Dozens of homeless have been kicked out of Sacramento hotels used as shelters during COVID
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Donald Lowery, 73, held a cane with one hand Monday. With the other, he rolled a heavy tire down a street in Sacramento County’s Foothill Farms neighborhood. He stopped multiple times to take breaks to wipe the sweat from his brow and catch his breath.
Lowery was replacing the tire on his motor home so he can sleep in it after being kicked out of the state of California and Sacramento County’s Project Roomkey program. After he finished a stay at the hospital following a fall, staff told him he was not allowed to remain staying in a Rancho Cordova hotel, which has been sheltering homeless men and women during the pandemic, he said.
“That was pretty stressful,” Lowery said, recalling the moment last week he found out he would have to leave the hotel, where he had been staying for over a year. “I was having a hard time breathing. Where was I gonna go? How was I gonna get my stuff out?”
Lowery was one of about 250 people who have been kicked out of the three Sacramento Project Roomkey hotels since they opened in spring 2020, according to county spokeswoman Janna Haynes. Of those, about 65 people were kicked out because of criminal activity. The rest were told to leave because of non-compliance with a variety of rules.
Shelter staff told Lowery to leave because he had a visitor, which is against hotel rules, Lowery said. But the woman visiting, Jami Arbuckle, was not just a visitor, he said. She would come to the hotel to take Lowery grocery shopping, bring him food and pick him up for his doctor’s appointments, he said.
“I tried to tell them that she’s a helper, a caretaker for me,” Lowery said. “I can’t even put my socks on.”
Lowery, who was hit by a pickup truck last year, has a broken leg, a fractured back, high blood pressure, narcolepsy and a slew of other medical conditions. He carries a backpack full of medications.
The “no visitors” rule is one of 20 rules that guests of the three Project Roomkey motels must follow. Guests must be back to their rooms prior to 8 p.m. each night unless prior arrangements are made, must get approval for time spent outside their rooms, must allow staff in for “room checks” and must wear a resident badge whenever they leave their rooms. They also cannot smoke in rooms, cannot be “aggressive” toward staff or guests and cannot damage property.
The purpose of the rules, including the “no visitors” rule, is to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and maintain a safe environment, Haynes said.
“If we freely allow outsiders onsite it could generate COVID outbreaks and potentially compromise the safety of all participants due to potentially unwelcome guests who are not beholden to any consequences if rules are violated,” Haynes said in an email. “We have a very high tolerance and try to give people numerous chances to succeed and remain sheltered in our program, unfortunately we do have to ask people to leave that are putting others in jeopardy or are affecting the safety and operations of the shelter.”
Homeless sheltered in CA motels
About 18% of the 1,338 people who have spent time in the Roomkey motels since they opened in spring 2020 have been kicked out. Many, like Lowery, are back living on the streets. Bob Erlenbusch, of the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness, said that percentage is too high.
“To have almost 20% of everybody who’s participated in Roomkey become homeless again seems pretty inhumane,” Erlenbusch said. “People should be treated with dignity and not have all these restrictive rules ... the only reason people should be asked to leave is if they’re violent or doing something illegal.”
Now that the pandemic has been ongoing for over a year, many people are lonely and needing socialization, said Joe Smith, advocacy director of Loaves and Fishes.
“You’re basically divorcing life entirely to stay in this room,” Smith said. “To be in that place for so long ... you’ve got that itch, you’re longing for company. How long are you going to expect people to live like that?”
As of May 21, there were 303 people staying in the three Roomkey motels in Sacramento — one downtown, one in the River District, and one in Rancho Cordova. As of May 28, about 271 people have moved into stable housing, while an additional 222 have moved into temporary housing after staying in the Roomkey motels and Cal Expo trailers since they opened in spring 2020, according to a program fact sheet.
The Sacramento Roomkey motels are set to stay open at least through August. Haynes said the rules will stay in place despite the state Tuesday lifting many business closures, social distancing requirements, capacity limits and mask requirements.
This story was originally published June 17, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
