CHHOP Reopens

Although CHHOP is technically “reopening”, it’s a bit of an oxymoron as the 24/7 shelter never really closed. “We never really closed. The facility itself was open, but we enabled our case managers to work remotely by getting them set up with computers and printers at home,” explains Jeff Miller, operations manager, who notes that a $6,000 grant from the Westchester Community Foundation made the purchases of laptop computers, all-in-one-printers and a QuickBooks license possible. Those items made it viable to keep CHHOP operations running smoothly by giving staff the necessary tools to work from home. 

The only people going into the office were the supervisory staff who were going in to make sure that everything was running properly. But Jan Peek still had people living and sheltering in place there. “We had to reconfigure the layout of the space,” recounts Miller. “We have dorms for men, women and veterans. We spaced the beds 6-feet apart and then we had to tell our residents that they could not leave the dorm or intermingle with others, while at Jan Peek House.” 

The Jan Peek residents did what was needed, following the advice of signs posted throughout the building reminding people to wash hands frequently, stay 6-feet apart and wear a mask. 

Back to Work Plan

According to Miller, reopening has been a complex process with procedures that change quickly. “We have followed CDC (Center for Disease Control) and state guidelines. Our local hospital, New York Presbyterian, was also helpful. One of our board members, Ellen Bloom, MPH, is director of community affairs at New York-Presbyterian Hudson Valley Hospital and another of our board members, Valya Dessaure,Phd, is a nurse. They both advised us. It helped to have good advisors so that we were able to make an effective reopening plan.”

Miller notes that even before the pandemic Jan Peek has always had robust cleaning practices in place. As a 24-hour shelter, there are three shifts. Client care workers sweep, mop and clean common areas throughout each shift. On March 11, CHHOP added more procedures to address specific Covid-19 concerns including hourly cleaning and disinfecting of doorknobs and high touch surfaces such as tables, light switches and the button on the coffee pot among others, which actually exceeds the CDC recommendation that high-touch areas be cleaned every four hours. In addition, there are hand sanitizing stations throughout the building and two temperature checks using noncontact thermometers, one in the morning and one in the evening. “We check everyone’s temperature when they come back after being out,” says Miller. “We also do a Covid-19 health screening.” And there is a quarantine room where any new residents who come to CHHOP must stay for one week. 

Now that businesses are allowed to have staff come back to the office, CHHOP has worked out a schedule to bring people in at 50 percent capacity as mandated by New York state. “Some of our staff come in two days a week, other programs will only require someone to come in once a week,” explains Miller. “One of our case managers who went to people’s homes now meets them outside.” In addition, each person is responsible for disinfecting their work space at the beginning of the day and again at the end of the day. 

The Biggest Challenge

The most challenging aspect of reopening CHHOP is getting enough of the right supplies. “We’re always cruising for supplies,” comments Miller. “We need masks and wipes. Disinfectant wipes are like gold, they’re very hard to find. Hand sanitizer is also hard to find. We’ve had to buy supplies where we can find them.”

CHHOP has always been open to volunteers from Peekskill and the surrounding community and there is now a loosening policy on visitors in place. If someone must come in for any reason, CHHOP continues to adhere to its policy that visitors must sign in when they enter and sign out when they leave, a policy that CHHOP has already had in place for a couple of years, but is now necessary for contact tracing purposes. Additionally, any visitors have their temperature taken upon arrival. 

Another challenge faced by CHHOP is that there is no cooking kitchen at the facility, so CHHOP relies heavily on its volunteers — including churches and restaurants — to bring dinner for its clients every night. Luckily only a couple of volunteers had to step back from cooking during the past few months, but now they are coming back. 

“The situation changes constantly,” concludes Miller. “We’re able to change easily. If Covid-19 cases explode again, we would ask our clients to stay in and we would go back to having most staff work remotely.”