No Home To Shelter In
Helping the homeless during COVID-19
Covid19 has taken a drastic hit on our lifestyle and we have nothing else to do but go along for the horror ride. “Stay safer at home” is all anyone has been hearing for two months now, but there’s a large segment of the population who can’t follow that rule, because they don’t have homes. Now, we not only have to worry about the countless people who are selfishly neglecting to follow the stay-at-home orders by gathering at any public space that will allow them, we also must pay attention to the large community of people who couldn’t follow the rules even if they wanted to.
We have all exhausted ourselves by now talking about the global Covid-19 pandemic, which has forever changed our society. This is the story we will be telling our grandchildren about how we had to stay at home while thousands of people died. The worldwide self-quarantine put our lives on hold — stop working, stay at home and but focus our attention on social isolation. Public safety, though, is coming with a heavy economic and social cost. Still, despite the rising cases and deaths, most Americans been able to maintain the most important thing — health and safety — by social distancing.
A significant population of people, particularly in large cities like New York and Los Angeles, are not so lucky. This pandemic is hitting homeless populations especially hard because they do not have the basic resources to even wash their hands to prevent deadly exposure to the virus. In downtown Los Angeles, more than 2,500 homeless can be found within the half-mile radius of Skid Row. It’s a vector of myriad diseases and bacterial infections ranging from from tuberculosis to hepatitis to typhus. Imagine living there during this global pandemic.
The main issue is the necessity for social distancing in order to put this quarantine to bed and get on with our lives. A problem, though, is that even if we can regulate the U.S population and keep people in their homes to ride out the virus, it still able to spread through the thousands of homeless people living in dense, unsanitary encampments throughout the city. The idea that we can get back to normal without a unified response that includes taking care of our most at-risk populations doesn’t seem feasible. As Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garrett has said, “This virus thrives on division. This virus exploits division, but when we are unified, we can beat this virus, and we have to keep that unity marching forward.”
Homeless people depend for basic hygiene on public restrooms in gyms, libraries, and fast food chains, many of which have closed or been put on a tight restriction. Many homeless shelters have also either shut down for the time being or are at full capacity, so it has been increasingly difficult for them to gain any sense of safety. Also, there are not enough shelters in Los Angeles County to meet the need. What shelters are available are often too cramped to meet six- feet-apart safety guidelines, thus limiting their capacity. Homeless shelters are also one of the biggest breeding grounds for germs and bacteria. So, imagine if even one person catches the virus, it has the potential to take down the entire shelter.
Prospects aren’t better on the streets, though. According to NBCNews, at least 33 unsheltered individuals in Los Angeles County have already tested positive for Covid19. Although there is still a great risk for people living in homeless shelters, the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, spoke publicly about how an estimated 60,000 unsheltered people could end up infected with Coronavirus.
In Los Angeles the main threat is centered around Skid Row. The city of Los Angeles has been trying to get ahead of the situation, deploying medical street teams to set up trailers around the city to house temporary residents. It has also developed a system called Project Roomkey that is in the process of placing people in temporary shelters. The idea of this is to temporarily house as many people as possible in hotels, since most of them are currently empty.
A more permanent solution is still needed. There are still many residing on Skid Row who are still extremely susceptible to the virus. Pop up testing by the fire department has begun in that area as well as street teams conducting health and wellness screenings. They have also added counseling for the homeless for effective social distancing. Although these all are good starts, individuals are only taken into the safety of isolation once they have already tested positive for the virus.
According to The Nation, suicides and drug overdoses among the homeless community have been becoming a lot more common ever since the beginning of the pandemic. The pandemic crisis has only highlighted the homelessness crisis and, amid the talk about when quarantine will be lifted and the ability to be outside relatively safely, longer-term solution to the homeless issue are being discussed.
Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti recently announced that a program aimed at turning 42 recreational centers in the LA area into homeless shelters is currently underway. These shelters will each have around 2,000 beds for anyone in need. Unfortunately, the capacity of these shelters did have to be limited from the original idea of 6,000 beds to follow the Center For Disease Control’s six-feet-apart rule. According to one LA outreach team, though, some of the new shelters are already lacking basic supplies.
As of May 4th, 2020, according to LAist.com, “Garcetti said that the city had opened up 24 temporary shelters at recreation centers across Los Angeles. These shelters are currently housing 900 people and are at 87 percent capacity. Garcetti said anyone who needs a bed should call 211. The mayor highlighted Project Room Key, a partnership that uses city, county and state funds to secure hotel rooms for people experiencing homelessness. He said that over the weekend, L.A. County officials secured an additional 505 motel rooms, a 25-percent boost, bringing the total number of rooms to 2,711 rooms across the county.”
Doing whatever we can to stop the spread of the deadly virus, whether it be staying in our houses or contributing essential items to benefit homeless shelters, is what needs to be focused on if we want to put an end to this. Many of us are extremely lucky to still have the ability to take care of the essential needs of our families. So, now is the time to start thinking about the people who are struggling and working together to make sure everyone is as equipped as possible to maintain health and safety. Only by coming together will we be able to not only stop the spread of this deadly virus and resume our lives, but also give relief to people who drastically need our help surviving this nightmare.
