What to Do with Street Loiterers

Picture by Chitto Cancio, Unsplash.

They seem unstoppable. For whatever reason, they just insist on going out to the street and loiter during quarantine. Well, some folks have legit reasons--like buying food or attending to some emergencies. But the rest just love to roam around and defy everything.

So here's what we should do. Just a suggestion. Why not use them as community liaison personnel? Since they love to go out, they can probably serve as local errand folks. A walking local version of Grab Food. Give them passes so they can buy things for people on a local scale--like their immediate community. They can buy groceries for people or buy meds for them.

They can stay in an area where strict distancing is observed while waiting for errands--like a basketball court or plaza--and then go out when called to do an errand for a certain fee. Since a lot of households need to buy things everyday but choose not to go out because of limited quarantine pass or fear of arrest or reluctance to get exposed, they could use these errand service.

Put a simple system for accountability. Like, errand volunteers should be registered, and registration should be handled by the homeowners admin. They're given special pass and ID. Errand people assigned must be known in the community where they serve. In case a problem arises, they can easily be located. And residents should deal only with errand people they really know so there would be trust. And put other details in the system, but make it as simple as possible.

Errand volunteers should be given masks and face shields for this task with a small spray bottle of alcohol handy in pocket. They should be oriented about practical hygiene, self disinfection and handling grocery and other items. With residents cooking and eating three times a day (some eat snacks in-between) these loiterers can prove useful and make money, too.

Volunteers should also sign a waiver saying they're doing this voluntarily (they weren't forced) and they understand the risks and hold no one else responsible but themselves if something untoward happens to them. They'r loiterers, anyway.

Otherwise, they have no business loitering around and should just stay home.