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Advocates have been pleading for weeks that San Francisco move people out of homeless shelters and into hotel rooms, given that the conditions inside these facilities are often unsanitary and crowded, making it easy for a virus to quickly spread.

Now, there has been a major coronavirus outbreak inside a homeless shelter in San Francisco: nearly 70 residents at MSC South have tested positive, which is roughly half of all the people who were tested.

San Francisco’s mayor, London Breed, said the city is now moving the rest of the MSC South residents who have not tested positive into hotel rooms and quarantining those with Covid-19 inside the shelter.

Jennifer Friedenbach, the director for the Coalition on Homelessness in San Francisco, said these kinds of outbreaks will happen at every shelter if the city doesn’t immediately move all residents to hotels. Some have suggested the coronavirus fatality rate for unhoused people could be significantly higher than the general population, with a 10-20% dying and 30% hospitalized, she noted.

“This was preventable and predictable. You can’t leave people in congregate settings, you just can’t,” said Friedenbach, adding that the city needs to test residents of all shelters given their potential exposure at this point. “They’ve waited so long.”



Those who remain in other shelters are now also facing strict lockdowns, where they are even more at risk of contracting the virus, said Leah Simon-Weisberg, an attorney with the Eviction Defense Collaborative.

Sam Levin (@SamTLevin) After 70 residents of a San Francisco homeless shelter test positive for Covid-19, advocates say others are trapped in lockdown in shelters with restrictions. "Telling them they cannot leave is not protecting them"-@Leahfsw. "People need to be moved to hotels, not just locked up" pic.twitter.com/YTfxVaMIGg

“Locking them in a congregate shelter and packing hundreds of people into one place is only endangering their lives,” she said.

