align with COVID-19 mitigation strategies while still offering necessary services, including access to meals, hygienic services (bathrooms, handwashing, showers and laundry) and mail.
• Our Path Home has secured an emergency stop gap, 30 hotel rooms for families with children and the elderly/medically fragile at a local hotel.
• Our Path Home is working with its partners, including Family Medical Residency of Idaho, the hospital systems and Ada County Paramedics, to bring screening, evaluation and testing via a mobile site to the shelters and the unsheltered population.
• Our Path Home is seeking funders to augment homeless prevention efforts to ensure households do not fall into homelessness for a COVID-related reason: illness, caretaking, reduced work hours, unemployment, etc.
• There is a quarantine and isolation plan in place with local shelters in Ada County, led by the Boise Rescue Mission. All efforts and service delivery are currently modified to accommodate social distancing recommendations to the extent possible while still providing for the basic needs of those experiencing homelessness. “I have been tremendously encouraged by the commitment and focus of Our Path Home’s community partners, particularly the leadership demonstrated by our emergency shelters, to continue to provide for our clients at the time they need these services the most,” said Maureen Brewer, Our Path Home Administrator. “The ability for us to rally the troops to adjust in real time to this developing situation is critical to keep our most vulnerable Ada County residents as safe as possible. Our Path Home’s belief is that housing is health – that is truer today than ever before.”

“Interfaith Sanctuary and our homeless service partners are learning and adjusting to the new needs and challenges set before us daily. Thanks to the strong relationships between our agencies serving the homeless and our commitment from the City of Boise those challenges are being met with rapid solutions and support. During these difficult times we are proud to be working alongside such a dedicated team of partners. It takes a village and we are blessed with one of the best,” said Jodi Peterson-Stigers, Executive Director of Interfaith Sanctuary.

The nearly 50 partner agencies of Our Path Home work together to shelter and provide housing and services for those experiencing homelessness in our community. For more information on Our Path Home, please visit www.ourpathhome.orgFor more information on Interfaith Sanctuary, please visit www.interfaithsanctuary.org

This press release was produced by the City of Boise. The views expressed here are the author’s own.