AUSTIN (KXAN) — West Coast cities with high homeless population are now trying to figure out how they would quarantine someone who doesn’t have a home.

In Oregon, city and county officials met with the concerned public and said they would develop a response plan in coming days.

As COVID-19 spreads globally, some health officials have warned if a person who’s homeless becomes infected, the virus could spread quickly to other homeless people.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, people who have underlying health issues are more likely to be hit hard by the coronavirus.

“You know that people that are not living in a structure that’s meant for habitation are at risk, period,” said Stephanie Hayden, Director of Austin Public Health.

We spoke with a southwest Austin resident who lives close to multiple homeless camps.

“I worry that the population there is at risk because they’re living in close quarters in unsanitary conditions and don’t have access to things like hand washing,” said Tim Altanero. “Unfortunately, they’re going to be at risk to themselves and also to the rest of the population at large.”

Hayden told KXAN the city received guidance from the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

“We’re working with the homeless population [and] the folks that will be doing outreach to get additional information out to our homeless population,” Hayden said.

At the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless downtown, Front Steps Executive Director Greg McCormack said he heard concerns from both his staff and clients.

“I think that I’m seeing everybody concerned about each other,” he said.

McCormack told KXAN they’re now placing hand sanitizers at all entrances. “We have hand sanitizers throughout the shelter, but now we’re putting it at every entrance, so that anybody who comes into the building will use the hand sanitizer first thing when they come in,” he explained.

He added, “What we know is the situation of being homeless takes years off your life. If you’re homeless for five or 10 years, your health and life expectancy is cut dramatically short.”

Travis County Judge Sara Eckhardt said city and county officials are monitoring the outbreak closely.

“Absolutely. We have an emergency operation center and an emergency operations plan, which we have unfortunately a lot of experience deploying,” she said. “We, on a daily basis, check in. One of the many things on our checklist [is] to ask questions of our public health professionals about what we’re doing for our most vulnerable populations, including the homeless, all of our shelters, all of our church groups that provide shelter.”

But some people are still worried, especially about people at homeless camps under highways or in the woods who don’t go into shelters and don’t have access to running water and soap.

“I do think it’s critically important that they have access to hand washing stations and be informed that they should not be shaking hands,” Altanero said.

Integral Care is a nonprofit that provides services to the homeless. They said in a statement: