Coronavirus Outbreak: 70 cases at St. Vincent De Paul shelter for the unhoused

Coronavirus Outbreak: 70 cases at St. Vincent De Paul shelter for the unhoused

By Lynda Carson - April 10, 2020

Earlier today it was announced that there are 70 cases of coronavirus COVID19 at San Francisco’s largest shelter for the unhoused at the St. Vincent De Paul shelter. Reportedly, there are 68 cases involving the unhoused, and 2 cases involving staff members at the shelter.

San Francisco activists for the unhoused have criticized San Francisco Mayor Breed repeatedly for taking so long to place the unhoused into the many hotel rooms San Francisco is paying for to house the unhoused.

In an April 2, 2020, report by Mission Local in San Francisco, it said, “Mayor London Breed on Wednesday declared that homeless street dwellers over age 60 and suffering from underlying health conditions would be prioritized for vacant hotel rooms during the COVID-19 outbreak.
 
And everyone thought this was a good idea. But, moving beyond that, it’s difficult to find much broad agreement among members of city government regarding what to do with the thousands of rooms slated to be on hand by week’s end. 

Yesterday’s announcement was the first nod toward proactively relocating any of the thousands of people living on the street into the hotel rooms obtained by the city. The tally of aging street-dwellers with underlying conditions who are also capable of self-care — the population Breed prioritized on Wednesday — was pegged for Mission Local at around 300. 

That’s a start — but San Francisco homeless advocates and politicians have been calling for the proactive placing of thousands of vulnerable, asymptomatic unhoused people into vacant hotel rooms before San Francisco experiences a massive public health calamity among this population.

That call has gone largely unanswered. And the city, in fact, on March 23 ceased allowing new entries into homeless shelters — relegating many to remain on the streets.”
 
“Everybody keeps saying the right things: That we care about COVID-19 patients and unsheltered people,” says Supervisor Aaron Peskin. “But why it’s taking so damn long is a mystery.”

According to a petition to house the unhoused in San Francisco to protect the unhoused from the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, it states, “San Francisco currently has 30,000 vacant units and 42,000 empty hotel rooms while 18,000 homeless people who are disproportionately elderly, chronically ill, and with severe medical conditions are without homes. Currently, the City is only placing those who test positive or who are symptomatic into hotel rooms. We are calling on the City to house every single homeless person in a vacant housing unit immediately, prioritizing those who fall into the high risk category.”

Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com

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