
WILMINGTON — The City of Wilmington, New Hanover County, and the United Way will contribute $25,000 to secure hotel rooms in the region to help house the homeless population during the Covid-19 outbreak.
On Monday afternoon, Mayor Bill Saffo announced the effort to try and ‘help the most vulnerable.’ The entities are working with three different hotels to help house those without shelter, mainly women with children as well as those with underlying medical conditions and pregnant women.
Saffo said the effort is to ensure the safety of these individuals during the crisis and to avoid the potential spreading of the virus throughout the homeless population.
“We won’t tell you where the hotels are to keep that anonymous for the privacy of the individuals who will be staying there,” Saffo said.
Dr. Phillip Brown, Chief Physician of New Hanover County Regional Medical Center, spoke during the brief Facebook live video.
“This is incredibly important from a medical standpoint … it has to be a no person left behind philosophy, or else the disease will continue to spread inside and outside of our community,” he said.
Katrina Knight, director of the Good Shepard Ministry, said that this effort will help her organization along with the Salvation Army provide resources to the homeless while practicing social distancing.
Right now, Good Shepard is housing 100 men, women, and children at the homeless shelter.
“This will go a long way in helping us reduce our numbers both at Good Shepard and Salvation Army, so we can continue to care for our single gentlemen there but allowing our ladies, our families with children to receive food and case management in a motel setting …” she said.
Saffo did not mention where the money for this initiative would come from in regards to the city’s portion, nor does it appear the city council actually voted on this intuitive. Saffo did say the county would be voting on the initiative today.
You can watch Saffo’s address to the city here.