AURORA (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- With a stay-at-home order in effect and an immunocompromised wife, Ryan Dowd, executive director of Hesed House in Aurora, decided to make his place of work his home.
"It was either stay home, or stay at the shelter, and so, the shelter, at this point, could definitely use me there 24/7," he told WBBM Newsradio's Rachel Pierson on Monday.
"There's a lot of people who are already immunocompromised for various health issues. The homeless population is an aging population," Dowd said. "There's just a lot of things that line up for this to be a really, really bad scenario."
While social distancing is encouraged, it's almost impossible.
"How do we get people as separated as possible, as much space as possible, and how do we protect the people that are the most vulnerable?"
Normally there are two shelters, one for families and one for single adults, but now Hesed House is opening a third.
"We're moving all of the low-risk individuals across the street into a warehouse we own and converting that into a shelter."
Dowd said there are efforts from the state of Illinois to provide relief for the homeless population. He's waiting for details.
"If you want to control it, you've got to go to the paces that have lots of people in a small amount of space, and that's us."
Hesed House is in need of monetary donations as well as bottled water for those moving to the warehouse.