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COVID-19 Alternative Shelter Program
The City’s response to COVID-19 includes establishing the
COVID-19 Alternative Shelter program to provide emergency, temporary shelter options for the City's most vulnerable populations, a vast majority
of which are for people experiencing homelessness. The City is using private
hotel rooms, city-managed tent sites, and a variety of other types of facilities to establish these safe
spaces for residents to isolate, quarantine, or shelter-in-place.
The page offers information on the COVID-19 Alternative Housing program:
This page is about the temporary Alternative Shelter program.
Visit the Rehousing page to learn about how the City is also working to find more long-term housing options for these guests.
Who does the COVID-19 Alternative Shelter program serve?
The City has several priority populations for COVID-19 Alternative Shelter:
Note on Front-Line City Workers
In addition to prioritizing the vulnerable populations described above, the City launched a Front Line Worker Housing program at the onset of the coronavirus public health emergency. From March through
early August, this program served 1,128 front-line workers at a dedicated hotel
site. The Front Line Worker Shelter program has now transitioned to an
on-demand, flexible hotel accommodation model and is no longer part of the Alternative Shelter program.
What is the status of the City's existing congregate shelter system?
Early in the pandemic, the City implemented COVID-informed
public health guidance for congregate-style shelters across all existing
congregate sites that included prevention and mitigation practices including, but not limited to: social distancing, increased cleaning protocols, and health
screenings. As part of the implementation of this guidance, individuals
vulnerable to COVID-19 in existing congregate shelters were offered placement
into the Shelter-in-Place (SIP) hotels. The implementation of COVID-informed public health policy
resulted in a temporary pause of new intakes into congregate shelters as well
as a loss of capacity within the congregate shelter process.
Congregate Shelters have and will continue to remain open
and operating, although at a lower, COVID-informed capacity. New intakes are accepted at congregate sites
that have adopted and implemented COVID-informed public health guidance.
Referrals to congregate shelter are managed through the COVID-19 Command
Center’s centralized referral process. Referrals are voluntary and limited based on availability. Some individuals experiencing unsheltered
homelessness may not be ready to accept a referral to congregate shelter at the
time the resource is offered, remaining unsheltered. The City is working to expand congregate
shelter capacity by opening two new Navigation Centers in early 2021, the Lower
Polk Navigation Center for Transitional Age Youth, and the Bayview SAFE
Navigation Center. Additionally, congregate shelters will re-inflate to
pre-COVID capacity when and as public health guidance allows.
Shelter-in-Place (SIP) and Isolation & Quarantine (I/Q) Sites
SIP and I/Q: Site Capacity
The City has established a variety of COVID-19 Alternative Shelter options, including private hotels, congregate sites, and trailers. Many sites have on-site medical and behavioral health staff as
needed for guests. Public health and human service officials assess and
determine the most appropriate housing option and on-site services to meet the
needs of the different populations.
The interactive dashboards display:
- Occupied and Unoccupied Active Alternative Housing units by site and facility type; and
- The status of Alternative Housing units (Active or In Preparation) by site and facility type.
On the first graph, the green sections of the bar show how many units are occupied. The purple shows how many units are available.
On the second graph, if all bars are yellow, this means all sites are Active (there are no sites In Preparation to be brought online).
Source data: Alternative Housing Sites
How do individuals move into and out of I/Q sites?
There is a flow into and out of sites used for individuals
isolating with COVID-19 at the Isolation & Quarantine (I/Q) Sites. When
people with COVID-19 recover from the disease and are given medical clearance to leave, they may go back to their original living location or be transferred back to their original SIP congregate shelter. This allows the City to provide rooms for newly diagnosed
COVID-19 individuals and persons under investigation.
SIP and I/Q: Demographics
The data below provides demographic information for
individuals accessing the City’s COVID-19 Alternative Shelter Program. The
filters at the top of the table display demographics based on the setting where
individuals are served. For COVID-Positive/PUI sites, the graph in the
bottom left corner reports the prior living situation of each guest. The chart
on the bottom right expands that information: for all those who reported their
prior living situation was experiencing homelessness, the percentage who were
sheltered or unsheltered; and of those who were sheltered, the percentage from
each type of sheltered living situation.
SIP & I/Q: Assessing Unmet Needs
Isolation & Quarantine (I/Q) Sites for COVID-Positive/PUI: current COVID-19 Alternative Housing supply is sufficient
The need for additional I/Q Sites can be influenced by external factors. For example, a large-scale testing
initiative may create a new surge in need for isolation sites for patients
diagnosed with COVID-19 who are homeless or marginally housed. Subsequently,
while some of these individuals could return home after isolating, individuals
who are homeless will need a safe shelter option that is separate from
asymptomatic individuals who may still be at risk of contracting COVID-19.
Shelter-in-Place (SIP) Sites for Vulnerable Persons Experiencing Homelessness:
- Sheltered: current COVID-19 Alternative Housing supply is sufficient
- Unsheltered: estimated 2,200 individuals meeting vulnerability criteria
Asymptomatic people experiencing homelessness who are 60 or
older or have been diagnosed with a COVID-vulnerable medical condition are
prioritized for placement into a hotel room to safely shelter in place. The
Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) has followed CDC
guidance to safely space the beds within existing congregate shelters, and as
part of that effort, has placed nearly all COVID-vulnerable individuals into COVID-19 Alternative Housing sites. These approximately 500 individuals are reflected
in the data presented above.
While the City estimates there are approximately 2,200 unsheltered
individuals meeting the vulnerability criteria, some people experiencing
homelessness may choose to remain on the street or within HSH’s Temporary
Shelter sites (shelters and/or navigation centers) despite the efforts of
nonprofit service providers, the Homeless Outreach Team, Shelter Health and
street-based health care providers.
Sites for Individuals who are Marginally Housed: unknown need for COVID-19 Alternative Shelter
Individuals living
in single-room occupancy hotels (SROs) often share bathrooms, kitchens and
other common areas. In the event of a COVID-19 case detected in a specific
SRO, the Department of Public Health's Contact Tracing and Epidemiology
teams will make a case-by-case determination of which residents should be offered
space at a COVID-19 Alternative Housing site. Visit our page on residents of SROs to find out more about the impact of the pandemic on these residents.
SIP & I/Q: Housing Pipeline
The City developed a
variety of hotel, congregate, and RV/trailer options to fulfill emergency
sheltering needs. The Human Services Agency (HSA) solicited interest from
hotels in March 2020 and over 80 hotels responded. See the data above for the
current sites under contract.
Many hotels were interested in working with the
City on COVID-19 Alternative Shelter, though some preferred to only provide
services to front-line workers. The City worked with hotels through a voluntary contracting process, and did not take any steps to commandeer hotels during this pandemic.
Safe Sleep Sites & Villages
To respond to the crisis, the City and its community
partners have taken a human-centered approach to provide people experiencing
homelessness with safe and clean places to sleep and access to services and
sanitation if other existing resources are not available or desired. One new
strategy is the Safe Sleep Program: a low-barrier and COVID-informed component
of the Alternative Shelter system of care that offers 24/7 access, connects clients to resources
and services to help them safely shelter in place, and provides a connection to
the Homelessness Response System to work toward an exit to homelessness. The program aims to implement public health guidelines in a dignified way to
keep unsheltered individuals safe during the pandemic and maximize the number
of residents that have a safe place to shelter in place.
What are Safe Sleep Sites and Villages?
Safe Sleep Sites are designated City-managed locations where
people can safely sleep in tents off the sidewalks and remain socially
distanced from each other. Safe Sleep Sites provide 24/7 access and provide guests
have access to garbage services, hygiene (portable restrooms and hand washing stations)
and charging stations. There is security at each site, 7 days a week, and
service providers regularly visit Safe Sleep Sites to provide outreach and
engagement, harm reduction supplies and intervention, medical services and
trauma-informed behavioral health services.
Safe Sleep Villages have additional services available including
24/7 staffing by a service provider with experience working with people
experiencing homelessness. Staff ensure
a safe environment and help support the well-being of guests through regular
check-ins and management of inflow/outflow from the site. Safe Sleep Villages provide guests with access
to behavioral health and harm reduction services,
access to medical attention and benefits, food
and water, access to hygiene services, including showers, charging
stations, and garbage service.
See the dashboard below for more information on the capacity
of the Safe Sleep Program and the individuals served. Please note, some tent
spaces allow for more than one individual, resulting in a higher current
individual census than the number of tent spaces active.