[MUSIC] Hi, I'm Juliana Bilowich with leading age and I'm here with Vida Wojewski with the asset director for Catholic Charities. Vida, thank you for being with us here today and let's start with the basics. What can you tell us about your organization and the people that you serve? And I'm especially interested in the philosophy of your organization. >> Sure, no problem. Hi Juliana, thanks very much for having me. So Catholic Charities is the largest social service organization in the Midwest, encompassing the greater Chicagoland area which includes both cook and light counties. We consider ourselves to be a cradle to grave organization with services provided to pregnant mothers. Their babies when they're born, young children, teenagers, veterans families in need, victims of domestic violence, homeless persons and low income older adult, HUD housing programs of which I'm a part. We have a supportive living program for those older adults who need a little extra assistance with their daily acts of living. And finally we serve those in need at the highest level of care with our skilled nursing facility. We have over 150 programs and we serve close to one million persons per year. So our philosophy is pretty simple. It is to serve the underserved with dignity, with compassion and with respect. Our mission statement is, Catholic Charities fulfills the role of the mission of charity to anyone who is in need. By providing compassionate, competent and professional services that strengthen and support individuals, families and communities based on the value and dignity of human life. So these are the tenets by which we serve. No one is ever turned away and if there is a need we fill it. >> Wow, that is incredible Vida [LAUGH] and so you mentioned so many amazing things you do and you mentioned the low income seniors and HUD housing. What can you tell us about the residence in terms of seniors that you serve? >> Well, the residency served vary. We have a variety of different programs, we have 22 HUD subsidized properties, largely there are HUD 202 properties which serve older adults 62 years and older. We have some 202 eight properties that's the section eight component of the 202 program, where we serve older adults 18 years and older with disabilities. And we have a couple of 8 11buildings which are completely ADA buildings and serve disabled persons families and disabled persons. >> Wow okay, well, I know that you and your team have just been working around the clock to keep these seniors both housed and healthy during this crisis. So, can you tell us a little bit about how you responded early on to the pandemic especially in terms of occupancy moving people and how did that go? >> Right, so when the pandemic first affected us in March of 2020 and as our state grappled with closing businesses, we were deemed and remained an essential service to the Chicagoland area. We stayed open and we never close the doors. However at the height of the pandemic this past spring in an effort to maintain the health and welfare of our most vulnerable older adult population, Catholic Charities decided to cease movements temporarily. So we needed to ensure that we had a solid plan in place before commencing these movements, and that our existing clients could count on us to ensure that their safety was first and foremost. So we got created with our moving documentation the paperwork never stopped. We conducted applicant interviews with 0% contact. This was done over the phone, this was done via email, this was done via snail mail and we would send documents back and forth. And while this process took much longer than an in person interview. We felt more comfortable in this regard because we were protecting the health of our waitlist applicants of our staff and of our existing residents. >> Yeah, absolutely. Well, I know that everyone's coming main goal is health right? Especially for this population that's at a higher risk, but you've also also had to balance that with maintaining your own financial health as a provider. So do you think you've been successful so far both in terms of that COVID-19 house and your financial sustainability? >> Absolutely. We like all organizations really had to tighten our belts beginning in March of 2020. There was no unnecessary spending that we did. Our capital needs were temporarily put on hold. But luckily, we were gifted by a generous community of donors. As a nonprofit there are many organizations and companies that were truly willing to help us out and during this pandemic, they've shown their generosity in so many different ways. We received thousands of donated masks both disposable and reusable so that we could distribute them to all of our residents and our staff. They have themselves good masks that home for distribution to our residents. Local churches foundations donated warm meals. They donated hand sanitizer and others sorts of way to drop off personal care items of their of necessity so that our older adults could maintain their dignity while they were in place. And groups of generous donors adapted our properties and continue to gift us with these items of necessities. So out of a pandemic we really found a heartwarming group of people that care for our clients as much as they do. So well our business model shifted a little bit by placing certain projects on hold. We've shifted to a successful business model that really has proven to be sustainable. And with the addition of a new CEO who is dynamic as dynamic and good, she was able to procure monetary donations to assist us. So these measures protected us financially and protected the health and safety of our residents that our staff. >> Wow, amazing balancing act there. Did you say that staff themselves made masks for the residents? >> They did. They absolutely did. They would pull together groups of volunteers. So they know our senior centers and our daycare [INAUDIBLE] but we have volunteers that continue to want to do something for the community. So we reached out and we saw the way that you can help us is by creating reusable masks for our nursing staff or our homemakers. For any really [INAUDIBLE] staff, and so we put out the call and the call came back and I received hundreds and hundreds of homemade masks when masks are really not available to the general public. So we were gifted. >> Wow, what an amazing example of getting through the crisis together. That's good to hear. And how are the residents doing? >> The residents are doing well. In the beginning, we received many cheerful calls and we received many phone calls of concern. Of course they were afraid that they couldn't get to the grocery stores like everybody else, to procure items and truly of necessity canned goods. But again with with a large community of donors that we have, we were able to make that happen. We delivered commodities and meals on wheels to the residents who really felt the most vulnerable, who didn't have family members, who didn't have anybody to assist them we became their family members. So all in all the beginning of pandemic I think they were actually very concerned and very worried about their future. But as the pandemic progressed, they knew that we would take care of them, they knew that were there is a will there is a way, and that our primary concern was there for their welfare. >> Thank goodness for you Vida [LAUGH]. So you mentioned some of the adaptations that you made with movings. What has changed for you all since the very early stages to now and what might you keep for the long term in terms of your adaptations to move in and move out processes? >> Sure, so on June 1st one of the state of Illinois reached an acceptable positivity level. And when businesses were beginning to come back to life as an agency, we decided to begin the process of physical movement that our properties again. So we developed procedures for move-ins that defined a specific day in a time when an applicant could move in. We designated a specific path to the apartment that this new move-in person would take, we designated a specific elevator they would use, we required everybody to be in full PPE. Everyone was screened prior to entering the buildings, and we informed all the other residents that a move-in was taking place with a thick with shelter in place for a few hours so that there would be a no contact zone. We also scheduled our movements to coincide with a twice weekly 360 disinfection cleaning process that we adapted beginning in March. To ensure that the building was disinfected before and after the move-in, to minimize any cross contamination. So with regards to under patients that we're going to keep, we're absolutely going to keep the 360 disinfection cleaning twice per week. We're going to contribute, we are going to continue to distribute PPE to all of our residents residents and staff. We have begun unit inspections again. Our staff are in full PPE and their offices they have plexiglass shields. They have disinfecting spray at their stations and we of course are going to continue to minimize any in person meetings with anyone. virtual meetings really become our norm. >> Yeah, for [LAUGH] many of us [LAUGH] you mentioned the screening that people go through. Can you talk a little bit more about that, what that entails and who goes through that at your communities? >> Sure, so the process is the process that I think we're all very comfortable and familiar with. Every time you go to a doctor's office, every time you go to a dentist office, you have to answer a variety of different questions. Have you been in contact with anybody that's COVID positive? Do you have a temperature? So the same questions are asked of any vendor that walks through our building. And the same questions are answered by our staff before they begin to work every morning. And we maintain that documentation at our corporate office to ensure that the screening process for a variety of different reasons is [INAUDIBLE] capital kept virtually. So, during the moving process any mover that would have come into the building, the new applicant that came into the building, any new family members that assisted this person we're living in we're also screened. So really our screening is very similar to the CDC screening that I think we're all pretty familiar with at this point. >> Yeah, absolutely. Okay well, let's talk vacancies. How are your vacancy rates going? Anything you're concerned about and also how are you navigating resident communications through that process? >> Right, so our vacancy rate is hovering at about 5% which for us is a lot. Normally we're at a 0% vacancy and this is what we budget for. But it was our choice early on for the safety and the well being of our staff and residents to help move ins. So we didn't want to bring vendors into turnover our unit so that got us a little bit behind the eight ball. So that's why our vacancy rate is now at about 5%. But now we're moving full steam ahead. We're bridging the vacancy cap, we expect to be fully occupied by the end of December. And with regards to resident communication, we still place phone calls instead of in person meetings. We prepare a lot of documentation in advance as much as we can with regards to their recertifications. We deliver documents for signatures including lease amendments directly to resident dealers in a no contact way, because we have to remain vigilant, we have to ensure that we don't let our guard down. >> Yeah, that's a good advice for everyone I think especially if we end up seeing another surge. So Vida, what are some tools that you're leveraging throughout this process and what is one thing that might make it easier to support both the housing and health needs of your resident throughout all of this? >> Well, we use whatever tools of creativity we can find to keep our residents informed, to keep them happy to keep them engaged, but most importantly to keep them safe. We do lots of telephone wellbeing checks. We leave notes for our residents to let them know that we're thinking about them. And that we're laying their fears by letting them know that their health and welfare are first and foremost at the forefront of absolutely everything we do. And if they need something, we find a way to provide it. If there's one thing that would have helped us during these past seven months, I'd have to say that it would be having maybe access to Wi Fi and all of our HUD properties. Residents could easily have access doctor's appointments through telehealth services that would have kept them sheltered in place and safe in their apartments. Rather than navigating doctors offices and using public transportation they could have banked online. That would have been easier for them. They could have viewed and sent documents to us that we needed for their recertifications. But mostly, the most important thing that having Wi Fi in our buildings would have done for our residents [INAUDIBLE] they could have had virtual visits with their families. We [INAUDIBLE] only allowed essential visitors onto our property. And honestly we still only allow essential visitors on our property nobody under 18 is allowed. Family members can come visit but it's to drop off food or to assist with perhaps laundry. But to be able to have virtual visits with their family members or their friends, that would have been a true blessing. So technology would have been a great tool for us during this time. And of course we're looking at adding this to our next round of help projects. Our next budgets are beginning in January and we intend to include that as something that is critically important. Particularly during this time of sheltering in place because we are seeing an uptick in Illinois of COVID positive cases. >> Yeah, I can agree with you more on the importance of technology of connectivity of that Wi Fi. That's something I absolutely agree in that we're working on as well over here at LeadingAge to get that into all senior housing communities. So well Vida, thank you so much for everything you're doing for your staff, for your residents, and for being here with us today. We couldn't do this without you. >> Thank you very much.
