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Tents are seen on a sidewalk in San Francisco's Haight neighborhood April 29, 2020. With homeless individuals making up nearly 10% of COVID-19 cases in San Francisco, city officials are looking at ways to best provide care to the vulnerable population. (Photo by Dennis Callahan/Catholic San Francisco)
April 29, 2020
Nicholas Wolfram Smith
Homeless individuals account for about 10% of San Francisco’s COVID-19 cases, leading to renewed focus about how best to provide care to the vulnerable population.
Dr. Grant Colfax, the city’s public health director, said during an April 25 briefing “This is unfortunately a large proportion. We know that many members of our community remain at risk of significant harm for the coronavirus. As we look at the next step we’ll continue to protect the most vulnerable.”Abigail Stewart-Kahn, interim director of San Francisco’s Homelessness and Supportive Housing department, said in the same meeting that “providing safe places is a top priority” for city agencies, and laid out steps the city had taken to secure those.
The city has acquired 2,741 hotel rooms that can be used to house COVID-19 positive people who cannot safely isolate themselves, asymptomatic individuals and those recovering from the virus. The rooms can also be used to house city employees or contractors who are involved in responding to the pandemic. Stewart-Kahn said the city is working on making more hotel rooms available.According to the city, 1,026 of those rooms, fewer than half the total available, have been occupied, 939 of them by homeless people who are in various stages of quarantine or recovery.
Mayor London Breed gave no indication her administration would be carrying out an April 14 Board of Supervisors emergency ordinance that would have required the city to house up to 7,000 homeless people in hotel rooms, regardless of infection status or health conditions.
When she was questioned about it during an April 27 update on the city’s coronavirus efforts, the mayor bluntly said there was a difference “between a goal and what we all desire to do, and what reality is.”
Breed said the city would provide as many hotel rooms as they could for priority populations, “but we have to do so responsibly,” with 24-hour staffing, security checkpoints, cleaning and meals.
In addition, she said social distancing has multiplied the inherent challenges in serving unhoused people, especially if they suffer from mental illness or drug addictions, and the city lacks adequate number of staff to ensure the safety of all concerned.
“I don’t think there’s anyone in this city who doesn’t want to house homeless people period, whether it's a pandemic or not,” she said. “The reality is we can’t do so safely without making sure that we have the people and the resources and the things necessary in place to keep folks that we’re serving safe and the people who are actually working in these locations safe.”
San Francisco supervisors sharply criticized Breed, with Supervisor Shamann Walton saying the "refusal to enforce laws passed by the Board of Supervisors sets a dangerous precedent."The city has also been working to create additional shelter capacity for homeless individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19 but do not require medical attention. About 195 spaces are ready in congregate facilities, and the city is preparing a few hundred more.
Multi-Service Center South, which was closed after an explosive outbreak of coronavirus infected more than half the residents, has been cleaned and will house people who have tested positive for coronavirus but no longer need to be in isolation or receive medical care. Moscone West has been set up for a similar role.
Division Circle Navigation Center, where guests were evacuated by the city after it confirmed a second case of COVID-19, will house those who have tested positive for COVID-19 but do not require hospitalization.
Stewart-Kahn said the recovery centers would have staffers from the city’s Department of Public Health, along with 24-hour security, social services and meals.
In a press release, St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Francisco, which operates the Division Circle Navigation Center and Multi-Service Center South, said it had “never faced a challenge like the one presented by COVID-19.”
The letter, signed by executive director Shari Wooldridge and board president Martha Arbouex, added that staff and residents had been going through a difficult time, as everyone deals with the strain of serving under difficult conditions.The two said they were happy to have reopened MSC South. “The health and safety of our clients and staff is our utmost priority,” the letter said, and the organization is following Department of Public Health recommendations to protect the health of clients.
Across California, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Project Roomkey initiative has sought to acquire 15,000 rooms for homeless people. The program had acquired 10,974 hotel and motel by mid-April, about 40% of which were occupied.
“Many of California’s counties have done a fantastic job getting Project Roomkey hotels up and running,” Newsom said. “We need to do more – and faster – of course, but there’s no doubt California is leading the way when it comes to treating our homeless population with the compassion and urgency this moment demands.”