Sacramento County identifying hotels where homeless will be sheltered during COVID-19 crisis
State officials have identified more than 900 hotels and motels where the homeless could be sheltered to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, including some in Sacramento County, Mayor Darrell Steinberg told The Sacramento Bee Tuesday.
Steinberg said he expects state officials to share the list of vacant or mostly-vacant private motels in Sacramento County with county officials on Tuesday. Either the state, county or city will then lease the properties and move homeless in, he said.
“We’re going to try to work with the state and the hotel owners to lease as much space and as many beds as we can,” Steinberg said. “It’s a matter of great urgency.”
Steinberg said he did not know how many rooms will be available or when homeless could start moving in.
The new assisted living facility at the Red Lion Hotel Woodlake is a “strong possibility,” City Councilman Jeff Harris said.
The owners of that facility have contacted the city offering to help, but it’s not yet determined if it will be selected as one of the sites, Steinberg said.
At least one other motel has offered to participate, county spokeswoman Janna Haynes said. She declined to disclose the location. County officials are looking to the state for further guidelines, she said.
“We are working to coordinate the logistics and financing of such an effort – including providing food and services to support clients, including medical services, security, transportation and more before we can move forward,” Haynes said in an email.
Gov. Gavin Newsom Sunday announced 450 emergency trailers would be deployed statewide to shelter the homeless, in addition to the motel conversions. Newsom’s office has not yet said whether Sacramento County will receive trailers. Steinberg has asked the state for trailers and is waiting to hear back, he said.
“We’ve expressed a strong interest,” Steinberg said.
The city is planning to open large shelters in North Oak Park and Meadowview this spring, but in the meantime, all shelters are typically full on any given night.
Coronavirus dangerous for elderly homeless
The coronavirus is most dangerous for older adults and those with underlying conditions, making Sacramento’s homeless population especially at risk. Volunteers in January 2019 counted 5,570 homeless people living in Sacramento County, mostly sleeping outside and mostly in the city. About 30 percent of those sleeping outdoors were over age 50. About 20 percent were over 55.
Gwen Mayse, 59, who sleeps in an RV in a yard in Elverta, said she hopes the hotels open soon. When she runs out of propane, her showers and hand washing are cold and not as ineffective to prevent the virus. It’s also been cold at night.
“I don’t wanna get sick. It scares me,” Mayse said.
Mayse, who has several small dogs, urged officials to open some rooms that allow pets.
Caity Maple, a homeless advocate, has been thinking about how to help the city’s homeless. Last week, she took action.
“I asked around if any of them had soap and water and none of them did,” Maple said. “That was a red flag. Many people were unaware that there was a virus.”
Maple started a GoFundMe page and raised more than $3,000. She used some of that money to place makeshift hand washing stations - two large coolers with water and soap on a small table - at an encampment near the American River at the end of Basler Street. She lugs the coolers back to her house every so often to refill them, about a half mile, then brings them back.
On Tuesday, Maple and the city placed 30 more sophisticated hand washing stations at six locations around the city. They were funded for four weeks by the online donations and Perfect Union, a cannabis company where Maple is vice president of government affairs and relations. Each bright blue station contains a sink on each side, soap dispensers and paper towels. They’re now located under the W/X freeway near 21st Street; Cesar Chavez Plaza downtown; at Northgate Boulevard near Highway 160; the Roseville Road light rail station in north Sacramento; and near Morrison Creek in south Sacramento.
“It’s sad it takes a pandemic just to get some hand washing stations but hey, we got to do what we got to do, right?” said Crystal Sanchez, president of the Sacramento Homeless Union, who teamed up with Maple and Councilwoman Angelique Ashby for the project.
Hand washing to prevent COVID-19
Don Miller, who sleeps in a tent near Basler Street, said he is glad soap and water is now available so he doesn’t have to use his hard-to-find hand sanitizer to prevent the virus.
“I’m able to wash my hands not just once or twice a day, but all day every day,” Miller, 44, said.
Experts have said washing hands in warm water for at least 20 seconds is the best way to prevent the spread of the virus.
Homeless activists are urging city and county officials to put out portable bathrooms and showers near encampments. The call for port-a-potties, which started years ago, has been increasing in recent months. It’s now even more urgent with the virus, activists say.
Studies conducted in Singapore and China found the virus can spread through fecal matter. That makes it even more imperative for officials to install portable bathrooms and showers at the encampments, where people are frequently defecating outdoors and not washing their hands, said Bob Erlenbusch, of the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness. Erlenbusch sent a letter to city and county officials last week with a list of demands.
If a restroom is installed near the area where Miller camps, he will help maintain and clean it, he said.
Bonnie Mueller, who sleeps on a mattress in the trunk of her car in north Sacramento, said bathrooms would be very helpful. She starts every morning by going to McDonald’s to buy a coffee and use the restroom, but she can’t always afford it, she said.
“If you don’t have any money to buy a soda, you’re not going to get to a bathroom,” Mueller, 56, said. She’s eagerly waiting the opening of the hotel rooms, she added.
Activists have also demanded officials stop so-called “sweeps,” where police officers, Sheriff’s deputies or park rangers tell homeless people they need to move to new locations and dismantle encampments. Homeless often lose their belongings in the process.
San Jose stopped such sweeps last week, in light of the coronavirus, The Mercury News reported.
“In this pandemic, if a homeless person can see a doctor and say, ‘OK I’m living at this encampment this is how you find me,’ and then the park rangers come take their stuff, they’ve lost medication, they’ve lost survival gear and the outreach workers can’t find them again,” Erlenbusch said. “It really is a recipe for disaster.”
For the same reason, activists are also asking police to stop towing vehicles that are left in the same place for more than 72 hours.
Mayse and Mueller have both lost several vehicles that way, important documents along with them.
Sacramento police have not changed policies that dictate how officers respond to the homeless in light of the virus, said Officer Karl Chan, police spokesman. Guidelines are changing rapidly, though, and the department might adjust its procedures in the future, he added.
Last week, the city set aside $250,000, which will be used along with county funds to distribute hand sanitizer, put out hand washing stations and increase shelter capacity, city spokesman Tim Swanson said.
Nonprofits cutting back
Loaves and Fishes, the city’s largest homeless services provider, has taken several steps to prevent the spread of the virus.
The campus, which normally closes at 3 p.m. weekdays, is now closing at noon, said Noel Kammermann, executive director. The dining room, womens’ facility and wash house remain open, but the mental health clinic, legal clinic and jail visitation services have closed, Kammermann said. Like most schools in the state, the Mustard Seed School for homeless families has canceled classes.
The nonprofit is also not allowing people to eat in the dining room, but instead giving them bagged lunches they can take to go.
For many homeless people who were looking forward to eating in the dining room to get out of the rain, the news was disappointing, Kammermann said.
“We got a lot of folks who really wanna come inside, but for their health and safety, we can’t allow it at this point,” Kammermann said.
Maryhouse normally serves breakfast to about 90 to 100 homeless women and children daily on the Loaves and Fishes campus, said Shannon Stevens, Maryhouse director. On Tuesday, less than 50 women showed up, and no children. That could mean families are afraid to leave their tents or cars for fear of becoming infected, Stevens said.
“I’m very concerned that they will be unreachable should the county decide to provide shelter for them,” Stevens said.
Loaves and Fishes told all volunteers over age 65 not to come to work, per Newsom’s Sunday directive. As a result, they’re short staffed and looking for volunteers who don’t fall into the high risk group, Kammermann said. Those interested can email volunteers@sacloaves.com.
Photographer Renee C. Byer contributed to this report.
This story was originally published March 17, 2020 at 4:54 PM.
