AUSTIN (KXAN) – Arturo Rodriguez was outside the ARCH on Thursday morning.
“It’s not fair,” he said.
Rodriguez was hoping to take a shower and do some laundry this week, but now finds himself on the outside looking in.
Like many others, good hygiene is on his mind.
“Wouldn’t it be even worse if we didn’t take a shower, do laundry or whatever? You’d be contaminated,” he said.
Beginning this week, showers, laundry facilities, phone access and lockers are limited to those who receive case management and stay overnight at the ARCH.
The shelter has instituted practices on the inside, such as liberal use of hand sanitizer, daily deep cleanings of common spaces and the bunk area, and re-positioning those beds so clients aren’t so close together.
Meanwhile, the hundreds of men and women who aren’t clients won’t be able to use the ARCH’s day resource center.