More than 100 older and medically vulnerable homeless people have been provided hotel rooms to protect them from COVID-19 before the coronavirus pandemic spreads within Salem, Oregon's, unsheltered population, according to the Salem Statesman Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network.

Since mid-March, the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency has placed 113 unsheltered homeless people in six hotels across Marion and Polk counties, paying for them to stay, delivering food to their doors and checking on them daily.

"It’s already hard enough being homeless, but then you add a pandemic in the middle of it," said Ashley Hamilton, program director at the ARCHES Project within MWVCAA. "The world that was already a hard place to live has become more challenging. It’s our directive to make it a little better, and that’s what this hotel program is doing.”

Certain underlying medical maladies – including heart conditions, asthma, diabetes, liver or kidney disease, cancer and immune deficiencies – put people at greater risk for severe illness from COVID-19, which makes it all the more important they limit contact with other people who might transmit the virus to them.

For unsheltered people, social distancing at home isn't an option, so people with those conditions are identified by ARCHES and moved indoors before they come into contact with the virus.

There has been one confirmed case of coronavirus in Salem's homeless community, which was identified in mid-March.

Jimmy Jones, executive director of the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency, said it makes sense that the homeless population hasn't seen a significant number of cases, since it tends to be an insular group.

However, that tightknit nature would probably allow the virus to spread quickly if it arrives, he said.

Federal relief could aid efforts

It is not common practice for ARCHES to place people in hotels for extended stays, but Salem does not have the capacity to modify its shelters to fit social distancing guidelines, so this became the solution to protect the medically vulnerable.

"Once one person got sick in that mass shelter, inevitably everyone else would get sick," Hamilton said.

Trying to get people isolated as quickly as possible and following the guidance of federal agencies and major cities including San Francisco and Seattle, the group began placing individuals in hotel rooms March 18.

ARCHES has spent $47,000 out of $150,000 it received for this program from the Oregon State Homeless Assistance Program. Other funding sources could become available, especially through the $2.2 trillion federal relief package signed into law last month.

"We’re keeping them in there in an open-ended way until the crisis abates or we run out of money," Jones said.

Hotel room servicing has been modified from the standard daily cleanings to limit potential exposure between staff and residents.

Individuals placed in hotels are expected to follow hotel rules, which include no drinking, smoking or drug use on-site and no excessive noise. They cannot bring in people who weren't assigned to that hotel room.

ARCHES reassigned three or four people to another hotel after complaints, Hamilton said, but no one has been moved more than once. The organization looks to provide security guards at participating hotels to respond to concerns.

For the most part, Hamilton said, the folks in the hotels are sick people trying to stay healthy.

"They’re there to try to save their lives," she said.

Hotels, nonprofit groups do their part

After the program launched, several hotels reached out to ARCHES, asking to join.

"We received the news that there were many people in our community with compromised immune systems needing a place to shelter during the COVID-19 pandemic," said Dawn Vinogradoff, general manager of the Shilo Inn on Market Street NE. "We made contact with ... ARCHES to get involved and help our community in the fight against COVID-19. We feel that everyone's lives matter."

To make sure rules are followed and to combat loneliness, ARCHES staff make daily visits during the week, which will expand to seven days per week starting Saturday.

They bring boxes of food to residents, provided by Marion Polk Food Share and United Way, and discuss other services available to get someone on track to permanent housing.

Rick Gaupo, president and CEO of Marion Polk Food Share, said his organization has worked with ARCHES since the beginning of April to identify how best to serve the unique needs of homeless people living indefinitely in hotel rooms.

Any canned goods provided to ARCHES for this population have a pop-top, and microwavable items are prioritized over foods that must be cooked.

Conversations are ongoing to identify how much food ARCHES needs. During the pandemic, the services that used to support homeless people – including community lunches – don't exist anymore, and community leaders are working to identify and fill gaps.

Community food pantries are still operating and open for anyone who needs help, but those medically vulnerable who should not be around other people present challenges.

“We’ve got a unique need, and now we’re trying to figure out a unique response, and we're just at the beginning of that," Gaupo said.

Contact reporter Connor Radnovich at cradnovich@statesmanjournal.com or 503-399-6864, or follow him on Twitter at @CDRadnovich

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