A ‘community safety net.’ Give the gift of space to our homeless populations this winter.

These are the most unusual and unsettling times ... a virus has taken over how we eat, pray and live. Changes upend all things we consider part of the rhythm of our community and replace them with the unknown. For the homeless community and those of us who provide them shelter, the ordinary challenges have been replaced with the extraordinary need for more space for social distancing, more and different supplies for their protection, restriction of the loving hearts and service of volunteers who are a lifeline for our ministry of the Catholic Action Center.

Thank God the pandemic hit when winter was waning and the weather was warming. We were able to decrease the number in our congregate setting and keep the virus at bay. All of Lexington’s providers prayed that by winter the virus would be under control and services could go back to “normal”: the Catholic Action Center Community accepting up to 200 men and women on the dangerously cold nights, the Compassionate Caravan rounding up folks in the cold to come to the safety and warmth of our Gathering Room, the HOPE Center and Salvation Army shelters overflowing.

But now we are facing the COVID-19 Winter of 20-21 where packing folks in the shelters may save them from freezing only to expose their often compromised immune systems to the risk of illness or even death due to the virus. So our only way to love and protect them is to continue to limit the number of those we can shelter. The Mother Teresa COVID-19 Shelter is a temporary addition we are adding to our facility but this will not be enough space for our “normal” winter needs much less the imminent, dire situation we are facing with the quadruple threat of cold weather, the flu season, COVID-19 and more people becoming homeless due to the virus.

That means we need the community to help provide the basic human need of shelter this winter.

Now is the time for faith communities, businesses and community groups to develop plans to make available a few emergency housing spaces in their church, community center, or by renting a house or apartment or a motel room for those who won’t fit in the shelter system. It may be messy, it may be a big ask of any group, but now is the time to step up and stretch out the safety net together.

The 20+ years of the Catholic Action Center ministry is a testament to our community’s compassion and faith in action with over 7.5 million meals and 2.1 million nights of shelter given with no government funding but with the gift of our community’s passionate caring, compassion and donations. Government programs are also essential; our LFUCG does amazing work to address the unprecedented needs, but we cannot expect government services to fill all the gaps that arise.

We must not abdicate our personal responsibility to our neighbors who are facing the triple threat of the winter months. Lexington is a creative, caring and compassionate community: Now is the time to determine which stitch in the safety net you or your group can give to avert the suffering and loss this coming winter will bring to those without housing. It is an opportunity to rise up together and weave the safety net that will protect our children, families, sisters and brothers with shelter during the upcoming COVID-19 winter. No government or group can do it alone, but together, Lexington, we can make a difference.

The question we will all face on frigid nights this COVID winter is:” Did we do our part to insure that no one is left without shelter? “ If we can all answer yes, then we will be able to sleep well in our warm beds knowing that we will get through this together.

Take action and email safetynet2021@gmail.com.

Ginny Ramsey is executive director of the Catholic Action Center.