Catholic Central Opens Gym Up To Homeless To Ease Crowding

A women's homeless shelter has been set up in the Grand Rapids, Catholic Central High School gym to help reduce population at homeless shelters right now, and allow better practicing of social distancing.

As of right now, any person staying in the gym, is presumed to be COVID-19 negative.

“We are called as Catholics to care for our brothers and sisters, especially the most vulnerable among us,” said Greg Deja, who is the the high school principal and CEO. “While we’ve all been sheltering at home for the past month, many of our Heartside neighbors do not have that same option.”

This shelter is thanks to a partnership from the school, the Grand Rapids and Kent County emergency management divisions, with the Mel Trotter Ministries as well as the Salvation Army, according to MLive.

“We are truly all in this together. My hope is that after this pandemic we will have created connections and work groups that continue to work together to solve some of our communities most urgent issues.” CEO of Mel Trotter Ministries, Dennis Van Kampen, ,released in a statement.

Health officials have worked to contain the spread of the virus in the Grand Rapids homeless population.