Covid-19 vaccine clinics for unhoused and at-risk people held in Seaside and Monterey.

The county's first Covid-19 vaccination clinics for unhoused people were held on Tuesday, March 16, with vaccines supplied by the Monterey Fire Department.

They started at Gathering for Women in Monterey in the morning, then administered vaccines on the former Fort Ord in the afternoon.

“It’s an incredible partnership where Monterey Fire was able to bring us the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which allows us to give a single dose to our unhoused so we don't have to try to find them later,” says Seaside Fire Chief Mary Gutierrez. “It’s just an incredible collaboration, the first opportunity to vaccinate our homeless which is a very at-risk population in all communities.”

The Monterey Fire Department, who administered just under 120 vaccines at Gathering for Women in the morning, provided up to 150 doses of the Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Covid-19 vaccine for the Seaside vaccination clinic according to Gutierrez.

“When we were asked by the county to provide vaccines for the homeless community, we knew that we had a good population in the city of Monterey that we could target, but I also knew that Seaside has a large population as well,” Monterey Fire Chief Gaudenz Panholzer says.

With vaccines supplied, Seaside officials coordinated support staff to set up a site for the vaccination clinic.

“We set up across the street from where the city of Seaside has been allowing folks who live in RVs to stay and park overnight for more than a year now,” says Seaside City Manager Craig Malin. “We set up here for convenience for those folks.”

Outreach to the homeless population was done via Twitter and word of mouth through the temporary RV lot on Colonel Durham Street, according to Malin. Organizations such as Casa de Noche Buena, Victory Mission Inc., Project Roomkey and the Coalition of Homeless Services Providers were also notified about the clinic, Gutierrez says.

Requirements to receive the vaccine at the Seaside clinic were minimal, except for one’s name and driver’s license number if they have one. Once people get registered at the site, their information gets logged into the state’s database to track vaccination numbers, Gutierrez says.

“It’s a relief knowing that we are protected and that we don't have to worry about passing [the coronavirus] to others or others passing it to us,” says Jennifer Singh, a resident at the Genesis House in Seaside who received the vaccine Tuesday. “I just hope that the strains don’t change so much to where you know what we got wouldn't be covered.”

More similar vaccination clinics in Seaside for at-risk groups are anticipated in the next few weeks, depending on vaccine supply. “There is not enough vaccine in our county for us to receive our own vaccine, the city of Seaside, so we rely on Monterey County Fire to give us the vaccine at this time,” Gutierrez adds.