The measure is necessary because in the dormitory-style men’s shelter, where people sleep in bunks 10 inches apart, “once it’s in the door it would blow up,” said Joseph Mettimano, the shelter’s president and chief executive.

AD

AD

The organization’s clients, whose average age is 50, are particularly vulnerable, he said. “The people we serve, many of them already have chronic health issues; many of them already have weakened immune systems.”

Its family ministry center across the street that serves 4,000 people a month will continue to provide food and clothes but is suspending its legal aid and education programs.

Mettimano said he had been in touch with the District’s Department of Human Services about what to do if the virus gets into a shelter. “D.C. was trying to gear up centers where homeless people can go for treatment, quarantine, et cetera. We’re not doctors, we’re not a medical facility, so we don’t have the ability to diagnose or address” the disease.

AD

The department did not respond to a request from The Washington Post for information about its planning.

AD

Mettimano said he had been in meetings all week, trying to plan for different scenarios. “If your staff get it too, what do you do?” he said. “What’s the nuclear option?”

So Others Might Eat, an organization on O Street NW that provides over 1,000 meals a day to people in need, has begun serving cold breakfasts and lunches in bags rather than plates of hot food, to reduce face-to-face contact between staff and clients, most of whom are homeless.

The measure is also necessary because volunteers have been canceling shifts, said Kate Wiley, director of marketing and communications. The organization’s medical clinics will stay open; its job training program will not, she said.

AD

St. Matthew’s Cathedral on Rhode Island Avenue NW said it would suspend its Monday morning hot buffet breakfasts, at which 20 volunteers typically serve 60 people, most of them homeless.

AD

“We thought it would not be safe to have everyone together in the place where we hold the meetings,” said the Rev. John Benson, the parochial vicar. “So what we decided is we will do it outside, with lunches in bags.”

Volunteers’ enthusiasm had not flagged since the virus hit, he said, but the restriction was necessary to protect them. “A lot of our volunteers are an older, vulnerable population, and also many of the homeless people.”

A Wider Circle, a Silver Spring organization that provides household items, job counseling and other services, said it would close for 15 days starting Saturday as a preventive measure, although it knew of no coronavirus cases in its community.

AD