A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness
San Francisco is being held as an exemplar in its approach to “flattening the curve” during the COVID—19 pandemic. But unhoused people and their advocates are saying the City is actually behind the curve when it comes to halting the spread among the homeless population.
As of April 24, the SF Department of Public Health has reported 134 positive cases among people with no fixed residence, which comprises exactly 10% of 1,340 cases citywide.
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared a pandemic due to COVID—19, the viral disease that is affecting many countries throughout the world. As a result, LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning) communities all over the United States are facing challenges, especially those who are homeless. The Human Rights Campaign Foundation published a research brief recently that indicates that 17% of LGBTQ people lack health coverage, 1 in 5 LGBTQ people live in poverty,
Dear Mayor London Breed,
On Tuesday, April 14, all eleven members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to pass the Emergency Ordinance – Limiting COVID-19 Impacts through Safe Shelter Options. The Ordinance calls for the City to secure 8,250 private rooms by April 26, 2020, including 7000 rooms for homeless San Franciscans. This would allow us to quickly meet the needs for thousands of homeless residents in our streets and shelters who currently have no way of sheltering-in-place.
A partial victory, but congregate shelters are still being used to house the majority of homeless people
Less than 24 hours after our story “Mayor Breed Opts for Mass Indoor Camps” broke, the City announced a change of approach for addressing the pandemic in shelters. But don’t be misled by the headlines!
The real change, which is significant, is that the city has abandoned its plan to move shelter residents into the Moscone Center,
UPDATE: Our coverage of this outrageous plan prompted a shift for the city. Get the latest coverage HERE
A look inside the new Moscone Center congregate “Shelter”
While hundreds of advocates have been desperately contacting Mayor London Breed imploring her to place homeless people in hotel rooms and vacant units, it seems she has her own plan for addressing poverty during the pandemic: opening indoor camps to further concentrate vulnerable people.
HOUSE HOMELESS PERSONS IN VACANT HOTEL ROOMS NOW.
The Current Situation: The City is only placing homeless people being discharged or diverted from SFGH beds who test positive or who are symptomatic into hotel rooms. The city announced today they are prioritizing hotel rooms for vulnerable people on streets, in shelters and in SRO’s but they have not moved any of them into a hotel room.
What We Want: We are calling on the City to shelter all homeless people and those in congregate settings into vacant units as a preventative measure, … READ MORE
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Today we spent time figuring out how to organize collecting and distributing tents across the City for folks who have no place to ‘shelter in place’ during the pandemic.
As information regarding the coronavirus and its potential threat of becoming a pandemic permeate every media outlet arising in pandemonium, prolonged homelessness as a social problem continues to fall through the cracks. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness in 2018, a total of 552,830 people experienced homelessness. This is an estimate calculated by using the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department’s annual Point-in-Time (PIT) count which is collected through Continuum of Care (COC) communities who self-report the homeless population.
Jeff Kositsky, director of the city Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) stepped down into the much lower position of running the embattled Healthy Streets Operation Center (HSOC), after admitting the operation was a complete failure.
HSOC started in January 2018 following a surge of encampments in the Bayview, Mission and South of Market. It started as a mixed bag. Part Encampment resolution, where the homeless department would identify a large encampment,
The seminal clinic that developed the gender protocols by which bigger, better funded medical providers now endeavor to treat trans patients, Lyon-Martin Health Services, is also my everyday clinic, and I still need it. It’s where I meet with my primary care provider, where I go when I’m sick, where I get my hormone scrips refilled, where I was able to get effective referrals for gender confirmation surgeries, where I got all my paperwork for legal gender change,
