BY BEN VERDE
A Staten Island group home
is soliciting donations for
its staffers, who have had to
transform into frontline medical
workers almost overnight,
management said.
“Our staff has been unbelievably
amazing,” said Joanne
Gerenser, Executive Director of
Eden II programs, which runs a
network of support services for
people with autism on Staten Island.
According to Gerenser, the
pandemic has overturned the
daily tasks of the direct service
providers that care for the
residents of the group homes.
Eight of Eden II’s residents
have tested positive for the coronavirus,
Gerenser said, but all
have managed to stay out of the
hospital — which has turned
the residential facilities into
around-the-clock care centers.
“Our nurses need to receive
some kind of medals of honor,”
Gerenser said.
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Staff are tasked with looking
after restless participants and
providing them with structure
for hours on end while they are
unable to go outside — a nearly
herculean task, according to
Gerenser, a speech pathologist.
“I used to do these 30-minute
sessions, and making sure
that your session provided
structure so that your session
went well, sometimes was really
challenging,” she said. “I
sit there sometimes at my desk
and I think about these direct
care workers, who have to now
provide structure 16 hours in a
row, in a house, often not able to
go anywhere — it just boggles
my mind.”
Direct service providers in
group homes make little more
than minimum wage due to a
decade of budget cuts from the
state that have left most homes
treading water even before the
pandemic hit.
“They’re not paid for the
pandemic,” said Sarah Collins,
Staff members at group homes need masks and other supplies to interact with residents. Eden II
a Brooklyn native whose
brother Joey lives in an Eden II
home. “They’re basically working
as health care providers but
have not been given any formal
training prior to this.”
The staff at Eden II have had
to dip into their own bank accounts
to replace clothing destroyed
by bleach after disinfecting
them, Collins. said.
The fundraiser, which has
netted roughly $16,000 towards
its goal of $20,000 as of April 29,
aims to soften that blow, and
provide the workers with the
hazard pay their employers are
unable to give them. They have
also received support from Fare
it Forward, a fundraising effort
that aims to provide frontline
workers with free transit fares.
“Most of our direct care
workers are making just above
minimum wage, and the idea
that we’ve now asked them to
become healthcare workers
and put them in really complicated
situations, it just doesn’t
feel right that we’re not able
to provide them with some
type of increased money,” said
Gerenser.
With the state budget full
of austerity measures, group
homes can only expect more
funding cuts, Gerenser said,
so fundraising may be the only
route workers have to an increase
in pay.
“The only way we’re going
to be able to get money in the
hands of our workers and thank
them for what they are doing is
through fundraisers like this,
so it’s been very rewarding seeing
how many people are stepping
up,” she said.
As pandemic rages,
group homes seek
donations for staff
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