A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness
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.
Doctors, public health experts call for testing and housing all shelter residents in hotels
Yesterday, California experienced its most widespread outbreak of COVID-19 in any homeless shelter to date where nearly half of 144 shelter residents tested positive. For some perspective, the outbreak in this single shelter of 70 shelter guests comprises 8.5% of all positive cases in San Francisco, which total 857 as of Saturday.
When looking back on the lead-up to this catastrophe we see a series of policy missteps that got us here.
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
