Fresno-area gets $2 million to help homeless residents during coronavirus pandemic
Fresno-area leaders late on Wednesday announced a “regional approach” to protect and help the homeless population through the coronavirus pandemic.
During a news conference, city and county officials outlined plans to isolate in hotel rooms homeless residents awaiting test results or are showing symptoms of the COVID-19 virus.
Fresno County Supervisor Nathan Magsig described the homeless population as the “most vulnerable” said county and city officials are working on solutions with leaders of the 14 cities in Fresno County, and Madera County.
Part of the approach includes pooling emergency state money each group received to fight the pandemic. Fresno obtained $1 million, Fresno County got $500,000 and Continuum of Care got another $500,000 for a total of $2 million, said H Spees, director of strategic initiatives for the city of Fresno.
Spees said it’s critical that local leaders cooperate under the current situation.
Additionally, Sonia De La Rosa, principal administrative analyst for Fresno County, said county officials will likely be housing other homeless residents in hotel rooms.
“The reason why are using hotel rooms is because that will give us an opportunity to isolate those folks who are pending test results or have been identified as (COVID-19) positive but do not require hospitalization,” she said. “So we are working on trying to secure more rooms that as the hospitals call us we are able to provide a place for them to be in isolation and quarantine as necessary.”
The existing shelters in the county are also participating by reserving beds that might become vacant “to ensure that we have that capacity to isolate” those that require it, she said.
But officials are still looking to identify anywhere between 20 to 30 hotel rooms to use.
About 30 handwashing stations have been deployed to near the existing shelter and in Reedly and Sanger. Officials are planning to deploy some in Mendota and other rural towns.
This story was originally published March 25, 2020 at 6:42 PM.
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