Yes. However, some youth shelters have limited space and different hours during the shelter in place, so calling ahead is a good idea, if you can. Even if they do not have beds available at the moment, many youth shelters are keeping their doors open for drop-in hours during the day so that you can take a shower, do laundry, and get something to eat.

In addition to the resources provided in the Emergency Options and Immediate Shelter chapter in this Handbook, other emergency shelter options are available. If you can avoid crowded shelters, please do because these type of facilities are not conducive for social distancing and quarantining practices required to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Emergency Funding

Of the $500 million in emergency funding authorized by the California legislature for activities related to COVID-19, California Governor Newsom allocated $150 million for emergency homelessness actions. The funds are allocated as follows:

$100 million directly to local governments, for shelter support and emergency housing to address COVID-19 among the homeless population, and
$50 million to purchase travel trailers and lease rooms in hotels, motels, and other facilities in partnership with counties and cities to provide immediate isolation placements throughout the state for homeless individuals.

More information is available here.

Emergency Shelters

To limit the number of homeless people on the streets, local governments are rapidly building and expanding emergency shelters. For example, San Diego has converted its convention center to a shelter and Los Angeles has converted city recreation centers.

Project Roomkey - Hotels and Motels

Project Roomkey is a statewide initiative California Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled in light of COVID-19 to secure 15,000 hotel and motel rooms for residents experiencing homelessness. To date, the state has secured 10,974 hotel and motel rooms and 4,211 of those rooms have been occupied.

To provide safer options during the COVID-19 pandemic, Project Roomkey isolation units serve three critical public health purposes:

Prioritize individuals experiencing homelessness who do not have any COVID-19 symptoms, but are at high risk, such as people over 65 or who have certain underlying health conditions, and move them into motel or hotel units where they can more safely self-isolate.
Provide isolation capacity for individuals experiencing homelessness who have been exposed to COVID-19, that do not require hospitalization, but need isolation or quarantine; and
Provide isolation capacity for individuals experiencing homelessness who are COVID-19 positive, but who don’t need hospitalization. Without these isolation units, their only choice is to return to a congregate shelter setting or back to an encampment – both of which would lead to further spread of COVID-19.

The local governments are responsible for identifying which shelter clients or residents are selected for these hotel isolation placements and transporting them to the hotels for intake.

Meals, security, and custodial services, as well as, essential behavioral health and health care services will be provided by the local governments and community partners, as needed.

These emergency protective measures will protect public health by isolating the medically vulnerable, thinning out the shelter population for social distancing, in turn, slowing the rate of spread of COVID-19.

Trailers

The Governor’s ongoing efforts to deploy 1,305 trailers to local governments continues to progress. Trailers, purchased by the state and operated by the local governments, serve the same function as the hotels and complement the efforts of Project Roomkey. To date, 1,133 trailers are spread across 13 counties.

More information is available here and in this article.

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California

Chapter: *COVID-19 Rights & Resources*

Chapters

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