Homeless at ‘double risk’ from coronavirus danger
SALEM, Ore. – They often don’t have places to wash their hands, struggle with health problems and crowd together in grimy camps.
That’s what makes homeless people particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus. Almost 200,000 people live in those conditions in the United States, according to a White House report, with Washington state, California and Oregon among the states most affected by homelessness as income inequality grows and housing costs rise.
And – in a possible recipe for disaster – the new virus has hit hardest on the West Coast, where nearly all of the nation’s more deaths have occurred. Health officials have not yet reported coronavirus outbreaks among homeless populations, but tuberculosis and other diseases have swept through them in the past, underscoring their vulnerability.
Yet few communities that are trying to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus have rolled out plans to protect the homeless and give them a place to recover in isolation, which would prevent them from passing it on.
“They are double risk. One is a risk to themselves, the other is a risk to society,” said Chunhuei Chi, director of the Center for Global Health at Oregon State University in Corvallis.
King County, which includes Seattle and is the site of most of the U.S. deaths, is one of the few places that has taken action, installing more than a dozen module units where infected homeless people can recover, some on county-owned land flanked by apartment buildings. The units, roughly the size of a mobile home that accommodate several people, were previously used by oil workers in Texas. County officials also bought a motel where coronavirus patients can recover in isolation.
That approach needs to be replicated in many more places, said Chi, who has been closely following the global outbreak that originated in China.
“This should be treated as an emergency policy, not as a permanent solution to homelessness, but more of framing it as a solution for containing the spread,” Chi said.
San Francisco says it’s developing a plan to protect the homeless from the virus but hasn’t released details yet. A cruise ship believed to be a breeding ground for cases has been lingering off the coast of the city.
San Francisco postponed an event Thursday at a major arena that was to provide community services for the homeless. It typically draws up to 1,000 people and was delayed to reduce the risk of exposing the homeless population to coronavirus “because they are older as a group and typically have multiple chronic medical conditions,” the city said in a statement.
Farther south, in Los Angeles County, the health department is sending teams to over 300 homeless facilities to ensure people are washing their hands and not sharing food or utensils, department director Barbara Ferrer said. She’s urging shelters to prepare large spaces to isolate those who may become sick.
Health officials in the nation’s most populous county also are planning for a possible large-scale quarantine of homeless people in case the virus spreads.