SAVE THE DATE Couples’ plans postponed as vendors brace for industry impacts amid COVID-19 P10
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April 9, 2020
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COVID-19 tests not widely available COVID-19 testing may be free for many, but access remains limited BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
home,” Sims said. The situation is heartbreaking to groups who provide services to people with nowhere else to go. “We’re grieving that we can’t open,” said LynnAnn Huizingh, the executive director of the Severe Weather Shelter Network. The group partners with churches in the Denver suburbs to shelter unhoused people on cold nights, providing a hot meal, companionship, and a warm, dry place to sleep. But many of the group’s volunteers are over 50 and at greater risk from the virus, and partner churches are closed. When a late-winter squall blew in during the first week of widespread closures, the network was unable to open shelters to the multitudes it normally serves.
Nearly a month into the spread of COVID-19 through Colorado, testing for the illness is prioritized for healthcare workers, hospitalized patients, and a long list of other vulnerable groups. At the bottom of the list: most everyday people who end up with symptoms and aren’t seniors. As testing kits and the protective equipment needed to apply them continue to be scarce, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reminded state residents that at-risk individuals need to be first in line. “We are working hard to get the supplies and capacity to move to broader public testing, but until then our message remains the same: if you have only mild symptoms, self-isolate and don’t wait for a test,” Scott Bookman, incident commander for the department, said in a March 30 news release. The state recommends that healthcare providers prioritize testing in this order: • Hospital patients and health-care workers.
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Brandy Sims beside the car she and her husband live in beside the South Platte River. Like many people without homes, Sims has seen her meager amenities dry up as widespread closures shut off access to everything from showers to power outlets. DAVID GILBERT
Stay-at-home orders create crisis for those without home Widespread closures spell danger for people living on the streets BY DAVID GILBERT DGILBERT@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Brandy Sims just wants to take a shower. “A woman wants to keep clean,” said Sims, 41. “I’d go without food if I could just wash my hair.” She and her husband have been sleeping in their car beside the South Platte River, in a makeshift camp of tarp-draped RVs, for the past couple weeks. Sims and her husband wound up homeless after a series of bad turns, culminating in car repairs that left them broke.
“We could take showers at the rec center, but it’s closed,” Sims said as her husband tinkered with the car’s broken heater. “So are the churches. We could freshen up at the library or McDonald’s, but that’s gone too.” With the vast majority of public amenities shut down amid the COVID-19 pandemic, people living on the streets have seen their meager support systems dwindle. With stores and restaurants shut, access to bathrooms is scarce. Without libraries, accessing the internet — where the vast majority of information about a world-shaking crisis is being disseminated — becomes difficult. Power outlets to charge cell phones are rare. Food pantries are overwhelmed. Many day and overnight shelters are closed. “A stay-at-home order is hard to deal with when you don’t have a
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