A few reflections on caring in the time of COVID-19.

This week, thousands of our friends and neighbors are harder at work than ever, reporting to their posts as health care professionals, first responders, and essential retail workers. As the executive director of a community-based non-profit organization, my staff and I are reporting to a different kind of front line – with our friends and neighbors who are facing this crisis while homeless.

Our street neighbors live precarious lives at the best of times, but in the upside-down world of COVID-19, many of the services they rely on are suddenly unavailable. Like many people, they are scared. But unlike many people, they are also scared and without shelter, scared and without running water, scared and without a kitchen where they can safely store and prepare food, scared and without a bathroom. Many of our street neighbors have no family they can rely on, which means social service agencies are their primary support network. That means that they are now scared and lonely, which can be a particularly deadly combination.

Many of our partner organizations have made the decision to close, which is certainly the right choice in most cases. Organizations that have closed their physical doors are still actively serving the community through critical advocacy, organizing, and coordination efforts. Our organization has made the decision to continue operating for now, though this is not an easy or obvious choice. For organizations that remain open, things look a bit different, to be sure. Everyone who enters our day center has their temperature taken and gets doused with hand sanitizer, and my staff have new uniforms that include gloves and masks.

With all possible precautions in place, we continue to open the doors of our community center to our neighbors who are experiencing homelessness, where we can provide shelter from the cold and rain, where we can greet our friends by name, and where we can provide some life-sustaining, essential comfort in a deeply challenging time. More than anything, we hope that our friends will know that they are still deeply cared for by our community, even if caring looks a bit different these days.

And when this crisis passes, I hope that we, as a city, will emerge with a deeper understanding of how homelessness isn’t just a problem for people experiencing it, but it’s a weakness in our social fabric that makes our entire community less resilient. I hope, when this is over, that we will be ready to talk not just about homelessness, but about permanent, safe, affordable housing.

Sherri Brokopp Binder, PhD

Sherri is a community psychologist and the executive director or Ripple Community Inc. Ripple Community Inc. operates the first permanent, community-supported affordable housing program in Allentown. Based on the Jubilee Housing Program in Washington, DC, the RCI Village provides safe, stable, affordable housing, and the supports and connections that residents need to achieve long-term housing - and life - stability.

Showing up in times of crisis

Hello Friends of RCI,

Our community center is open and operating during the COVID-19 crisis, as we know that many of our friends simply don’t have the option of staying home. We are so grateful to everyone who has reached out of the past week with offers to volunteer, donate, and generally care for our community members. As you can imagine, our staff is working very, very hard to make sure we can continue to serve our neighbors who are experiencing homelessness.

 We are all doing a lot more with a lot less, and the reality is that we may not be able to answer every phone call, text, and email that we receive. Please know, though, that we appreciate you more than ever, and we can absolutely use your help to get through this difficult time.

To help us better communicate, we have created a page on our website that list the items that we need at this time: https://www.ripplecommunityinc.org/covid-19-needs

If you can donate any of these items, we ask that you please drop them off at RCI during the hours that our community center is open (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 1-5pm, and Friday and Saturday from 11am – 1pm). We will keep this list updated as our needs change, so please check back regularly.

Thank you for all the ways that you support us, so that we can support our community.

Thanks to City Center Allentown!

RCI was recently featured in City Center Allentown’s Community Impact report!

Click here to view the video. We are grateful for City Center’s ongoing support of the RCI Village program, which provides safe, healthy, affordable housing for our most vulnerable neighbors.

It Takes a Village

Helping people who are homeless or low-income find housing stability is no easy task. There are many factors that cause people to have housing instability or lose housing. You can compare it to the game of Jenga. Sometimes you can lose or remove certain pieces of your life and not fall apart. But as the tower continues to lose more and more pieces, it becomes more and more unstable. Many people we encounter are living fragile and unstable lives. Once they lose that last piece holding them up, everything collapses and they are left picking up the pieces of their life.

At RCI Village, we try to piece that life back together. Our program combines permanent, affordable housing with wrap- around support in order to create stability and long-term success. So far, this model has proven effective. We know it takes a village for someone to be rooted in a community that allows them to flourish. We have seen the value and success in people’s lives when they have a community that cares for them and a safe place to live. The work of creating stability in a fragile world is not always easy, but we press forward knowing that the work we do is crucial in the lives of our village.