While navigating COVID-19, Denver had a unique set of challenges. A legal challenge led a Denver Judge to declare camping bans unconstitutional. Many homeless advocates are pushing for more housing in the wake of COVID-19. After all, you can't self-isolate in your home if you don't have one.
Late last year, Denver City Council set aside $7 million in spending to help develop strategies that improve homeless services. This funding comes from $15.7 million to be spent over three years. Following the mid-March declaration for coronavirus emergency, the city opened two large shelters that operate around the clock. Their three-year strategy came together in a matter of weeks. The city has spent $13.6 million to shelter people during the coronavirus outbreak, which is more than half of its emergency funding. To supplement this, Denver has leaned on federal emergency resources. These new resources centers are designed to give individuals more space.
Mayor Michael Hancock has said that the city needs 3,300 hotel and motel rooms, because according to the latest surveys, "some 4,000 people are experiencing homelessness in Denver on any given night." The hotels already acquired have been set aside for older individuals experiencing homelessness and those who are immunocompromised. Many of these people have been connecting with caseworkers for the first time. Denver is using COVID-19 as an opportunity to guide people to job training, health care, and permanent housing. A homeless advocate in the city said, "It is really critical that we take this and resolve ourselves that we're not going to go back to the way we were before. We should be working together and working now even in the midst of this crisis to plan how no we moved into a hotel or even a shelter goes back."
Although this is a challenge, Denver believes it can be done. The City Council is looking at using federal emergency funding as vouchers that people experiencing homelessness can use to rent apartments. They are also looking to expand affordable housing, and use COVID-19 as a jumping point for those discussions. With the camping laws in place, advocates are still prioritizing housing individuals.
Baltimore has also faced some challenges as they navigate outbreaks of COVID-19 across the city. The focus in Baltimore has been on asymptomatic spread of coronavirus in settings that demand an immediate response from state and local leaders in Maryland. On any given night, 5,200 Marylanders live in emergency and transitional shelters. Three factors have guided efforts to contain the spread in these settings: a swift response from shelter leadership, a strong cross-sector collaboration of public and private systems, and proper staffing and supply.
To the first point, Baltimore Station (homeless resource center) adopted a "shelter in place" position that restricted movement in and out of the facility, before the first resident displayed symptoms and was moved to an isolation facility. They then quickly triggered testing and isolation following this positive result. To the second point, Baltimore City moved more than 150 people over the age of 62 with chronic pre-existing conditions to isolation motels. They de-congregated the largest shelters and implemented symptom screening, testing, and isolation protocols. To their third point, Baltimore City is aware that the local shelter systems are unable to effectively respond as spread increases. This reality has prompted rapid testing, appropriate isolation, and increased surveillance in a matter of hours and days. Baltimore instead of working at a high level is focusing on "boots on the ground" staffing.
In Baltimore, homelessness was already a public health emergency. COVID-19 illustrated that housing equals health. When this immediate crisis is over, Baltimore will prioritize policy initiatives for housing and health care. Baltimore and Denver have similar problems to New York City but on a significantly smaller scale, as New York's positive cases reach 193,000.
New York City’s ongoing housing crisis is already a daily reality for four in ten low-income New Yorkers who are homeless or severely rent-burdened. The pandemic is bringing hundreds of thousands of families to the brink. In recent years, New York has had a major legislative overhaul to try and address these housing issues such as rent regulation and access to counsel. These legislative victories have given tenants the tools to cope with the long-term economic impacts of COVID-19, but with the housing under this unexpected stressor, there is an immediate need for an infusion of public funding for housing that is permanently affordable to low-income families, and more broadly a reorientation of the public sector's role in housing stewardship.
Before March 2020, many low-income New Yorkers were already living on the edge, with the vast majority of low-income renters spending the majority of their income on rent. Seventy percent of these same low-income renters have less than $1,000 in savings for an emergency. The city has 312,000 renters’ households who earn incomes below twice the poverty level and receive no federal housing assistance. 34 percent of New Yorkers earning under $50,000 reported that they or someone in their household has lost their job as a result of the pandemic during March. In April, 74,000 low-income households found it hard or impossible to make their rent.
New York, like Baltimore, and Denver is using COVID-19 as a stepping-stone for future homeless programs. Many housing advocates have noted that the root of many problems for homeless individuals come from stigmas. The executive director of Callen-Lorde (an LBTQ medical provider) compared the response of COVID-19 to that of the HIV crisis in the 1980s. She said, " In this situation, there is so much stigma of being homeless, living in poverty, in shelter--- treating people with respect and dignity and valuing every person's life and experience in a part of how we provide healthcare at the shelter[s]." In efforts to mitigate this, New York is implementing programs to provide healthcare, mental health, and substance disorder services across COVID-19 shelters. They want to try and solve homelessness by adding case management and prioritizing housing. All of these cities are designating time and money in strategic planning for what life will look like after COVID-19.
Sources:
https://denverite.com/2020/05/04/what-lessons-does-the-coronavirus-response-hold-for-getting-people-housed/
https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/op-ed/bs-ed-op-0422-homeless-shelters-coronavirus-20200421-jmlfkwlmw5bmjk7occdmsqytyu-story.html
https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/lessons-from-aids-epidemic-inform-pandemic-response-for-nyc-homeless