Monterey County officials and nonprofits rush to care for homeless people during the pandemic.

When the Monterey County Health Department’s Covid-19 shelter-in-place order came down on March 17, the Health Department released an FAQ about how people should comply. The final question: “I am homeless, how can I comply with the order?” came with a one-sentence answer: “If you don’t have a place of residence, it is strongly encouraged you find shelter.” 

The problem: Homeless shelters have stopped accepting new guests.

“All the homeless are fucked!” a woman yelled outside of the Weekly’s office in Seaside on March 24, after being told she couldn’t remain in the parking garage. There was no place for her to go, she said, not even a restaurant she could sit in.

There’s been a gap between the time government agencies scrambled to slow the spread of the virus and arranging services for vulnerable populations. In the meantime, nonprofits serving homeless people are facing major challenges in the midst of an unprecedented situation.

“We prepared for natural disasters but we never prepared for this scenario,” says Jill Allen, executive director of the nonprofit Dorothy’s Place in Salinas and board president of the Coalition for Homeless Service Providers.

Allen says Dorothy’s Place staff are seeing an uptick in the number of people using their services. The nonprofit lost its volunteers due to self-quarantine, so just two employees are serving around 300 take-away breakfasts and lunches. Allen is applying to the Community Foundation for Monterey County’s Covid-19 Relief Fund, which had raised nearly $940,000 as of press time, in hopes of paying temp workers to replace volunteers.

She says she already has more than 30 people who've been laid off from jobs express interest in the opportunity to work. Besides helping with serving meals, Allen is also hoping to use temp workers to help with a plan she has to create respite beds for up to 20 people without shelter and who have been discharged from hospitals.

From the statewide perspective, officials have been working in recent days to negotiate with motel and hotel owners across the state to use those facilities to house homeless people. Nick Chiulos, assistant Monterey County administrative officer, told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, March 24, that a state negotiator was expected to arrive onsite as part of the effort.

It’s part of a developing conversation among county officials about how best to proceed with serving the more than 2,000 unsheltered individuals currently in Monterey County during the pandemic, says Lori Medina, director of Social Services for the county. State officials are willing to negotiate, or let county officials do the negotiating with motels and hotels, she says.

The county is willing to put up the initial cash to pay leases but only with assurances from the state and federal governments that the county will be reimbursed later, Medina says. About six businesses have expressed an interest in leasing their locations for this purpose.

In some cases it might be better to leave in place encampments of people who are already self-isolating from the public, Allen says. And that possibility is in play: The county might instead opt for providing sanitation and support services at established camps, Medina adds.

Should the county use motels and hotels, that brings up questions about how it would work for some high-risk people and people who would want to leave those temporary shelters. “This is a population that is very hard to contain,” Medina says. She says part of their discussions is how to wrap services around guests from the county’s Health Department, Behavioral Services, as well as the Department of Social Services.

Motels and hotels are also being considered as places to quarantine people who test positive for the virus or have known contact with someone who tested positive, Medina adds.

Another option on the table—although low on the list—is to utilize open-air facilities like the Monterey County Fairgrounds, owned by the state, and the Salinas Rodeo stadium, owned by the city of Salinas. Both facilities have signaled a willingness to discuss housing vulnerable people, Medina says.

(In a bit of an ironic twist in a pandemic marked by cruise ship outbreaks—including the Grand Princess with passengers under quarantine at Asilomar Hotel & Conference Grounds—Allen says one idea she’s heard bandied about is using a cruise ship anchored in Monterey Bay for lodging.)

While the county wants assurances it will be reimbursed for services rendered during Covid-19, Medina says the state has asked counties to initially use monies from state funds already disbursed through two state funds, the Homeless Emergency Aid Program and Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention.

Chiulos told supervisors there could be up to $6.8 million in funds to fund the county’s efforts to help unsheltered people through the pandemic. More than $3.2 million is controlled by Monterey County and more than $3.5 million is under purview of the Coalition, through its Leadership Council, authorized by the state to administer the state funds.

The Council is scheduled to meet at 1:30pm on Wednesday, March 25 in the county administrative building at 168 W. Alisal St. in Salinas to decide whether to devote all $3.2 million to pandemic efforts. (See attached notice for instructions on how to participate in that meeting remotely.)

About $1 million of the monies is available to create sanitation stations—hand washing and portable bathrooms—around the county, Medina says. A few cities have asked to have the stations brought in, including Salinas, Seaside and Monterey.