September 22, 2020
The Washington Post - March 20, 2020 -
The man was still yards away when she saw it — a white face mask, glowing in the predawn light.
Gabriel Santos, a homeless-outreach worker, had woken up with cold symptoms. Not wanting to expose his clients to illness, he reached for the mask. It would be better this way, he thought. But now, as he approached the woman sheltering outside a Maryland building, its other effects became clear.
“Don’t come over here with no mask on,” shouted Debra, a chronically homeless woman who sat bundled in a winter coat, a black-and-white blanket pulled over her lap. “I said don’t you come over here!”