Hard Lives Made Harder by COVID: California’s Homeless Endure a ‘Slow-Moving Train Wreck’

Speaker 1: 00:00 Lives and livelihoods continued to be up ended by the COVID-19 pandemic. California is attempting a delicate balance between caution and a population eager to resume some semblance of normalcy. It's hard to say what part of the population has suffered most from the shutdowns and restrictions of the past eight months, but a new investigative report highlights. The effect COVID-19 has had on tens of thousands of homeless people in the state while efforts to avoid a major Corona virus outbreak among the homeless have largely been at successful. The impact of a societal shutdown has made life for them much harder. Joining me is reporter Angela Hart, co author of the investigation by Kaiser health news and Angela, welcome to the program. Thank you very much. The main focus of state and community plans for homeless individuals throughout this pandemic was to try to keep them safe from the disease. Can you take us through some of those efforts? Speaker 2: 00:59 Sure, of course. So what we saw in the beginning of the pandemic almost immediately, a few weeks after, uh, governor Gavin Newsome ordered the first statewide lockdown order, as there was a major scramble to figure out what is going to happen with all the people, sleeping outside, people, sleeping and large and growing encampments under a freeway underpasses. We see it every day. If we live here, you live here in California, you see it every day. And so the governor and the new some administration really thought really, really hard about what to do to move people indoors. And so that's, I think the most important public health intervention during COVID-19 that, uh, from the state of California's perspective was really, we need to get people inside. Now, California has more than 150,000 homeless people. Most of them over a hundred thousand people by last count are unsheltered. Speaker 2: 01:57 So they're living outside. So you can see the enormous public health catastrophe that was brewing. So the governor said we need to move people inside. Um, he was working on a plan, um, quietly to buy a hotel and motel rooms before COVID struck. And so when it did hit, they sort of plucked it off the shelf and quickly transformed it into a hotel motel program to move homeless people who were sleeping outdoors into a, they call it non congregate shelter. So the idea is enough, you know, shelter inside with enough space to safely social distance. This is called project room key. It had gotten a lot of glitzy coverage sort of in the media. And we really endeavor to try and understand how it was working and not networking and on the streets and outside Speaker 1: 02:47 Here in San Diego, the convention center has become a homeless shelter. In fact, the city council just voted to expand the bridge shelter for women and families at golden hall. My is have the state's efforts largely shielded the homeless population from a widespread viral outbreak. Speaker 2: 03:06 Yes, so far a widespread outbreak has been averted. And there some interesting reasons we heard why, um, from some of the public health experts, we talked to, there's sort of a natural segregation. If you will, among the homeless population, at least the unsheltered population, you know, we don't, we, as in the general public, don't have a lot of interaction with people who are sleeping outside. And so that has sort of provided a natural barrier and the project RoomKey hotel and motel rooms of course have provided, um, critical, safe shelter that really has been important. And in some cases, life saving and yes has prevented, uh, major outbreaks among the homeless population. Um, I will say however, there is still a giant fear among homeless service providers from Southern California to Northern California and rural California and, and coastal cities and counties. There is a giant fear that we are not out of the woods on COVID-19 and there was still a big fear that this could rear up among the homeless population, especially given that project room key rooms, um, by and large are winding down by the end of this year. And as we all know, COBIT, isn't going away anytime soon. Speaker 1: 04:20 How has life changed for homeless people who remain unsheltered? Speaker 2: 04:25 It's really been heartbreaking to, to, to, to hear and to see really how much more difficult people's lives have gotten. You know, interestingly, this is not something that we had expected when we got out and started our reporting. We really wanted to understand how people, how the public health impacts were being averted. But really what we saw is sort of these sort of ad hoc cobbled together supports that homeless people, homeless community is really have developed, um, have been shattered. Uh, we're talking about, you know, the closure of public libraries during the various shutdowns, the closure of restaurants, the closure of stores, it really cut off electricity. It cut off food, food, access to food, it cut off clean water and, you know, that has made life so much more difficult, but it also has increased some of the public health threats faced by the people who are sleeping outside in California today, people we talk to and Imperial County people, we talked to and Fresno County, rural, rural California, people are bathing and canals. Speaker 2: 05:32 People are bathing in dirty water. Um, and so it's really a threat on multiple levels and that's just one part of it. What are some other ways that life has gotten harder? You know, mental health and addiction has worse ended. We heard directly from people who said, you know, we can't get our mental health condition under control. A gentleman I spoke with, you know, had had his bipolar disorder had been getting worse and worse because he couldn't access his medical benefit. Um, so there's stories like that all over California at heartbreak. And, and again, this is one of those areas where, uh, I think the hardships are continuing and there's a lot of fear among the homeless people that we took. We talked to, um, that it's just going to get worse. Unfortunately, Speaker 1: 06:18 In El Centro, your report introduces us to a man living in a tent outside the city, tell us about Carl Wilkinson. He's had to make it through on his own and says, it's a lot tougher. Speaker 2: 06:30 You know, Carl Wilkinson is a gentleman who, who has been homeless for quite some time, uh, much of his life, he has been living outside. But one thing that we heard from the many of the homeless service providers is this is the exact type of person who really should be getting indoors during COVID he's got sensitive health conditions has age, puts him at risk for COVID-19. And really these are the people like Carl are really the types of people who, um, the state says should really be prioritized for a project room, key room. Um, however, you know, Carl, like many other people in California, um, were not placed into a room and are left living outside to their own devices. Again, sleeping in and unsafe on sheltered encampments, sleep bathing in canals, bathing in dirty water. This is, this is a very, very dangerous situation. Speaker 1: 07:29 Now, some advocates say that despite the increased strain on many homeless people, the efforts being made because of COVID have actually helped many people find housing and find a way off the streets. Is that also the case? Speaker 2: 07:44 So yes, the people who are lucky enough to get inside the people who are lucky enough to be selected for a room or for a housing unit, or, you know, long shot, but permanent supportive housing, some of, some of the most coveted housing, you know, those rooms though, those shelters that, that housing really can be lifesaving, but I cannot overstate this enough. They are far short and we heard that all over California. Speaker 1: 08:12 I've been speaking with reporter Angela Hart, she's co author of the Kaiser health news investigation. And the headline on that is hard lives made harder by COVID California's homeless, endure a slow moving train wreck. Angela, thank you so much for speaking with us. Thank you so much.