User:Lavender Lilac/sandbox

'''NOTE FROM AP STYLE: New in AP style: Homeless is generally acceptable as an adjective to describe people without a fixed residence. Avoid the term "the homeless." Instead: homeless people, people without housing or people without homes. Mention that a person is homeless only when relevant.'''

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on homeless communities in the United States
LEAD INFO SUMMARY HERE (How many people were estimated to be homeless at beginning of pandemic?)

https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness-2020/

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/poverty/reports/2020/10/05/491122/count-people-where-they-are/

Despite being one of the more vulnerable populations, as of August 2020, homeless communities were not being officially monitored for COVID-19 infections or deaths. Government agencies were not required to gather data related to them and the pandemic. Conflicting information was reported in July 2020, with US's homelessness czar reporting only 130 COVID-related deaths among the homeless since March and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism reporting 153 COVID-related deaths in a sample of only six cities. The issues around data and aid for homeless populations center around lack of cooperation between health and housing departments and inability to secure testing.

Risk of infection
People without housing often already struggle with health issues and underlying conditions, which puts them at greater risk to develop COVID and puts them in greater danger if they do. They also often spend time in communal areas, which may increase spread.

Loss of access to food, water, and shelter

As many homeless people work essential jobs for low wages, they are often at higher risk of being exposed to the virus, then contracting or spreading it.

Aid
Local resources are typically left to handle aid for people without housing.

The CARES Act allocated $4 billion to aid with homelessness in the pandemic. However, that money may be spent on keeping people in their homes rather than helping those who are already homeless. By July 2020, only 1/3 of the allocated funds were accessible to communities. Federal guidelines for usage were not clear to communities who had received funds. The distribution of those funds involved recalculating the formula used to determine how much money communities receive for homeless aid. The previous formula was considered outdated and did not account for the homeless population of the community receiving aid. As of December 2020, the change in formula will only pertain to the 2020 calculation. It will then revert back to the prior formula.

Shelters and closures
In San Francisco, several not-for-profit organizations that serve people without housing had to close due to the pandemic in April 2020. Shelters, gyms, libraries, and other areas where they might stay during the day also had to limit daytime gatherings. Many shelters that were open were already filled to capacity.

In Dallas, one shelter worried about resident exposure during daytime classes or at their jobs. Two other shelters in the area had to remove beds to accommodate safety precautions and social distancing, reducing their capacity by 38 and 50%.

In Los Angeles, shelters removed beds to accommodate social distancing at the beginning of the pandemic. One shelter's capacity was reduced by 50%.

Local responses
With no federal guidelines in place, communities responded to the needs of people without housing during the pandemic in a variety of different ways.

Colorado Springs, CO: Built a shelter with 100 beds in three weeks with interdepartmental cooperation between non-profits and public health.

San Diego, CA: Created a combination shelter, testing site, and meal hub out of a convention center, providing shelter for around 2,780 people from April to August.

Sanger, CA: Refused trailers to house potentially infected homeless people, citing inability to provide medical care. The trailers went to Fresno instead.

Imperial County, CA: Refused to help with a city testing program, reportedly due to unwillingness to participate in pre-emptive activities.

After positive tests in the homeless community, Boston added 240 beds in shelters to help house homeless people who were ill and needed to recover.

Los Angeles initiated a program called Project Roomkey, which provided access to 4000 motel and hotel beds for people without housing. Another program, Project Homekey, had bought 1800 former hotel rooms and apartment as of January 5, 2021 to provide living spaces with less group congregation following a rise in cases linked to shelters. The city also provided toilets and hand washing stations early in the pandemic.

Testing and Vaccination???
Early predictions indicated that homeless populations may be particularly hard hit during the pandemic. [CITE] Despite this, homeless communities were not officially monitored for COVID-19 infections or deaths and federal agencies were not required to gather data related to them and the pandemic. Cities reported clusters of cases as they occurred in shelters. In April 2020, 36% of the 397 people staying at one Boston shelter tested positive. All of them were asymptomatic at the time of testing, raising concerns for spread of the virus in shelters at large. Further testing of the homeless population found a 26% positive rate. That same month, a large San Francisco shelter reported 90 positive tests from residents and an additional 10 from staff. At the time, shelters in the city said they would limit shelter evictions, but would likely be unable to sustain an extended shelter-in-place order. Thirty-eight residents at a Dallas shelter also tested positive. No further testing was performed at the facility with the assumption that the residents and staff had already been exposed and would only be tested if they developed symptoms.

In January 2021, Los Angeles reported a surge in cases among people without housing with a majority of cases occurring in shelters. Early reports had shown less affect on the city's homeless population than first feared. After Thanksgiving, however, infections doubled from the average 60 per week it had been before. They continued to climb, reaching 547 new cases in last full week of December.