Fresno wins millions in homeless funding for pandemic, but officials wrangle over details

Fresno received another $3 million from the federal government to house the homeless amid the coronavirus pandemic.

That brings the total to about $5 million in emergency coronavirus funding for the unhoused population. But hundreds of individuals set to move into hotel rooms remain unsheltered in Fresno because organizations don’t have a place for them.

The money comes from the third federal stimulus package for COVID-19, known as the CARES Act. The city received $2.2 million in relief funds, and the county has received $850,000, according to City Council President Miguel Arias.

That’s in addition to the $2 million Fresno and Madera received from the state, which went towards roughly 300 shelter beds the county has all but filled up.

The second set of funding will house 300 people in a local hotel. City leaders rejected the first hotel because it was in a residential neighborhood. The second site, near the airport, requires a larger staff than one group can provide, according to Arias.

Fresno-area homeless residents have stayed at smaller shelters, the largest of which has room for about 132 people. Those rooms had direct street access to prevent cross-contamination should one person test positive, according to county Principal Administrative Analyst Sonia De La Rosa.

The shelters have instituted curfews, but can’t legally force individuals to stay in their rooms, Arias said. Staffers check temperatures daily, provide meals and enforce social distancing.

Officials worried that a larger, traditional hotel, where rooms don’t open into a parking lot, would defeat the purpose of a shelter-in-place facility.

A Fresno County supervisor, however, blamed at least part of the delay on problems he said were caused by homeless residents sheltering in the hotels.

“We let the first 15 homeless go into a hotel in Fresno less than a week ago and they f’d the place up! Now the whole plan is in jeopardy locally,” County Supervisor Steve Brandau tweeted.

A handful of individuals have been staying at a hotel in Fresno, awaiting COVID-19 test results.

Brandau said one person poked holes in the ceiling because he thought someone was hiding on the other side. He said another individual spilled the contents of their colonoscopy bag, requiring “hazmat cleanup.”

De La Rosa declined to address Brandau’s comments specifically but said no hazardous materials teams had been involved with any of the sites. She said workers have dealt with incidents at the sites, but described them all as minor.

“I think, given the population we’re dealing with, there could be medical and mental health issues we’re having to overcome. There’s been a variety of issues, but certainly, nothing that hasn’t been manageable or not within the contract we have in place,” she said.

De La Rosa said the county is working with UCSF and federally qualified health centers to get medical attention and prescriptions to all individuals staying at their shelters. Shelters are already able to reach medical providers over the phone.

The county is also expecting to receive 28 trailers to house individuals awaiting test results or having to self-isolate from confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Brandau said, “NIMBYism on behalf of Fresno City Council,” was another reason for the delay, as well as poor coordination among the city and county.

Arias said “NIMBYism” wasn’t a factor. The goal, he said, was to find a spot for the facility - which likely will house some people with COVID-19 - in a more remote part of the city to reduce the potential for more community spread.

He added that the city has already housed hundreds of homeless residents and provided a backup hospital for the county.

Arias suggested moving the unsheltered individuals to county properties like the fairgrounds or the Elkhorn Correctional Facility, which Fresno County previously used as a youth boot camp. But the Elkhorn facility hasn’t been maintained in years, he said, and a recent inspection of the fairgrounds revealed there were asbestos and lead paint.

The counties, cities and Continuum of Care of Fresno and Madera agreed to pool together the first round of state funding, which Fresno County would manage. The city has not yet sent its $1.1 million to the county.

“Right now, we have maxed out the county’s allocation,” De La Rosa said. “Without the city stepping in, we’ll be able to operate for a shorter period of time.”

City Councilmember Esmeralda Soria chalked up the delay to liability language county-level officials added to the service-provider contracts, which she said forced delays while city attorneys review the proposals.

“Because the county is the fiscal agent, they want to make sure we’re also, I’m assuming, on the hook for it,” she said.

County Supervisor Nathan Magsig said the effort’s success depended on the different government entities pooling their resources.

“We’re still working together, and it’s imperative that we continue to do so for the sake of the homeless community,” he said.

Arias said the plan moving forward would be to work with multiple providers to set up 30- to 50-bed shelters.

Manuela Tobias is a reporter with the Fresno Bee. This article is part of The California Divide, a collaboration among newsrooms examining income inequity and economic survival in California.

This story was originally published April 11, 2020 at 10:30 AM.