From:
slider@anashram.com
LOS ANGELES (AP) — To curb the coronavirus spread, Los Angeles has
embarked on a massive effort to bring thousands of homeless people off the streets and into hotels to protect them and others from infection.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last week that money from the
federal government would help pay for at least 15,000 hotel rooms during
the pandemic. But Los Angeles County, with the state’s largest
concentration of homeless people at about 60,000, has set its own goal of 15,000 rooms.
https://apnews.com/460ec428bc33ea479ec030a898664c19
“We’re going big in LA,” said Heidi Marston, interim director of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. “We based our goal on what the need
is here.”
Marston outlined the effort on Wednesday during the daily coronavirus
briefing by county health officials.
The homeless population is particularly at risk. Many transients already
have health problems such as heart disease or diabetes, and they live in conditions that do not permit frequent hand washing and social distancing.
The hotel rooms set aside under the state’s Project Roomkey are reserved
for the most vulnerable of the county’s homeless population, Marston said. These include people over 65 and those with underlying health conditions
who don’t have symptoms but are at high risk for hospitalization if they contract the virus.
The first hotel opened April 3 in Los Angeles. As of Wednesday, officials
had secured 405 rooms at 5 sites across the county, according to Marston,
who added that all were likely to be filled by the end of the day.
A total of 1,340 beds at 15 sites are expected to be ready by the end of
this week. Thousands more have been identified as potential locations.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Tuesday that the number of rooms
needs to increase rapidly and encouraged hotel operators to allow the government to lease their rooms.
He also warned “if it requires a more aggressive stance” he has emergency powers to commandeer rooms. “We need to get people into those thousands of rooms today,” Garcetti said.
They’ll be filled first by people from existing shelters that are eager to ease crowding. Meanwhile, teams are going into encampments to find people
who meet the criteria.
“People are really scared and they’re trying to do whatever they can to protect themselves,” Marston said. “We see people who are excited to have
a safe place to go.”
Outreach workers assist with every step of the process: checking for
symptoms, gathering belongings, transporting people and checking them into hotel rooms.
Nurses are onsite to provide twice-a-day health checks. The temporary
residents will have round-the-clock security, three meals daily and access
to laundry facilities, officials said.
County officials are not disclosing names of hotels being opened to
discourage uninvited people. They’ll be spread out across Los Angeles and
in the Antelope Valley, northeast of downtown.
Project Roomkey is aiding a three-pronged Los Angeles County effort to get people indoors and safely distanced from one another. The county is also setting up medical sheltering sites with quarantine and isolation rooms
for people who have tested positive for COVID-19, show symptoms while
awaiting test results, or who have been exposed to the virus.
In addition, temporary shelters have been set up at city and county parks
and recreation centers, with beds placed at the recommended distance of at least 6 feet (1.83 meters) apart.
The estimated cost to secure 15,000 hotel rooms and staff the facilities
for three months is about $195 million, said Phil Ansell, director of the county’s Homeless Initiative. Of that, $118.5 million will pay for the
leases and the balance will cover operations, he said Tuesday.
The cost of each room will average out to about $85, Ansell estimated.
Under the agreement announced by Newsom, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will pay for 75% of the leasing cost. The state is providing $800 million in emergency funds to counties.
Newsom said as of Tuesday, more than 7,640 rooms had been secured across
the state and local officials were working to bring people in “on a daily basis, on an hourly basis.”
The governor called the effort unprecedented.
“There’s not a state in America that’s even put a plan together to get 15,000 rooms. There’s not a state that’s gotten the support of FEMA to reimburse 75% of that. And I’m very proud of those efforts,” Newsom said.
San Diego County, with about 8,000 homeless, has secured 2,000 rooms and
is prepared to get more if needed, officials said.
San Francisco, with a similar number of homeless people, has leased 945
rooms in eight hotels to house the homeless and those unable to safely self-quarantine at home.
So far the confirmed cases among the homeless population is low — Los
Angeles County has only about a dozen — but there has been little testing
of that population.
***
quote:
"Nurses are onsite to provide twice-a-day health checks. The temporary residents will have round-the-clock security, three meals daily and access
to laundry facilities, officials said."
### - 3 meals a day, laundry service and somewhere decent & clean to live
etc??
ahaha these people must be thanking 'god' for the virus LOL, they never
been treated so good?
'wealth' being redistributed like never before it looks like?? (very cool)
it's very expensive but they's actually looking after the lowest strata
for a change!?
and lookin' after 'em good too! which is tantamount to tacitly admitting
that these are in fact the minimum requirements + conditions for 'any'
human being no? (let's see 'em get out of that later huh)
plus what they gonna do after all this is over then eh? chuck 'em all back
out onto the streets with fuck all again?? that would look pretty bad!
this is actually great stuff! a huge advance in humanitarian terms!
they's actually 'doing' something about it!!! yaay! (laffing)
plus all this could even go on for months ya know? months!
people actually gettin' paid to stay home lol (crackin' up)
windfall payments of 100's and even 1000's to cover a whole raft of other expences?
fuck me, this is the vacation of a lifetime LOL, a vacation at home, away
from all the crap!
families gettin' to know each other better (domestic violence took a bit
of an upswing mind you, there's been few extra domestic murders lol...)
but apart from peeps gettin' used to all that + that of sticking closer to
home than ever before, it could actually work out kinda sweet for 'people' otherwise forced to have so many things to do outside and so away from
their homes & families!
strange things are happening folks! not all of it bad!
the world is changing almost overnight!
:)
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)