CA secures nearly 7,000 hotel rooms for homeless during coronavirus pandemic

California has secured nearly 7,000 hotel and motel rooms to house the homeless during the coronavirus pandemic, and has moved in 869 people so far, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday.

The governor hopes ultimately to bring that number to 15,000 rooms as part of an initiative he is calling “Project Room Key,” he said Friday, while standing in front of a Sacramento motel where 30 rooms are currently sheltering vulnerable homeless residents.

“This has been a point of real concern for all of us for a number of months,” Newsom said. “A top priority since the COVID crisis began to manifest.”

Newsom also released new details about how Project Room Key will be funded. FEMA has agreed to reimburse cities and counties — which largely have been responsible for setting up the hotel rooms — for 75% of the costs, he said. Local officials can get the other 25% from the state — either using the $150 million Newsom has made available in emergency coronavirus funding for the homeless, or from prior homelessness funds the governor already has distributed.

These new hotel leases also include an option to purchase, either by a right of first offer or a right of first refusal — potentially creating an option for longer-term housing for the homeless.

These efforts are saving lives, Newsom said.

“If left unaddressed, we allow our most vulnerable residents in the state of California to be exposed to the virus,” he said.

Newsom’s announcements Friday come a day after San Francisco reported what appears to be the city’s first case of a coronavirus infection in a homeless shelter. The resident, who had been living at Division Circle Navigation Center, has been moved into an isolation room in a hotel, and city staffers are screening other shelter residents for symptoms. The death of a homeless Santa Clara County resident due to COVID-19 was reported last month, but county officials have released few details on the case.

Experts worry coronavirus could sweep through unsanitary homeless encampments or crowded shelters and sicken medically vulnerable residents, prompting Newsom last month to throw $150 million at the problem. He promised to send $100 million to local governments for homeless shelter support and emergency housing, and use another $50 million to buy trailers and lease hotel rooms that will be used to isolate homeless residents.

Bay Area officials are scrambling to open those hotel rooms and trailers, as well as convert buildings into new homeless shelters, either using state resources or spending their own funds and hoping the state will pay them back later.

The state bought more than 1,300 trailers from FEMA and private vendors, and has deployed about 584 so far, Newsom said Friday.

That includes hundreds that were sent to the Bay Area. Oakland’s 91 allotted trailers began arriving this week. Forty-five of those will stay in Oakland on a vacant, city-owned lot next to the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, while the rest will go to other jurisdictions within Alameda County, including Berkeley. Oakland still has 15 trailers — which were sent by the state two months ago to house the homeless — sitting empty in storage.

San Jose received 109 trailers two weeks ago, but staff are working on refurbishing the dwellings and have yet to move anyone in.

Santa Clara County had 15 trailers allocated by the state before the pandemic. When the virus hit, county officials intended to set them up at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds — but they ran into a snag when they realized the water and power hookups at the fairgrounds don’t work.

Officials also have leased hundreds of hotel rooms across the Bay Area, and slowly have begun moving in homeless residents. San Francisco had leased 479 rooms as of Wednesday, and moved in 123 people — 95% of whom were homeless. The city hoped to secure 2,555 rooms by the end of the week. Santa Clara County had 172 rooms as of Wednesday, and had housed 105 people. Another 39 people were pending placement. Alameda County officials have leased two hotels in Oakland, and as of Tuesday had moved in five homeless residents showing signs of COVID-19.

To reduce capacity at crowded existing shelters and allow space for residents to practice social distancing, officials also are opening new shelters. San Jose opened Parkside Hall at the Convention Center this week, to house 75 homeless adults who don’t have COVID-19. The city hopes to open South Hall next. And San Francisco planned to open Moscone West to 394 homeless residents this week. The city also hoped to open two additional shelter sites — with a planned capacity of up to 510 beds — by next week.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.