Page 18 - Communities Respond to COVID-19

Unnamed intentional urban community, Chicago, IL, USA

Of our 10 members, 8 have been working or studying from home since the shutdown. These 8 members
rarely go to enclosed public spaces. One occasionally goes to get fruits and vegetables for the
community, but wears gloves and a mask and tries to stay six feet apart from others. Two others have
gone in to stores twice per month, following the same precautions. Some of us take walks, but keep
distance from others out of doors. We have two members who are essential workers. One works from
home 60% of the time, but needs to check on residents of a senior community that she works with twice
a week and also shops for supplies for them. She does not want to put them at risk, so she mostly works
in the office and wears a mask and keeps a six foot distance. The other essential worker is in the front
lines as a health care worker in a hospital. He works with COVID-19 patients.

At first, we established guidelines that as soon as we entered the house or kitchen, everyone would
wash their hands with soap for twenty seconds. We also set up a disinfecting protocol. Every evening,
someone takes a turn to wipe off light switches, door knobs, bathroom knobs, and the many kitchen
knobs and handles with disinfectant. We also put bleach in the dishwater, something we generally don't
do unless there is sickness in the house. We traditionally share the house with the spiritual group that
owns it along with other groups and guests that use the house. We stopped having guests and groups
and then when the governor shut down all group meetings, the spiritual group stopped using the house
as well, so it is just the ten of us. We even had one of our community retreats near the beginning of the
shut down since we are all home.

Mostly, it is has been a blessing to be in community at this time because we are not so isolated. We
have each other. We have game and movie nights on weekends. We used to all be so busy with work
and running here and there, but now we are mostly all home. The hard thing is thinking about the fact
that if one of us does get the virus, we all run the risk of getting sick and there are people in our home
due to age or preexisting conditions that could get very sick. Another difficulty is that everyone is
dealing with varying levels of anxiety. One person with asthma has been quite anxious, always reading
the latest statistics and worrying about everything, which sometimes ramps up the anxiety of others
who are trying to stay calm. We are trying, as a community to keep everyone safe, but there is not
always agreement on some of the finer details, but we have mostly been able to come to consensus on
things so far after some discussion. The hardest issue has been knowing how to handle the fact that we
have a frontline healthcare worker who, by the nature of his job, is put at risk every time he goes to
work. As he starting working directly with COVID-19 patients, the anxiety of some of the members with
preexisting conditions went sky high. We finally had a meeting in which we discussed how we could
keep the risk in the community low while still supporting him. We came to an agreement in which he
uses a different kitchen (there are two in the building), one bathroom in the house is dedicated for him,
he generally doesn't use most of the rest of the house, and if we do see him, we stay six feet apart. In
turn, we cook for him and do his chores so that he can rest when he is home. We also leave him flowers
and notes. When he is here on community nights or special occasions, we use a very big room that is not
our dining room. We set up separate tables, like a restaurant, that are all at least six feet apart. he sits at
his own table at the head of the room and we serve him. Then he can still be with us and we can talk.
This isn't the perfect solution, but it is what we can all live with for now.