NLIHC will be hosting weekly national calls on COVID-19 and housing/homelessness on Monday afternoons. The next call is today, April 13, at 2:30 to 4:00 p.m. ET. You can register for today’s call here: https://tinyurl.com/ru73qan. Participants will include Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Congressman Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-IL).
The NLIHC-led Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition (DHRC) will continue to advocate for a broad array of resources and protections, including emergency rental assistance and eviction prevention assistance, a national moratorium on evictions and foreclosures, and emergency funds for homelessness service providers, housing authorities, and housing providers, among other recommendations. For more information, see DHRC’s full list of recommendations, which will continue to be expanded and refined. NLIHC has also compiled a list of regulatory recommendations.
NLIHC is also maintaining a COVID-19/Housing and Homelessness News and Resource page here.
National Updates
Congress
Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Congressman Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09) led the entire New Jersey congressional delegation in a letter urging the Trump administration to approve a request from New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy for FEMA to fund a housing program to provide quarantined sheltering for COVID-19 patients, including people experiencing homelessness and frontline healthcare workers.
FEMA
All 50 states are currently under a Major Disaster Declaration for COVID-19.
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper (NC) announced the state has received approval from FEMA to provide housing alternatives, such as hotels, motels, and dormitories, for North Carolinians with unstable housing who may need to quarantine because they are infected or are at high-risk of severe illness from the coronavirus.
HUD
HUD’s Office of Special Needs Assistance Programs (SNAPS) invites homeless assistance providers and their partners to participate in its COVID-19 Office Hours session. The next session on April 14 will focus on the recently released Mega-Waiver and the “Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act”. Officials from HUD and other federal partners and organizations will be available to answer questions on these topics. Event information available here.
Advocacy
A new resource from the National Fair Housing Alliance examines illegal housing discrimination against people with disabilities during the pandemic and describes the protections for people with disabilities and those who live with them under the Fair Housing Act.
The Get It Back Campaign, a project of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, released How to File Taxes if You’re Experiencing Homelessness.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities also released fact sheets on the expansions to the Unemployment Insurance program and the new Economic Impact Payments authorized by the CARES Act.
In an op-ed in The Hill, Colonel Rob Maness (USAF, Ret.), executive director of Military Veterans Advocacy, sounds the alarm that the COVID-19 crisis could undo the successes achieved in decreasing veteran homelessness in recent years.
Reporting
“Even before COVID-19 came to this country, we had a shortage of seven million homes affordable and available to the lowest-income people” said NLIHC President and CEO Diane Yentel in a recent news article by Fast Company. “If we had a system in our country where we could catch people when they fell off of a financial cliff, we could better weather this disaster that we’re experiencing right now, but we don’t have that system.”
The PBS News Hour explored how people experiencing homelessness face unique challenges in protecting themselves and their communities from the coronavirus outbreak.
Next City interviewed NLIHC President and CEO Diane Yentel as part of an article on the COVID-19 crisis’ potential to unite the housing movement.
There are special challenges related to protecting the South’s homeless population from COVID-19. The South is the nation's poorest region, with higher mortality rates and lower life expectancies than the rest of the country, and its residents are more likely to lack access to high-quality medical care—disparities that present additional burdens for the region's homeless.
State News
NLIHC provides a list of local eviction and foreclosure moratoriums here.
Alaska
Coronavirus adds new stressors on Alaska’s vulnerable youth and young adults. At the same time, housing is getting tougher to find because some foster families are reluctant to accept new children for fear of contracting COVID-19.
Arizona
In Arizona, food banks and homeless shelters are seeing unprecedented demand. With some support from state emergency funds, they are committed to keeping their doors open to help those in need, but the situation is dynamic and it is unclear how long some programs will be able to stay open, as many are facing declines in donations.
Arizona Tribes will receive $37 million from HUD for COVID-19-related affordable housing. The Navajo Nation has been one of the areas in the country hardest hit by the coronavirus, with the number of cases multiplying rapidly. As of April 9, the Tribe has had 488 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 20 deaths.
California
Los Angeles has embarked on an effort to bring thousands of people without homes off the streets and into hotels to protect them and others from infection. California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that money from the federal government would help pay for at least 15,000 hotel rooms during the pandemic.
One individual without a home living inside a recreation center in the San Fernando Valley has tested positive for COVID-19, just three weeks after Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced plans to move thousands of people experiencing homelessness into recreation centers to curtail the spread of the coronavirus.
San Jose is fast-tracking a $17 million plan to build hundreds of tiny homes for the homeless population. Taking advantage of new regulations instituted by Governor Newsom in March, the city anticipates building up to 500 modular and pre-fabricated homes on public and private property for people experiencing homelessness.
Florida
Miami-Dade county is moving elderly residents out of homeless shelters and into hundreds of hotel rooms to ease crowding at the shelters.
Illinois
In order to support individuals experiencing homelessness, Chicago has opened five new shelters recently, and the Chicago Fire Department stepped in to help transport people experiencing homelessness from area hospitals to YMCAs and hotels.
Seasonal emergency shelter availability in Champaign County, IL, will now be extended through at least April 30, thanks to an the Emergency Lodging Fund authorized by the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS).
Massachusetts
Hampshire College and the town Amherst, MA, are offering space in a campus residence hall to house individuals who are homeless. The space will house individuals who have been diagnosed with COVID-19, are not sick enough to be hospitalized, and are told to go home to self-isolate but have no home to go to.
One in three of Boston’s residents experiencing homelessness has tested positive for coronavirus. According to Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, the city is quickly expanding the number of available beds, including as many as 500 beds for people who are currently sleeping at the Boston Convention Center.
Michigan
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said on April 9 that she is appointing a coronavirus task force to recommend ways to address the racial disparities in the occurrence of COVID-19 in the state. Michigan ranks third in the country for the number of people with COVID-19, and over 40% of COVID-19-related deaths in Michigan have been African Americans, despite making up just 14% of the state's population.
The city of Detroit is ramping up COVID-19 testing in nursing homes and homeless shelters. Detroit was given five machines and 5,000 testing kits and is running 200-250 instant COVID-19 tests a day.
Minnesota
Minneapolis created a $5 million COVID-19 relief fund to help renters, including undocumented residents.
New York
New York City advocates have called on Mayor Bill de Blasio to house people experiencing homelessness in the city’s more than 100,000 empty hotel rooms.
There are stark differences in COVID infection rates in New York City based on education, overcrowding and race. A new analysis by researchers at New York University's Furman Center found that the strongest neighborhood predictors of high COVID-19 rates were: having a large share of Black and Hispanic residents, having a high proportion of overcrowded apartments, and having a large share of residents without college degrees.
North Carolina
Guilford County, NC, plans to isolate or quarantine in a hotel all the people without homes who show symptoms of or have tested positive for COVID-19. The state will work with local hospitality groups to provide more than 16,500 individual housing units in dormitories, hotels, trailers, or other spaces. FEMA will pay 75% of the costs associated with the program.
Pennsylvania
Kensington Avenue in Philadelphia has high rates of people experiencing homelessness as well as multiple other social needs. Community leaders are now struggling with how to provide support during the COVID-19 crisis, including searching for a location for a 24-hour respite center, feeding sites, and spaces for increased testing.
Texas
In San Antonio, TX, there are nearly 3,000 individuals experiencing homelessness, and the COVID-19 crisis is causing that number to increase rapidly. San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg is working to provide appropriate social distancing options and housing to support the homeless population.
Washington
In Seattle, twenty-seven people living in the 12 King County homeless shelters have tested positive for COVID-19. While the number of new cases in the general population has dropped, the county public health department believes the outbreak has not yet peaked among the homeless population.
The Washington State Department of Commerce announced that $5 million in emergency grants are now available to the 29 federally recognized Tribes in the state to bolster their response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Policy and Guidance
Federal Guidance
HUD
Infections Disease Toolkit for CoCs now in Spanish
Administration for Children and Families
State Perspectives on the Impact of COVID-19 on Child Trafficking and Safe Harbor Programs webinar on April 16.
Additional Guidance
SchoolHouse Connection: COVID-19 and Homelessness – Strategies for Schools, Early Learning Programs, and Higher Education Instutions