Written by Sasha Reva
San Diego County will be ending a program that housed COVID-19 patients. However, the program had a number of problems, from neglect of patients to harassment and mismanagement. The program had two components such as an isolation and high-risk hotels and cost $5.2 million a month, but since our government is running out of the money, the program has ended.
They have already given about 100 emergency housing vouchers to people who are homeless. Unfortunately again, the homelessness rate is growing rapidly. “I don’t think I’m going to find housing in time,” Chris VonKroog said. “I’m going to be literally right back out on the street with my dog.” VonKroog was one of almost 100 people who received emergency vouchers.
The program has helped about 13,700 people while the program was working, however, in the past we all know how the staff and the guests were treated. According to an evaluation by San Diego State University, the staff were undertrained which lead to many delays in much-needed medication. At least seven people died and five deaths with overdoses. The county extended a $140.6 million contract with Equus until the end of March, which officially ended the program.
“As vaccination rates have increased and positive cases decreased, so has the need for this critical service”. The Omicron variant came to spread locally and most of the vaccinated people are getting sick, which shows that the vaccine and the boosters are not effective .
The hotel program had more than 1,100 people in September. Many of them were asylum seekers who tested positive for COVID-19.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do.” “I don’t have any opportunities or family to go to, so it would be back in my car and that’s a concern because you can’t cook, you can’t shower. I mean, it’s going to be hard.” Since the program was working temporarily, now people have no place to call a home and they are back on the streets.
Photo Cred: IHG
