DHHS director: Project Roomkey has served 300 homeless people
Hundreds of homeless people in Humboldt County have been helped off the street since the pandemic began thanks to a state initiative launched at the start of the pandemic, a county official says.
Project Roomkey offers a place to self-isolate for people who are homeless and have tested positive for COVID-19, been exposed to COVID-19 or are at risk for significant health complications. To date, the project has helped 300 homeless people in Humboldt County, representing 19,000 bed nights, the county’s Department of Health and Human Services Director Connie Beck testified at a joint state Senate committee meeting on homelessness during the pandemic, hosted by North Coast state Sen. Mike McGuire, on Wednesday morning.
“Our biggest challenge with Roomkey has been staffing,” Beck said.
Like other counties, Beck said the pandemic affected Humboldt County’s staff, forcing many to take a leave from the workforce for reasons such as parents needing to stay home to care for children and workers who are at high risk of severe illness needing to self-isolate. Other staff have been reassigned to assist with emergency operations, she said.
Congregate shelters had to reduce capacity to curb the spread of COVID-19 in their facilities, leading many homeless people locally to retreat into the woods and greenbelt, Beck said.
Despite staffing challenges, the county acted quickly to implement the initiative and outreach was swift, Beck said.
“The intent was to get people off the streets and into non-congregate shelter quickly, which we did,” Beck said. “Now comes the hard part, re-housing.”
Beck said the rental market has tightened significantly during the pandemic, with available units in decline and rents increasing dramatically, which she attributed to remote workers from other areas moving to the county.
Three local entities applied for Project Homekey funds, which would allow them to purchase and rehabilitate housing units such as hotels and motels and turn them into interim or permanent housing. Beck said two were successful, resulting in 60 new units.
Humboldt County, which partnered with the St. Joseph Health System, received $4.3 million in September to purchase a Project Roomkey motel that will provide 42 permanent supportive housing units and six outpatient recuperative care beds for people experiencing homelessness.
Homekey funds were combined with Housing for a Healthy California funds and Community Block Development Grant funds to “make the project pencil out,” Beck said, adding the hospital agreed to provide all supportive services for future tenants.
The county couldn’t have agreed to the collaboration without the hospital’s support because the county itself doesn’t have adequate funding or capacity to staff a permanent supportive housing project, Beck said.
In October, the Yurok Indian Housing Authority, which partnered with nonprofits Arcata House Partnership and True North, received $2.2 million to purchase an 18-unit motel in Eureka.
“Significantly both of these Homekey projects have led to additional partnerships with the hospital and tribe that did not exist before, strengthening the local continuum of care,” Beck said.
Many small counties weren’t able to take advantage of these initiatives because they lacked the capacity to provide support services or had significant insurance and liability barriers, Beck said.
Beck said it was important to note that the local homeless population has significant mental health and substance abuse disorders. The Sempervirens Psychiatric Health Facility, which has 16 beds and a crisis stabilization unit, is struggling to admit patients as emergency rooms are simultaneously struggling with capacity, she said.
“We must expand the placement and crisis residential options for people with mental illness across the state,” Beck said. “Engaging people with mental illness hasn’t been the problem; finding the appropriate beds has.”
What would be most beneficial to counties “is flexible funding that could be used across human services and housing programs,” Beck said.
Based on the 2019 pointin-time count, McGuire said Humboldt County has the highest per capita homeless population in the state and the third highest per capita homeless population in the country.