County Orders COVID-19 Hotel Review After inewsource Exposes Poor Care, Oversite Questions
Speaker 1: 00:00 San Diego County supervisors have ordered an independent review of the COVID-19 hotels sheltering program, the program, which is nearly a year old provides shelter to people who need to isolate because of exposure to COVID or who are homeless. A company hired to solve earlier. Allegations of mismanagement at the crown Plaza isolation hotel in mission Valley is now facing allegations of mismanagement itself. Reports of inadequate care, untrained staff, hostile security guards, and frequent police calls surfaced in an I new source investigative report late last month. Joining me with more is I new source investigative reporter Cody Delaney, Cody. Welcome. Speaker 2: 00:44 Thanks for having me. Speaker 1: 00:46 How many hotels are part of this program and about how many people do they house? Speaker 2: 00:51 Yeah, the County won't say how many hotels are involved or where they are even only that, that, that it has secured 640 rooms for the program. Um, at the crown Plaza, there were close to 300 people staying there late last month. And these rooms are used for temporary housing for two kinds of people. Those who have come in contact with the coronavirus and those who are, who are at risk for developing severe illness. If they do come in contact and County health officials, they direct people to these rooms for isolation, if they have nowhere else to go. So that could be first responders who need to isolate away from family members, uh, or people who are going through immigration. Uh, but we're hearing the vast majority of people staying in these rooms are homeless people, Speaker 1: 01:40 Initial report by a new source on the crown Plaza found that people sometimes in mental or emotional distress were not getting the care they needed. Can you remind us about that situation? Speaker 2: 01:52 Yeah. After the County started acquiring these hotels last March County employees quickly became overwhelmed as they tried to manage. Uh, we obtained some emails from an employee saying she was begging and pleading for additional services. So they knew they weren't providing the mental health support and case management that these folks needed. And a few weeks later staff found a man had died in his room by suicide. Five days had actually passed before his body was discovered and staff members there had told us that there had been other suicide attempts there as well. Speaker 1: 02:26 So the County brought in a new management company, tell us what is Equis workforce solutions supposed to be doing? And how much is the County paying them? Speaker 2: 02:36 Yeah. Equis is responsible for providing guests with basic necessities, right? Such as three meals, a day, laundry services, onsite security, and providing people with their medications. And it relies on several subcontractors to get that job done. Um, the county's contract with Equis runs through the end of this year and will cost $30 million. Another company called Telecare is responsible for providing mental health services to the hotels. And the County changed an existing $13 million contract had had with that company to get that done. Speaker 1: 03:11 Now, in your most recent report, you spoke to a couple of people who have worked for Equis at the crown Plaza and a former resident of the hotel. What kind of conditions did they tell you about? Speaker 2: 03:23 Yeah, it's, it's certainly a challenging situation to be in, regardless of who you talk to. Um, for employees they're doing what they can, but they know it's not enough. You know, they say guests, weren't receiving medication on time. Toddlers were going days without appropriate food. And they flat out told us that they're not trained to deal with most of the situations that they encounter, you know, especially when it comes to mental health episodes and for guests at the crown Plaza, it's, you know, it's not like they're there for vacation. They're, they're staying, they're under a public health order because they've come in contact with the Corona virus. And they told us from the moment they arrived, there is absolutely no empathy or compassion. They're treated like a burden from staff and, and harassed by security guards. Uh, one man, we interviewed for the story. He said an issue about his service dog escalated to a security guard, attempting to hit him with a chair. Speaker 1: 04:19 So was the I new source report the basis for this new County investigation into the hotel sheltering program? Speaker 2: 04:26 Yeah. I'm still waiting for confirmation on that, but, but here's what I can say that the county's order came eight days after our reporting on this situation. And when board chair, Nathan Fletcher called for the independent review, he said it was quote in response to some of the concerns around what we're doing on hotels and clubs. Speaker 1: 04:47 So when is the investigation supposed to begin? Speaker 2: 04:50 So County staff was directed to return back to the board with a report on this review within 90 days. So sometime anytime between now and 90 days we'll have a better understanding of what's going on. Speaker 1: 05:04 And Cody, what, if anything, is the longterm plan for these sheltering hotels? Are they supposed to continue being a housing resource for homeless people even after the pandemic? Speaker 2: 05:15 Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of, lot more reporting to do on the situation. That's certainly a question I have. Um, the, like I said, the county's contract with Equis expires at the end of this year. Um, but we might have a better understanding on the future of this program when County staff returns with that report, uh, within the next 90 days. Um, because we don't, we don't, we still don't know what's going to come out of that report and what the staff will say about it. Speaker 1: 05:42 Okay. Then I've been speaking with, I knew source investigative reporter, Cody, Delaney, Cody. Thank you very much. Thank you so much.
