Join KPCC's AirTalk with host Larry Mantle weekdays for lively and in-depth discussions of city news, politics, science, the arts, entertainment, and more. Call-in number: 866-893-5722 Project Roomkey, launched in early April by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, is the state's effort to "provide safe isolation capacity for tens of thousands of people experiencing homelessness in California in order to protect them and the state from COVID-19." On April 18, the state surpassed its goal of procurin...

How to counter a pandemic that’s effectively targeting a community.

As the far-reaching impacts of the COVID-19 crisis continue to reverberate nationwide, California lawmakers are attempting to reorient the state's housing policies in an effort to continue making progress in addressing the housing crisis gripping the region. Previously on Archinect:

Increasing Housing Options for Homeless Populations Through a Shared Housing Approach Although many Americans have significant experience living in shared housing, shared housing has been an infrequently used strategy within the affordable housing and homelessness systems. Inadequate supply presents a challenge to people transitioning from homelessness to permanent, stable housing. At the National Alliance to End Homelessness’ 2020 Solutions for Individual Homeless Adults conference, held in ...

The Trump administration has reversed its approval for San Francisco to open a 200-bed navigation center in the Bayview neighborhood — a blow that has thrown plans for dozens of homeless shelters across the state into disarray.

While homelessness funds were largely spared from proposed budget cuts, California lawmakers press for more funding for other housing programs.

A sobering analysis from a Columbia University economist is projecting a 20% rise in homelessness in California this year, and a potential 40% to 45% increase nationwide, as the coronavirus continues its economic shock. Economics Professor Brendan O’Flaherty’s projection comes as national unemployment rose to 14.7% in April and as Gov. Gavin Newsom predicted this week that California unemployment could climb to 25% while tax revenues drop by the same number. O’Flaherty said the U.S. is in unc...

How we keep our home reflects our inner selves. Our homes aren’t just about furniture, fixtures, and decor — they’re about emotional safety, security, and harmony. Our home represents our growth and ongoing development, our dreams both fulfilled and yet unmet, our loves, desires, failures and successes, fears, and triumphs. Amid a global pandemic that is still holding a grip over most of the world, our homes, and our home lives, have been greatly challenged. With that, Shondaland decided to e...

Employees who work at Silicon Valley’s homeless shelters are putting themselves on the frontlines of the pandemic to protect the county’s most vulnerable residents, even as many live on the margins themselves. Two homeless service providers in Santa Clara County told San José Spotlight that, between them, six of their hundreds of shelter workers have...

In the 1930s, with the Great Depression blanketing the country, countless families faced the heartbreaking uncertainties of how to pay the bills, what to eat for each meal and even where to sleep the next night. With staggering unemployment, Americans were displaced at record numbers, shocked, dejected and hopeless. Then, perhaps not so different from today, was the underlying question: when will this end? At the time, one ray of hope was the 1935 Social Security Act. This landmark legislatio...

Towards a similar aim, another team of researchers from three US universities in late March that lays out some minimal needs that might slow the spread of COVID-19 among homeless people, such as providing rooms for individuals at high risk of severe disease because of underlying health conditions. In projecting the “costs of inaction”, they find that, without further interventions , more than 21,300 homeless people in the United States will need to be hospitalized for COVID-19, and 3,400 will...

Respite programs have been a lifeline for sick homeless people during the COVID-19 pandemic. The problem is there is a severe shortage of these programs.

Police departments are using drones to communicate with homeless populations while complying with social distancing requirements.

Under international human rights law, everyone, without exception, has a right to adequate housing, and governments should be doing all they can to ensure that everyone can enjoy this right. Public health is one reason to do this. But basic humanity is most important.

Post Date: 05/07/2020 9:00 AM Homelessness Response Team Heroes One of the City’s missions is to enhance a safe, livable, and vibrant community for its diverse residents, while that is difficult in current times for our unhoused population, it remains an important goal. The City’s Homelessness Response Team is a prime example of continuing that mission. The Team has been on the frontlines of the City’s COVID-19 response, providing desperately needed services to some of our community’s most vu...

The Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition is leading on daily updates and resources for people experiencing homelessness, low-income renters and homeless shelter providers.

Clearing encampments can cause people to disperse throughout the community, which increases the potential for disease spread.

The region's newly arrived solutions for homelessness must be continued and expanded, with permanent staffing and funding secured by our county and city elected officials.

Homeless people are at risk from the coronavirus. Police have a contentious solution: Drones.

Ishaan Brar first toured a homeless shelter as a Boy Scout. His Scout troop in Bakersfield, Calif., was doing a community service…

Cheryl Doktorczyk wants the coronavirus to go away "more than anything." With shops closed, finding somewhere to wash up has been nearly impossible.

Last month, in Austin, Texas, just as the pandemic was starting to wreak havoc, city officials came to clear the encampment where Britton Ellis was living with her friend and a dozen or so other homeless people. City workers, accompanied by the police, tore everything down: the shelters constructed out of bits and pieces of wood, tents. Within an hour, Ellis said, everything was gone. Dejected, Ellis relocated to an underpass along U.S. Route 183, where she makes do in her 10-by-12 tent. ...

By Nadia Lopez San Jose Spotlight With nearly 10,000 homeless residents sleeping on Santa Clara County's streets every night, regional leaders say they're concerned the novel coronavirus could rapidly spread among one of the county's most vulnerable populations. County leaders have ramped up their efforts to protect the homeless community from a massive outbreak in the South Bay, which quickly emerged as a coronavirus hotspot last month. To get people the services they need, officials have set up multiple temporary housing locations, including shelters and motels, and are working around the clock to get people who are sick or have been exposed to the virus a safe place to stay. For homeless residents who are sick, think they've been exposed to COVID-19 or have pre-existing conditions that place them at risk, here is a step-by-step guide to getting into a motel or homeless shelter. Step 1: The first step is to call the county's 24/7 hotline at 408-278-6420. If the lines are busy, a county hotline operator will call back. The county has at least four staff members available to take those calls daily and offer help in multiple languages for individuals who do not speak English. For those without access to a phone or broadband service, outreach teams in the South Bay are visiting homeless encampments and offering their phones to assist with calling to start the intake process. Teams of health care workers are specifically looking for those who are more vulnerable to the virus, such as seniors or people with underlying health conditions. County officials are also working to provide hand-washing stations, portable toilets and clean water at homeless encampments. Day time centers, such as the Catholic Charities John XXIII Multi Service Center at 195 E San Fernando St. in downtown San Jose, also have...

The city of Berkeley has reached a deal with La Quinta Inn to provide rooms for the homeless population during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Though they’re among the most vulnerable, unhoused people struggle to get tested for the coronavirus and find shelter for quarantine.

This pandemic has shown governments can solve homelessness. Here’s a must-do list to provide housing for all

Tens of thousands of veterans are homeless on any given night in America, and more than 1.4 million were at risk of becoming homeless before the pandemic struck. Now, advocates say there could be a spike in the number of homeless veterans, a population at elevated risk for the virus. Earlier in the pandemic, work to shelter veterans in permanent housing ground to a halt when they needed it most. Veterans who had housing vouchers from the government but hadn't used them to rent homes before th...

Old tensions ran high at Tuesday’s meeting over a proposed site for emergency shelter for the homeless at Monterey and Bernal roads.

More than 200 South San Jose residents and housing advocates spoke at a virtual town hall Monday night to express concern or applaud a plan to fast-track dozens of new housing units for homeless residents during the region’s shelter-in-place order due to the coronavirus pandemic. “As a city, we really have two emergencies on our...

A family checks in at a food distribution site run by Second Harvest of Silicon Valley. "Right now, we're reaching out to all of our food suppliers and bringing out as much as we can," the group's CEO Leslie Bacho said. A family checks in at a food distribution site run by Second Harvest of Silicon Valley. "Right now, we're reaching out to all of our food suppliers and bringing out as much as we can," the group's CEO Leslie Bacho said. (Photo courtesy of Second Harvest of Silicon Valley/Faceb...

State of California

Complications include staffing, food, and the need to socially distance.

Doctors who serve homeless people in the city have new resources to house them during the pandemic. What happens when it's over?

As state scrambles to protect 150,000 homeless, shelters report positive coronavirus tests

((Photo courtesy Berkeley Free Clinic)) Melissa Moore spends her days on her bicycle, riding to the tent communities under the BART tracks in San Leandro to bring people food and supplies. Shelters in Alameda County have stopped accepting new clients — as they have in San Francisco and elsewhere around the Bay Area — so they can begin to implement the social distancing guidelines that have been mandated by the state and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But that makes it hard fo...

Los Angeles, home to some 59,000 homeless and thousands of undocumented migrants, is at risk of a major spread of coronavirus as it runs unchecked through underserved communities, the director of a network of 18 federally qualified health centers warned. In the last 10 days, St. John's Well Child and Family Center saw 879 low-income patients with symptoms of coronavirus who were referred to its newly erected isolation tents. Of the 39 individuals who could be tested, seven were confirmed posi...