California is filling around 7,000 hotel rooms with homeless people during coronavirus pandemic
The state has secured more than 7,000 hotel rooms to house homeless individuals most threatened by the coronavirus pandemic, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Saturday.
About 870 homeless individuals have already been housed in recent weeks as part of an effort the state is calling Project Roomkey, Newsom said. The news comes as California local governments race to slow the virus spread by housing and isolating some of the state’s more than 150,000 homeless residents — many of whom are older, sicker and living in compact shelters or on the street.
Newsom, standing outside a hotel in West Sacramento now housing 30 previously homeless individuals, the Democratic governor said by the end of the first phase of the project, he’d like to see local governments secure occupancy agreements for up to 15,000 hotels rooms.
“What we want to do is relieve the stress in our shelter system and separate individuals and ultimately relieve the impact on the medical care delivery system,” Newsom said. “If left unaddressed, we allow our most vulnerable residents in the state of California to be exposed.”
The temporary housing program will be supported by a first-in-the nation Federal Emergency Management Agency framework created for the crisis, he said.
The agency will reimburse counties and cities 75 percent of the cost of housing homeless individuals who have tested positive, who have been exposed, or are “high-risk” — people who are 65 or older or who have underlying medical conditions.
The rest of the housing program will be paid for by millions of dollars the state has sent local governments to shelter homeless individuals. Newsom directed $100 million last month in emergency state funding to several local governments and agencies to get new beds up and running immediately with supportive services like meals and medical care.
On top of filling up vacant motels and hotel units, the state has secured 1,305 travel trailers and distributed more than 580 to local cities and counties to also temporarily shelter individuals, the governor said.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, co-chair of Newsom’s homelessness task force, said during the Friday press conference he hopes the state’s efforts will lead to permanent housing for thousands of homeless people.
“Homelessness was a crisis before the COVID crisis. It’s a heightened crisis during this pandemic. And if we do our part now, it could be less of a crisis as we come out of this,” Steinberg said.
At least one homeless individual has died from COVID-19 in California, and more than a dozen have been infected, Newsom said.
The new program is aimed at ultimately giving counties and cities the ability to continue homeless services at these hotels and motels. The occupancy agreements include the ability to extend leases, as well as purchase options, Newsom said.
“We’re not just thinking in the short-term, we’re also beginning to process long-term support so we can get people off the streets in a permanent way,” Newsom said.
Fresno County so far has moved 306 people into motel beds. Similarly, San Diego has put 276 people into motel rooms, as of Wednesday, Voice of San Diego reported. The counties of Ventura, San Mateo and Santa Clara have also moved homeless off the streets and into motels.
Sacramento County, the city of Sacramento and local homeless services agencies — which got about $4.3 million in state funding combined — have identified 221 hotel rooms for the homeless, but do not plan to move people in until mid-April, prompting criticism from activists. County officials are securing service providers for the homeless before moving people in, said Eduardo Ameneyro, the county’s division manager for homeless services.
The virus is most dangerous for elderly and those with underlying medical conditions. A January 2019 count estimated 5,570 homeless people were living in the county, mostly sleeping outdoors and mostly in the city of Sacramento. About 30 percent of those sleeping outdoors were over age 50. About 20 percent were over 55.
There are so far no known positive cases of the virus in Sacramento County’s homeless population, county spokeswoman Janna Haynes said.
This story was originally published April 3, 2020 at 1:45 PM with the headline "California is filling around 7,000 hotel rooms with homeless people during coronavirus pandemic."