Outside of a Brooklyn homeless shelter on Friday, residents told NY1 masks are hard to come by. 

“No. No masks. No gloves,” said Wilma Cortez, who said she bought her mask at a grocery store. “They have some for the workers inside. But for us. They don’t give us nothing. We have to do it to cover our health. If we don’t do it, we’re all going to get sick in here."

Security at the shelter told us they have masks. The residents of the shelter do not. 

This comes a day after the mayor directed all New Yorkers to cover their faces to prevent the spread of COVID-19. 

Thursday night, the Department of Homeless Services sent out an email to its shelter providers saying that the city understood its client would not all have access to a face covering. It said the city would be "sourcing appropriate face coverings” for those who couldn’t find their own.

On Friday, we were told shelter operators were scrambling to get their own supplies. 

“Because the supply chain has been diverted to hospitals is [why] we are having an extremely hard time getting access to vendors,” said Catherine Trapani, executive director of Homeless Services United, Inc. “And the city of New York is directing all of its resources to hospitals, which means other first responders like homeless shelter providers and street outreach teams with very little access, some are doing their absolute best to play catchup. It has been incredibly challenging.”

For weeks, workers at city homeless shelters have said they do not have the right equipment to protect themselves. As of Friday, 10 homeless New Yorkers had died from the virus. COVID-19 has been found at approximately 77 different homeless shelters. 

“It’s my experience our members are not receiving personal protective equipment,” said Greg Floyd of Teamsters Local 237. “And it’s also in my experience that the Department of Homeless Services is not practicing social distancing."

On Friday, the mayor tried to put the issue to rest. He said the city would be giving out some sort of face covering at city shelters. 

“It will take us a few days to fully implement, but we will be providing bandanas, scarf, whatever kind of face covering makes sense in the facilities we control that people live in, in our corrections systems, in our homeless system, etc. The answer is yes there,” de Blasio said.