8 minute read
Metro
METROPOLIS
Sheltering from a Pandemic A multifaceted effort is underway to protect Fort Worth’s vulnerable homeless population from COVID-19.
BY EDWARD BROWN
Fort Worth’s homeless face two dire and potentially deadly risk factors for the COVID-19 disease. The chronically homeless are largely advanced in age, and they disproportionately suffer from chronic illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes, according to multiple offi
cials we spoke with who are now providing that vulnerable population with sanitary shelter space, food, and daily medical care.
Federal guidelines released last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) outlined how homeless individuals should be housed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Fort Worth’s homeless shelters were told that beds needed to be spaced 6 feet apart.
“That left 355 folks without a bed,” recalled Tara Perez, program manager for Directions Home, the city’s plan to address homelessness. She and her team worked with a large team of governmental groups, nonprofits, and JPS Health Network to provide emergency shelter inside the Fort Worth Convention Center.
Since opening on March 18, the temporary overflow shelter has housed 15,768 visitors with an average nightly occupancy of 329 guests, according to the city. To ensure homeless individuals outside the shelter systems are receiving help, the Tarrant County Homeless Coalition and JPS are tending to the needs of unsheltered individuals through outreach teams that provide COVID-19 screenings and hygiene supplies.
The main convention floor is now designated as a “wellness area,” said Bruce Frankel, executive director of the DRC (formerly Day Resource Center), a nonprofit that focuses on housing homeless individuals.
Static
Packing the Basement Thanks to social media, other news outlets, and undoubtedly me, The Basement Bar is sure to be packed whenever Gov. Greg Abbott says Texas bars are allowed to open their doors again. “Mid-May” is when he said he would like bar-bars to reopen, along with barbershops, hair salons, and gyms. The guv approved restaurants, retail stores, malls, movie theaters, and museums at 25% capacity a week ago. The humble little dive and sometimes venue at 105 W Exchange Av has become Ground Zero for the reopen-yesterday contingent. Across the country.
It all started a couple of weeks ago when the Stockyards watering hole posted on its Facebook page that the beer and shots would start flowing inside on May 1. May 1 came and went and no booze at the bar was served but not before social media saw about a million comments and news stories, including one in these pages (“Basement Bar Doubles Down on Opening May 1 Amid Pandemic,” April 22). The Basement Bar’s likes jumped. The detractors gnashed their teeth and beat their breasts as loudly as if speaking directly to Donald J. Trump himself. And the firestorm indeed had become political, with conservative commenters claiming it was their right to become exposed to a deadly virus and with the left saying, essentially, “It’s not you we’re worried about. It’s the people you’re going to infect that’s the problem.” The battle is still raging.
The drama about Michael Rapaport was the next evolutionary step. While the actor from Boston Public and Once Upon a Time in Queens claims he was hoodwinked into giving a video shoutout to the Basement Bar on April 30, the bar says otherwise. Later that day on Facebook, the bar said, “Thank you everyone for the support. We love all you guys and our City! Edit: Mikey Rapaport is being a pussy now cause all the dumbfuck haters conned him into believing the bar was opening illegally. Nope, the bar never said that. The post in question was posted a week before [Abbott’s] new orders. Bar posted it was opening AFTER the shutdown expires. Mike was told everything. Either way he’s one of the funniest humans on the planet and being cussed out by him is a honor.”
Fort Worth chef Damien Grober sided with the bar, posting the Rapaport video and saying, “This guy is rude. And he turned on a Fort Worth local business.”
Nearly 100 Facebook users had opinions on that. Most of them against Grober, but some for him, including someone named Amy: “This is totally bullshit. I can’t believe you guys are buying into this. No one was lied to. [Rapaport] knew exactly what he was getting into. In the end this will probably help the bar out and this POS will still be sitting on his couch waiting for the next bone to be thrown! He disrespected the Bar, Ft Worth, and most of all our Country. Just my opinion.”
A user named Nick was having none of Amy’s opinion, replying (perhaps in the spirit of May the 4th): “ignorant bullshit is strong in you, ain’t it.”
“Nick,” Amy wrote back, “your [sic] definitely a special kind of stupid!!!”
As evidenced by the soldiers of fortune populating Exchange on the day of the Basement Bar’s purported opening –– the bar says it simply mistakenly assumed Abbott would include bars like theirs among the establishments able to reopen –– the Basement Bar is going to be packed with a certain kind of customer from now until November 2020. And, undoubtedly, beyond. The Basement Bar ended one post quoting someone saying, “#Trump2020.” –– Anthony Mariani Clarification There was some confusion related to last week’s Metropolis (“Proceed with Caution”). To clarify, I am saying patronize restaurants but be safe about it. No need to take a selfie with a dozen other people or go around hugging friends you bump into. The restaurants will make sure their environs are spotless and the employees are dutifully hygienic. You can count on that. — A.M. Actor Michael Rapaport shouted out to the Basement Bar on April 30 but later redacted his support after allegedly learning the bar allegedly wanted to open before it was legal. Youtube.com
Member of the North Central Texas Farmers Market Corporation
Featured Farmer
Latte Da Dairy
Locally grown produce isn’t the only thing you’ll find at the Cowtown Farmers Market. Fresh cheeses from the area are also available year-round. And not just any cheeses, but locally produced goat cheese from Latte Da Dairy! Every batch is lovingly hand-made with milk from Nubian and LaMancha dairy goats raised on a small farmstead dairy located in Flower Mound, Texas. In addition to multiple cheese awards, Latte Da Dairy’s accomplished herd of goats have won numerous championship titles. The dairy can proudly say it produces “awardwinning cheeses from award-winning goats.”
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Saturdays 8 a.m. – Noon
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The emergency shelter operates daily from 4 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. All people who enter the building (guests and staff) are screened for symptoms of COVID-19 by JPS medical professionals.
“If you have no temperature, you are cleared to go and check in to a cot in the wellness center,” Frankel said. “If you do have a temperature, you are monitored in a secure area. If you appear to be sick, you are placed under observation for 14 days. If you are really sick, there are RVs in various areas that are secure where you can go for observation and testing.”
As of May 5, a city spokesperson said there is one person who is isolated for observation and no one is currently being isolated in an RV.
Anytime you have large groups of people gathered in one area, there’s an increased risk of spreading infections, Frankel said. Emergency shelter staffers provide guests with face masks. There are also sanitation stations readily accessible throughout the convention center.
After breakfast is served and homeless guests clear out for the day, Frankel said a crew thoroughly cleans every surface that someone may have come into physical contact with that day.
“We are working around the clock to keep the infection rates this low,” he said.
Perez said there hasn’t been an observed increase in the homeless population that can be traced to the COVID-19 outbreak. The economic fallout of the current crisis may take months to manifest as new numbers at homeless shelters. The county has not tracked the number of homeless people who have contracted COVID-19, according to Tarrant County Public Health.
The convention center is not a permanent solution. Perez said city officials are developing a plan to phase out the current emergency shelter as other housing/shelter options become available. We reached out to the city for details about that plan but have not heard back yet.
Perez said federal funds and new COVID-19-related federal funds will provide new resources for rapid rehousing efforts. If the CDC revises its spacing guidelines for beds in shelters, that may allow for the return of additional homeless individuals to other shelters like Presbyterian Night Shelter.
A city spokesperson said that city staffers are “working with the Tarrant County Homeless Coalition, along with other partners, to develop a safe and effective demobilization plan for the overflow shelter. Because of the fluid nature of this emergency, the plan is continually being reevaluated and adjusted. For now, we are continuing the operation as previously discussed.”
From what she has observed, Perez said, the city and county reacted quickly to protect the vulnerable homeless population.
“The city has a huge chain [of employees] working through our joint operation center,” she said. “To get everything in place with contracts, security, and food service, it was amazing how fast that was able to happen.” l
TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS AND PARTIES:
Issuance of Permit 160425
This application would authorize continued operation of an Automotive/Transportation Parts Surface Coating and Manufacturing Plant located at 10285 North Freeway, Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas 76177. Additional information concerning this application is contained in the public notice section of this newspaper.
TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS AND PARTIES:
Oldcastle Infrastructure, Inc., has applied to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for renewal of Registration No. 46822, for an Air Quality Standard Permit for Concrete Batch Plants, which would authorize continued operation of the Concrete Batch Plant located at 1100 Heritage Parkway, Mansfield, Tarrant County, Texas 76063. Additional information concerning this application is contained in the public notice section of this newspaper.
