State lacks virus data on tenants of public housing
The Burroughs Community Center distributed 700 hand-woven reusable masks to residents of Bridgeport’s P.T. Barnum low-income apartments to protect tenants during the coronavirus pandemic.
“We know that COVID-19 has disproportionately affected people of color, magnifying the importance of ensuring that vulnerable populations have access to masks,” the community center said about the event.
And yet local, state and federal officials do not fully know the extent to which the deadly illness has infiltrated Connecticut’s public housing
developments such as P.T. Barnum, even though such densely packed buildings are potential hot spots of infection.
“We have a vulnerable population around elderly with underlying health issues,” said Karen Dubois Walton, head of New Haven’s Housing Authority, Elm City Communities .
“We have people who are lowincome and most likely working the jobs that require them to still go out into high-risk situations — health care, nursing assistants, people working in nursing homes, food services, grocery stores — and living in close conditions,” Dubois Walton said.
But on Friday a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which funds and manages the country’s public housing stock, told Hearst Media, “We do not have comprehensive, shareable data available at this point in time” about residents’ COVID infection rates.
Further, Av Harris, spokesman for Connecticut’s health department, was not aware of “an apparatus that has been built at the state level yet” to make up for that lack of federal data. But, Harris said, cities and towns have the ability to gather their own and respond to it.
Because COVID is a reportable disease, the state and local health departments share a database of information about those who have tested positive and negative for the virus, which includes names and addresses. While personal details are not public, municipal health officials could use that database to monitor the pandemic’s impact on public housing sites.
“They have a far better sense of what’s happening on the ground in their communities,” Harris said.
Hearst found that some cities, towns and housing authorities were far more aggressive in tracking coronavirus in public housing than others.
“We have 24 confirmed cases — some that have been hospitalized, some staying at home and self-isolating,” said Elm City Communities’ Dubois Walton. “We have one known fatality.” Elm City manages 1,700 units.
Dubois Walton said New Haven’s Health Department shares information with her — “not with a specific name but to let us know somebody from one of our addresses has been hospitalized or diagnosed.” She also said Elm City staff have been constantly checking in with families, some of whom “self-report” illness.
“We’ll get information from neighborhoods — someone will let us know someone has been hospitalized,” Dubois Walton said. “My guess is we’re pretty good on our count of people who have been hospitalized. Where we’re probably under counted are the people who may have gotten a diagnosis but are wellenough to be home.”
Few numbers
Adam Bovilsky, head of Norwalk’s Housing Authority, said that, based on aggregate data from local health officials — “no individualized information has been provided” — he has had 50 tenants test positive for coronavirus.
“We serve 1,041 families or around 2,500 individuals,” Bovilsky said.
James Slaughter, interim director of Park City Communities — the Bridgeport Housing Authority — knew of two residents who died with COVID. But Slaughter had no information about any other cases in his 5,400 units.
“So far we’ve been, I guess, lucky,” Slaughter said. “But I can’t say anything definitive.”
The union representing Park City’s building maintenance workers said three members tested positive, but it was unknown if they were infected while on the job.
Betty Cook, a Bridgeport public housing resident and chairman of the authority’s board, said she asked building managers and tenant association leaders to keep her informed of infections — “don’t give me a name, just how many” — but has heard nothing other than the two fatalities.
Jeff Rieck, head of the Danbury Housing Authority, said a “couple” tenants had died since the pandemic began, but the agency was not tracking the number of sick residents.
And in Greenwich, Anthony Johnson, who oversees that town’s 920 units of low-income public housing, was aware of “a few” cases but had no exact numbers.
Cowliss Andrews, a member of Bridgeport’s housing board, did not believe that Park City Communities had only two COVID cases. He said if Bridgeport has the technology — called ShotSpotter — to track and rapidly respond to gunfire at public housing sites, the city should be able to track coronavirus infections in those same buildings.
“Public safety is public safety,” Andrews said.
Scot X. Esdaile, president of the Connecticut NAACP, said the lack of information about public housing is more proof Connecticut lacks “an urban strategic plan” for battling the pandemic that includes providing more virus testing accessible to poorer communities.
Esdaile said New Haven has done a good job trying to expand testing throughout that city “to people living in (public) housing.”
Danbury’s Rieck said his housing authority would welcome a group coming to offer tests or provide transportation to testing sites. And Slaughter acknowledged Bridgeport has had the same challenge. He said for some tenants reaching a testing site “is two bus rides.”
Harris said as Connecticut expands its COVID response strategy “a key part is to test those populations that are most impacted and highest risk, so that definitely includes residents of under-served and of public housing communities ... in cities like Bridgeport or New Haven.”
In the meantime those housing authorities that do have some data are hoping it is accurate.
“To have 24 residents out of 1,700 units that represents more like probably 5,000 lives,” Elm City’s Dubois Walton said. “I think that’s probably as good as it can get.”