Waltham Businesses Help Get Homeless Women To Coronavirus Testing

WALTHAM, MA –Several local businesses stepped up this week to help get coronavirus testing for nine women experiencing homelessness and staying at the Bristol Lodge Women’s Dry Shelter in Waltham.

"We were so pleased to learn that all nine women tested negative for the coronavirus," said Middlesex Human Service Agency CEO Robert Mills. "It was heartwarming to have such tremendous support from the community and the women we serve at the shelter are grateful and relieved after having gone through the testing process."

The agency’s president of the board of directors worked with Waltham Mayor Jeannette McCarthy to connect the agency with three area businesses, according to the nonprofit.

AFC Urgent Care provided free testing with same day results for the women at its clinic in Waltham. Watertown Ford offered the use of a rental van to transport the women to and from the clinic, and a shelter staff member drove them to the clinic. Then Quick & Clean Car Wash of Waltham sanitized the van following the transport to prevent the spread of the virus, according to the nonprofit Middlesex Human Service Agency which runs the shelter.

Middlesex Human Service Agency has run the Bristol Lodge shelters for men and women in Waltham for more than 40 years, providing temporary, emergency night shelter accommodations and services for up to 12 adult women in the women's shelter and up to 45 men who lack permanent housing. At least one of the men staying at the shelter has been tested, but it's not clear how many others have.

Because the shelters are night shelters people experiencing homelessness are only permitted to stay there overnight.

There was a brief quarantine at the women’s shelter for precautionary reasons pending the testing and results, according to a spokesperson for the agency, but other than that, women, like the men have had to leave during the day.

That has drawn concern among advocates of the homeless recently in Waltham, who say it puts the already vulnerable population in a vulnerable position and it increases the risk of spread both in the homeless community as well as the rest of the community.

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Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).