The weekly schedule is on display at the Bridge House Ready to Work facility in Aurora. Photo by Ilya Melnikov/Special to Sentinel Colorado 
Lamont Williams, left, and Greg Epps get dinner prepared for the evening at the Bridge House. Photo by Ilya Melnikov/Special to the Sentinel 
Site of the Ready to Work program by the Boulder-based non-profit organization, Bridge House.Photo by Philip B. Poston/Aurora Sentinel 
The dining and recreation area at the Bridge House in Aurora. Photo by Philip B. Poston/Sentinel Colorado
AURORA | Brian Arnold spent 14 nights sleeping on a blow-up mattress in his office hoping neither he nor any other trainees living at the Aurora Ready to Work facility would suddenly come down with a headache, fever and dry cough, the most prevalent symptoms of COVID-19.
Four positive cases had already been associated with the program, which houses people experiencing homelessness and provides them with work training and experience, when the two week quarantine began.
Two of the positive cases, a trainee and a staff member, died.
The first positive case of the virus prompted the congregate living facility to shut its doors and quarantine for the recommended two weeks.
Arnold, the program director at Ready to Work’s Aurora location on South Peoria Court, said he made the choice to stay in his office — on the top floor of an old office building near Nine Mile Station that has been transformed into a 50-bed homeless service provider — because his wife is immunocompromised.
Nobody left during that time, he said. Groceries and cigarettes were delivered to the curb in the parking lot. “We took it really seriously.”
In 17 days, nobody else has shown symptoms of the novel coronavirus, which has proven to be particularly deadly in older adults. Across all age groups, Colorado surpassed 300 deaths on Monday.
The 32 residents at Ready to Work held memorials for the two people who died, which happened in the span of two days, Arnold said.
Fiscally, Bridge House, the Boulder-based organization that operates Ready to Work there and in Aurora, has fared like many other small businesses.
“The blessing and the curse is that we do so many things in one. Ordinarily that is a huge asset. We have the housing and the jobs and the support services together, and that is the reason we are able to get the solid outcomes that we do,” said Director Isabel McDevitt. “But in this COVID-19 outbreak we’ve been affected basically in three different ways.”
There’s been a dramatic decline in the catering business that’s run by trainees. There are also the obvious health and safety challenges that come with a congregate living facility where partitions divide bedrooms like cubicles.
“This is peoples’ home,” Arnold said. “I can’t expect them to sleep with a mask on.”
On top of that, there’s the increased need in wrap-around services, McDevitt said. Many of the trainees have PTSD, have experienced trauma or mental health issues and receive counseling. More of that’s needed in tumultuous times.
Trainees have continued working, she said, but at reduced hours.
“Our financial model has been impacted… and we are covering that reduction with donations and our reserves, but nobody has been at risk of homelessness,” McDevitt said.
There haven’t been any staff layoffs so far.
McDevitt highlighted partnerships in the community that have helped the organization throughout the last two-and-a-half weeks. When the trainee died, the city of Aurora hadn’t yet contracted with an unnamed hotel to provide a place for the city’s homeless to isolate or recover from COVID-19. Still, McDevitt said the man was able to be moved from the facility immediately in order to prevent the spread of the virus. Now, the designated hotel would certainly be an option for Ready to Work, McDevitt said.
There have been more calls for empty hotels across the state to house the state’s homeless.
“As I addressed the public on April 6, in these dark times, we all have a light to shine. And now we are asking Colorado hotels and motels to shine their light and rise to the challenge by entering agreements to temporarily house one of our state’s most vulnerable populations. You have empty rooms and many of our cities have potential guests. A match made in heaven,” Gov. Jared Polis wrote in an open letter to hotel owners this week encouraging them to work with local governments.
Arnold said he drove the man to an urgent care after his symptoms worsened after a tele-doc call.
“All of a sudden he was on a ventilator,” he said.
Nobody has tested positive for the virus at the organization’s Boulder program. The Aurora facility has been fumigated, McDevitt said. The organization also purchased a disinfectant fogger that could possibly turn into a business, she said.
Despite the loss and uncertainty, there are glimmers of hope.
“It’s been really terrible, and obviously it’s important to say that everyone is subject to this (virus),” McDevitt said. “…This has been a really challenging time but I’m very, very, very grateful for our team and our partners. It’s just a time where people need to support each other.”
Arnold’s wife made masks for everybody at Ready to Work and hand-washing has been key, just like everywhere else. Even before quarantining, trainees weren’t taking public transportation. They were being driven to work and grocery stores, Arnold said. Hand sanitizer is ubiquitous.
Some people in the Aurora program were able to leave and find housing with a family member. That’s created a bit more space in the 22,000 square-foot building that typically sleeps some four dozen people.
The experience has been a real lesson in being selfless, Arnold said. To that he’s grateful for his time sleeping on his office floor.
“I learned how close the community can get,” he said of his two weeks. “I told them when we come out of this, you’ll have something that nobody else has. They really rely on each other.”
