California Struggles To House Thousands Of Homeless Placed In Hotels During Pandemic



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In this Monday, April 13 file photo, pedestrians walk to the edge of the sidewalk to avoid stepping on people in tents and sleeping bags in the Tenderloin area of San Francisco. Due to the coronavirus pandemic. California Gov. Gavin Newsom launched «Project Roomkey,» in which the federal government will pay 75% of costs associated with housing some homeless.

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A demonstrator holds a sign in the Mission in San Francisco on Nov, 16 calling for shelter-in-place hotel rooms to remain available for unhoused residents.

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Jessica Ellis and her son, King, pose for a portrait on the back stairs of their apartment building on Nov. 15.

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Homeless people wait to be checked-in to a hotel room in Venice Beach, Calif., on April 26. The NGO St. Joseph Center is providing Hotel rooms to the homeless people at risk or infected with COVID-19, through Project Roomkey of the City of Los Angeles.

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Homeless people wait to be checked-in to a hotel room in Venice Beach, Calif., on April 26. The NGO St. Joseph Center is providing Hotel rooms to the homeless people at risk or infected with COVID-19, through Project Roomkey of the City of Los Angeles.

APU GOMES/AFP via Getty Images

A long-term home

San Francisco’s Stewart-Kahn said the city is committed to making sure everyone in the hotels would be transferred to «short, medium or long-term» placements when they leave and that she believes there is adequate capacity available.

«We can try to wait until there is perfection, but we are never going to get there,» she said. «This is an opportunity to end homelessness for more people in San Francisco than anyone in our field has ever gotten the opportunity to do.»

With the coronavirus infection rates rising and many congregate shelters closed or at reduced capacity, advocates for people experiencing homelessness say it’s critical that the people in these hotels stay housed.

Dr. Margot Kushel, a professor of medicine and the director of the Center for Vulnerable Populations at the University of California in San Francisco said it would be «unconscionable» to allow older, medically vulnerable people chosen for the program to go back into homelessness.

«To return them to homelessness would be a big lost opportunity and frankly, a tragedy,» she said.

Gillette Christa said she’s not sure when she’ll find out whether she’ll get a permanent home or temporary housing. She fractured her ankle in three places in August, she said, and it’s still healing.

«There’s the fear that there may not be a match,» Christa said. «And my ankle won’t be close to well.»

But, she said, she’s already met with a housing coordinator who is working to get her into long-term housing.

«I’m hopeful, but I’m not counting chickens,» Christa said. «I’m waiting for them to hatch.»

KQED staff reporter Molly Solomon contributed to this report. 

  • homeless people
  • CAlifornia
  • Homeless
  • homelessness



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