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Not anymore, though. 

Since Puerto Rico went into lockdown on March 15, days are tightly scheduled, and they never venture beyond the shelter’s gates. Up at 6 a.m., the boys bathe, eat breakfast and head to the library room for lessons and crafts followed by lunch. After school work is done, they play sports like soccer or volleyball in the yard, bathe again, eat dinner in their pajamas, play board games or watch a movie and go to bed by 8 p.m. Their caretakers read a bed-time story, play classical music and pray with them before the boys go to sleep in their own room, and repeat the routine the next day.

The strict routine is critical to help the 13 boys adjust to their new reality. Aged five to 10 and all survivors of neglect, physical and sexual abuse, they are no strangers to traumatic experiences. “They come from chaos,” said Sister Blanca M. Colón Rodríguez, executive director of the shelter Centro de Acogida y Sostén Agustino (CASA). 

A routine creates a sense of normalcy for the children during the coronavirus emergency, believes psychologist Héctor Gómez Martínez. “It helps keep the mind focused on something,” said Gómez Martínez, a professor at Carlos Albizu University. “Having the mind too unoccupied can lead to them thinking things that are not positive. It’s important to keep them distracted by having a routine.”

In CASA, the boys adapted without a fuss because it is similar to what they tend to do during the summer. Perhaps the biggest disruptions in their routines are closure of their schools since March 16 and the suspension of visits from social workers and family due to quarantine measures. 

Gómez Martínez said cutting off visits could gravely affect children by restricting their social interactions. “Limiting visits from social workers or any other type of personnel will limit them in the improvements in their psychological and emotional well-being,” he said. “It is extremely detrimental that they cannot have visits from other people and that they don’t socialize.”

The 13 boys are among the 2,918 children under state custody in the U.S. territory. Puerto Rico’s Department of the Family is the agency in charge of protecting minors that have been removed from their homes. Some are placed with family members, foster families or therapeutic homes, while others live in shelters. 

Since 2013, CASA has been run by three nuns, members of the Saint Augustine order. Located in the laps of green mountains in the island’s central region, the shelter houses up to 15 boys under the age of 13 with the goal of preparing them for a permanent home. The staff comes and goes, so they take precautions to avoid bringing in the novel virus from the outside such as washing their hands regularly, taking their temperatures, using masks and disinfecting groceries. Twenty employees are caring for the children during the pandemic, with two caretakers staying at the shelter overnight. The nuns live in a convent, a few minutes away from the shelter and always on call. 

“The most important person in the life of a rescued child is the social worker,” said Colón Rodríguez, who has been working with children in state custody since 1995. “That child knows deep inside that that social worker saved him, and that bond that forms in the moment the child is rescued is a bond that lasts.”

Before the coronavirus crisis, social workers came to the shelter once a month, and walked with the child in the hills surrounding the four-story secluded shelter. They’d sit and chat in the boys’ individual rooms, with his own twin bed and a bathroom. Now, the visits have been replaced by weekly phone and video calls from social workers. 

Along with visits, court hearings have also been interrupted, so adoption and reunification processes are on hold until further notice. One of the boys at the shelter would be with his dad now if it weren’t for the pandemic. The reunification hearing was scheduled for early April, but it was cancelled due to the emergency. Now, father and son see each other through a screen by video calls as a social worker listens in nearby. 

“He doesn’t know that in April the hearing was going to be held to see if his dad would get custody,” Colón Rodríguez said. “Later, the time will come.”

The Department of the Family has equipped computers with video conference applications in preparation for virtual court hearings to resume adoption and reunification processes, said Glenda Gerena, sub-administrator of the Children and Families Administration, an agency within the department. 

“It’s been hard for everyone. We understand that it’s been harder for them, who have had various traumas in their lives,” said Gerena, pointing out that psychological help is available for the children. 

Many abused or abandoned children battle with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia and behavioral disorders stemming from trauma, among other conditions. The pandemic exacerbates pre-existing mental health illnesses, said Gómez Martínez. The psychologist warned teletherapy may not be as effective as face-to-face sessions because telepsychology is not regulated in Puerto Rico and many mental health professionals do not have the training to practice telemedicine. 

The earthquakes that rocked the island earlier this year could make children even more vulnerable to the ongoing crisis. “The experience of the tremors gave a feeling of helplessness,” said Gómez Martínez. “That may also be impacting the experience of these children who are living in shelters: the feeling of instability.” 

One of the areas hit the hardest by the earthquakes is about 60 miles away from CASA in the southern coastal city of Ponce. The shaking hasn’t stopped since January, however, the 12 boys in the shelter are used to it. Aged eight to 18, all with special needs, they live in the shelter Hogar San Miguel Arcángel. 

“We have been able to manage the earthquakes,” said Jennifer Rodríguez, director of the shelter. “We keep all the boys together at all times in the shelter in case there’s an emergency.”

Like in CASA, the routine Hogar San Miguel Arcángel runs like clockwork. The boys wake up at 7 a.m. They eat breakfast, watch TV and do activities like painting. After lunch, they finish homework, talk to their social worker and play on the patio. The day ends between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. after a bath and snacks. 

“What has affected them a bit is not receiving visits and not having activities outside. We try to substitute external activities with things we can do here,” said Rodríguez, mentioning that they organized an Easter celebration, with a barbeque, an egg hunt and gifts. 

Hogar San Miguel Arcángel belongs to the Episcopal Church’s Puerto Rico dioceses and has provided services for 25 years. Most of the boys stay in the shelter for two years, as dictated by law. Some kids, however, have stayed on for four or five years because the Department of the Family can’t find anywhere else to place them.

Three caretakers, the director, the shelter’s social worker, the cook and the tutor work hands-on with the minors during the crisis, with two employees staying overnight. The staff wears gloves and face masks when interacting with the kids, and they change their shoes as soon as they enter the building to avoid infecting the boys with the coronavirus. 

The pandemic has changed even the little things. The boys used to enjoy helping staff unload groceries because the walk between the parking lot and the shelter was like an outing for them. Now, however, they’re not even allowed to touch the groceries until the products have been wiped down. “We explained that we can’t do that anymore, and they’ve understood,” Rodríguez said. “They’re calm because they know that, because of the current situation, they can’t go out.”

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Tensions are running high in Glendale, Queens, as the city moves forward with opening a homeless shelter at 78-16 Cooper Avenue.

Last month the Glendale-Middle Village Coalition, a local group created to fight the shelter, sued the city. According to the Department of Homeless Services (DHS), the shelter will occupy 200 single men and intends to open early 2020.

“You know, you put a building with 200 people, in the middle of that community, that’s like essentially like putting an entire block of people,” said Ryan Kelley, the communications director of City Councilman Bob Holden of District 30 and opposer of the shelter.

At an October 7 meeting between community members, DHS, Community Board 5, and Westhab, the organization that will run the shelter, residents aggressively yelled out of anger, one woman threatening to “burn the place down” if the shelter arises.

Elfrida Sauldinka, a resident of the area for over 50 years, attended the shelter meeting.

“Neighborhoods are changing, but this, this here is, it’s not fair. There’s problems with a lot of homeless shelters, so why not fix up the ones they have?” said Sauldinka.

“People should be allowed to, to make a decisions here, you know, they live here.”

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View Stacey Kilpatrick’s multimedia project here.

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Kathleen Callahan was relocated to the Jersey City Armory storm shelter after falling in her powerless Hoboken apartment. By Alyana Alfaro and Jordyn Taylor.

Wide-eyed and pale, Kathleen Callahan sat shaking in a wheelchair amidst the rows of green cots that lined the floor of the Jersey City Armory. Less than 24 hours ago, the 75-year-old was lying on the floor of her unlit apartment, firmly believing she was going to die.

In the early hours of Saturday morning, five days after Hurricane Sandy left Callahan’s Hoboken apartment without power and heat, the woman awoke with an unusual numbness in her legs.

“I got my cane nearby and I went to step on the floor and I went down,” she said. “I have arthritis in my knee, so I was on the floor in the dark, and I didn’t know what to do so I said ‘God, help me.’ I had a dim flashlight that was kind of going dead. It was like everything was going dead, including me.”

Despite a mandatory evacuation notice prior to Hurricane Sandy, Callahan chose to stay put; she had no family, and nowhere to go. In the days following the storm, she was trapped in her apartment, struggling to live off her dwindling supplies. But after suffering a fall on Saturday morning, she was rescued by paramedics, brought to Christ Hospital, and was eventually relocated to the Jersey City Armory—currently serving as a storm shelter for approximately 220 people. Unsure of when and how she would be able to return home, Callahan sat in the Armory feeling shocked, alone and defeated.

Callahan had weathered countless hurricanes, snowstorms and power outages over the course of her life. But she had never seen a storm like Sandy.

“I have survived many storms, but this was like a river in front of my building,” Callahan said. “The block was all flooded, the power was all out. I never saw anything like it in all my 75 years, never.”

And even after the rivers receded, life did not get easier for the ailing Callahan. With the arthritis in her knees acting up during the storm, she was unable to leave her apartment to collect the free meals being distributed a block away in Church Square Park. From Monday night when the power went out, to Saturday morning when she fell, Callahan was trapped in her apartment with no light, no meals and diminishing supplies.

“There was no hot water,” she said. “The refrigerator didn’t work. The water was getting really dirty; I was scared to drink it anymore. I had some bottled water in my refrigerator, but I wasn’t thinking there was going to be much of that for too long. My candles were getting kind of low, and I knew if this kept on another week I wouldn’t have any candles and the batteries in my flashlight would be gone.”

Ironically, it could have been the fall that finally saved her. After crashing to the floor, Callahan dragged herself around her apartment for hours in the dark, searching for a spot that offered cell phone service.

“I don’t know how many times I checked that cell phone,” she said. “So finally Saturday—all the days are starting to meld together, you begin to not know what day it is anymore—so Saturday, that was yesterday, I got a signal on my cell phone and I called 911.”

On Saturday evening Callahan was taken to Christ Hospital for a brief examination, and she was later transported to the Jersey City Armory at 1:37 a.m. on Sunday morning.

Callahan, though visibly shaken, said the staff and military personnel at the shelter have helped her cope with her ordeal.

“The young people here, the air force, they are really lovely people,” Callahan said. “The men, the women, they couldn’t be nicer. They try to comfort you—really lovely, lovely young people. I said to one young man that I glad to find out we had this great of an air force.”

Still, it will be hard for Callahan to forget the experiences she endured in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

“I am so shocked,” she said. “I still can’t believe it. I woke up this morning—I think I got about a half hour of sleep, if I got that—and when I woke up, for a minute I thought, ‘Where am I?’ I couldn’t believe it. I thought, ‘I cant be here, no. This didn’t happen.’ But now it sunk in really well.”

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