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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:
Related Pages:
This page is an overview of the COVID-19 Alternative Shelter Program.
Visit the Homelessness Recovery Plan page to learn about the Mayor's plan to expand housing for people experiencing homelessness.
Visit the COVID-19 Rehousing page to learn about how the City connects Shelter-in-Place (SIP) hotel guests to housing.
Visit the Shelter Recovery page to learn how the City works to increase bed capacity in the existing shelter system.

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.

Shelter-in-Place (SIP) and Isolation & Quarantine (I/Q) Sites

Capacity and occupancy of congregate shelter sites includes only those programs that were launched or repurposed to serve the COVID response and receive referrals from the CCC. Not all shelters operated by the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) were used in the response or received CCC referrals. See the Shelter Recovery page for more details.
Capacity and occupancy of congregate shelter sites includes only those programs that were launched or repurposed to serve the COVID response and receive referrals from the CCC. Not all shelters operated by the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) were used in the response or received CCC referrals.

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: 
  1. Occupied and Unoccupied Active Alternative Housing units by site and facility type; and
  2. New intakes to SIP hotels as of November 23, 2020
On the first graph, the green sections of the bar show how many units are occupied. The purple shows how many units are available.
The cards on the right reflect the number of SIP hotel rooms vacated and back-filled after the establishment of the SIP Rehousing Cohort in November 2020. The second graph shows the new intakes to SIP hotels as of November 23, 2020.
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 and Isolation and Quarantine sites. The filters at the top of the table display demographics based on the setting where individuals are served.