Camp Young Judaea is housing the healthy

Camp Young Judaea has opened its doors to the public as a facility to help healthy people have a place to stay in situations that may require them to be away from someone with COVID-19.

“The safety of our community is important,” Woodcreek Councilmember Vicki Alvord said. “We need to keep well people well and people who are not well segregated. This facility is meant to take care of the well people: first responders, medical personnel and essential employees. We have housing here for up to 400 people, but with social distancing it would be quite a bit fewer than that.”

While initially for Woodcreek residents, the project has expanded to anyone in need within Hays County Precinct 3 and in some cases even further.

“We have expanded this from Woodcreek and Wimberley to all of Precinct 3, and just (last week) we received a call from Dripping Springs where a first responder is going to go into quarantine,” Woodcreek Mayor Gloria Whitehead said. “He has not tested yet, but he is going into quarantine. He asked if his family could come out, and we offered that for the family to come and stay as long as they need to.”

Many first responders work shifts that are 24-hours on call, 48-hours off duty. The lack of every day commuting means that many live further away than typical workers. This facility will allow first responders the ability to stay closer to work in Hays County if they choose to.

“I think this is magnificent,” Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra said. “I think it is a great example of public private partnerships working towards our public health solutions. I think it is essentially that everyone reaches deep and finds creative ways to move through this pandemic… This is key in the road map. It is key in the essential part to get us all back to work. Mass testing is another thing that they recommend. With mass testing you can parse out the population and see how the virus has affected our communities, where our hot spots are. And this project right here is a key component to help us separate out those infected and those not.”