Homeless facility closing June 30

COVID-19 shapes plans for services, funding

The ISO-Q Complex for the homeless at Cashman Center will close at the end of June, and county officials will invest millions more into social services because of the effects of COVID-19.

The ISO-Q, for isolation/ quarantine, which was erected in 2½ weeks by Clark County and Las Vegas, stopped taking new patients and will discharge its last patient June 30.

The entire site will be vacated by July 31, Clark County officials said during a commission meeting

Tuesday.

The $8.4 million medical facility was built to serve as many as 500 but has seen only 233 since it opened April 13. On Thursday, there were 15 patients in the facility. Seven were quarantined, three were in the isolation symptomatic unit, and five of them tested positive for the virus, city officials said.

With medical care, social workers at the county were able to provide housing for about 80 percent of the patients at the complex, said Tim Burch, the county’s administrator of human resources.

“That’s a phenomenal discharge rate,” he said. “We’ve been able to successfully put most people coming out of the ISO-Q promptly into some sort of filtering, allowing us to move them up that stair step. So we can’t lose

focus on that.”

Shift in funding

Burch on Tuesday presented a report and update to the Clark County’s plan to end homelessness, and said that staff at the ISO-Q have administered 846 COVID-19 tests and helped 20 positive patients recover.

Patients were referred to the facility by area shelters and hospitals, which helped free hospital bed space for more serious cases of the disease. The complex included Wi-fi, air conditioning and separate restroom and shower facilities.

But now, Burch said, the complex is closing and the county wants to look ahead on how to spend federal

funds and keep moving forward come next year.

Burch estimated that the total cost of the ISO-Q and additional beds for quarantine that will be provided through the end of the year would be around $13 million. He also proposed $30 million in financial aid services for rent and utility help and food and emergency expenses, of which there have been no commitments to date.

He also proposed $33 million for emergency housing and shelter,

$45 million for basic need aid and $21.3 million dedicated to coordinated coronavirus testing sites for the homeless.

The spending through December will serve as a “head start” for 2021 and be covered by existing programs and new programs. The money may be used only for costs directly tied to

economic impacts of the coronavirus, spokesman Dan Kulin said.

Funds for other services

During the Tuesday meeting, Assistant County Manager Kevin Schiller emphasized the importance of mobile COVID-19 outreach units and increased programs to help find housing for medically fragile homeless people who are being discharged from the hospital.

Because of COVID-19, Schiller told commissioners, the county has to consider two levels of populations when looking at social services.

“That’s the homelessness client that we traditionally would come before you and talk about, but it’s also people on the verge of homelessness, it’s people that’s life have been turned upside down,” he said.

Last year’s homeless census

counted 5,530 people living on the streets of Clark County, and many people are unsure of what that number will look like after the eviction moratorium lifts, Schiller said.

Schiller said using the federal CARES Act dollars to increase public-private partnerships and housing opportunities and to address needs of the near-homeless will create sustainability in the community.

“It’s an investment in the future, so when we look post December, what we want to be able to do is show that we’ve invested in terms of increasing our capacity and service level,” Schiller said.

Contact Briana Erickson at berickson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5244. Follow @Bybrianae on Twitter.