In the online exhibit, Picturing COVID-19 through the Eyes of the Homeless, inhabitants of Peace Village, a homeless encampment in Rochester, NY, shared photos and stories about how the novel coronavirus affected their health and health care. The unsheltered homeless may be considerably vulnerable to contracting the virus due to crowded living spaces, improper hygiene and inadequate access to healthcare.

The photographers created this exhibit using PhotoVoice, a community based participatory research method, during the peak transmission period in New York State. Photographers met individually with the research team to discuss the pictures they captured. At the end of the project, they titled and captioned their photos for this online Digital Scholar exhibit. This website showcases some of the pictures that were taking over National Public Health Week.

Photo analysis revealed four emergent categories: (1) mental health exacerbations, (2) maintaining cleanliness and hygiene, (3) health equity and (4) protection and security. Positive photos (e.g., shelters staying open, personal isolated space) and negative photos (e.g., untreated mental health conditions, shelter instability) represented the diverse perspectives the participants took when considering how the pandemic influenced their health. The following recommendations were made to the Peace Village, Inc. Board of Directors to further address the needs of the inhabitants: offering instructions to assemble safe face masks and fact sheets regarding COVID-19 on the Welcome Board, strengthening relationships with local Street Outreach programs, and finding staff to monitor the encampment. This pilot study proves the effectiveness of using PhotoVoice methodology to address health needs of the homeless in the era of COVID-19.