Remembering the Forgotten

 

It is hard to shelter in place when you do not have a shelter to call your own. This is true for our homeless population across the nation. Joe Fitzgerald Rodriquez, from NPR’s All Things Considered, told Ailisa Chang what San Francisco is doing to support their homeless population. He stated how the city has started to support their encampments by providing resources (Chang 1). San Francisco City Council understands that providing shelter is important, even if it is improving what is already existing. The National Lawyers Guild  Homeless Committee made a statement regarding their plans for supporting the homeless during COVID-19. They stated that housing needs to be considered a human right. The committee also wants other lawyers to defend people that need suspended or reduced bills and to protect encampments (1). The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) (March 27-April 15, 2020) looked into homeless shelters across the United States. The CDC found that San Francisco’s shelter had the highest percentage of COVID-19 positive residents and staff compared with cities nationally (521). This proves that the pre-existing shelters need to enforce CDC’s standards in order to reduce COVID-19 positive cases. The CDC’s report also discussed recommendations of enforcing social distancing with the resident’s beds and requiring everyone to wear masks. Supporting the homeless population through providing safer shelters will help lower their likelihood to get COVID-19. Hopefully improving the encampments will also help to reduce the risk of the homeless population contracting the virus. 

During a global pandemic it is necessary to be able to access medical care as needed. We know this is harder for our homeless population during this time. Previously, The American Journal of Public Health published an article about a mobile truck that supported San Francisco’s homeless population infected with HIV called HHOME. They were able to care for 61 people total (1). These are 61 people that would have had HIV develop into AIDS and most likely die if it wasn’t for HHOME. This is the same for COVID-19, only this virus spreads through your immune system and progresses faster.  The CNN Wire wrote about Los Angeles County sending medical teams to their homeless population at various sites in the community.  This provided testing of COVID-19 for this population as well as, regular welfare check ups, and  transportation to shelters (Karimi and Moon 1). This is an example of an effective public health practice. Our homeless population should not be left on the streets without medical attention. Since we are in a global pandemic, being able to access medical care is essential to surviving.