Coronavirus: 60,000 homeless people at risk in California alone as charities urge emergency action

Governor approves fund for trailers and hotel rooms while hospitals brace for surge in vulnerable patients

Coronavirus infections could impact more than 60,000 homeless people in California, where officials have released millions of dollars in emergency funds to shelter the balloning numbe of people without a permanent place to live.

Over the next two months, more than half of the state's 108,000 homeless are likely to contract the virus, according to governor Gavin Newsom.

On Monday, San Francisco Bay Area counties issued a "shelter in place" order impacting 6.7 million residents, including the nearly 30,000 homeless people in the area. Officials have urged them to seek shelter, though advocacy groups have warned that crowding into shelters could also put people at a significant health risk, while health officials have recommended limiting groups to no more than 10.

"Coronavirus is very frightening from the perspective of homelessness," said Nan Roman, director of the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

Without being able to reliably wash their hands and disinfect their surroundings, homeless people are at risk of being "sicker and more vulnerable", she told The Independent.

Mr Newsom issued an executive order approving $100m (£87.3m) in emergency shelter funding, with $50m used to support the construction and purchase of trailers and rent hotel rooms and other shelters.

That funding comes from a $1.1bn (£961m) funding package approved by the state legislature this week to expand homeless services as well as healthcare and child care throughout the duration of the outbreak.

City officials in Oakland also have secured 400 hotel rooms, and two hotels in San Mateo County have been leased to the county as temporary shelters.

Officials in the Bay Area also plan to equip homeless encampments with hand-washing stations and portable toilets, while frontline organisations are preparing to offer medical support and other services to the area's homeless populations.

The first reported Covid-19-related death of a homeless person in the US was reported in Santa Clara County, which has seen a 30 per cent spike in its homeless population from 2017 to 2019.

The need for roughly 12,000 hospital beds to help people living on the streets — many of whom are older and and immunocompromised — dovetails with a shortage of beds in a state health system that is already bracing for an overwhelming number of patients.

Mr Newsom said: "That creates a deep point of anxiety for the existing population, but moreover for our healthcare delivery system."

The pandemic is expected to significantly impact homeless populations across the US.

Of the roughly 552,800 people experiencing homelessness in the country, nearly one-third include families with children, according to a 2018 report.

Cities routinely cite "public health hazards" to break up encampments or push for punitive measures that criminalise homelessness, amplifying a dilemma among unsheltered people in a country that is under national orders to self-quarantine and stock up on supplies.

Emergency relief legislation passed by congress also does not contain funding to aid homeless people.

The crisis hits as advocates clash with an administration that has promoted moving away from a "housing first"-driven guiding policy, a best-practices rubric for state and local governments that stresses getting homeless people into permanent supportive housing. The White House team coordinating the federal response claims that the philosophy does not work, despite arguments from policymakers and national organisations working directly with homeless people.

A dramatic increase in the number of unsheltered people across the US has been fuelled by a sharp rise in income inequality and the declines of affordable and publicly subsidised housing over the last several decades.

Advocacy groups have pointed to countless systemic issues that have enabled homelessness — from cuts to federal safety nets to the over-production of high-end housing — while Donald Trump's Republican administration has been accused of politicising the crisis in feuds with Democratic mayors.