coronavirus
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43% of Emergency Hygiene Facilities for S.F. Homeless Lack Essentials

05.20.2020
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UPDATE 5/20/2020: Adds link to city website showing some open park restrooms in eighth paragraph of “Hygiene” section. More than four in every 10 emergency hygiene facilities the city has set up during the COVID-19 pandemic to serve homeless people lack at least one element essential to handwashing, the Public Press found. A third of the 55 toilets San Francisco provided for homeless residents were closed during posted operating hours or were out of soap, water or paper towels at the time of visits by reporters over the last two weeks. More than half of a separate set of 24 handwashing stations were missing an essential handwashing element, were unusable or could not be found. The results of the follow-up survey — conducted two months after a Public Press investigation revealed that many of the city’s emergency handwashing stations were broken, empty or missing — suggest large numbers of homeless people still lack access to adequate sanitation.

Coronavirus
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Homeless Activists’ Latest Tactic: Occupying Hotel Rooms

05.11.2020
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Seven protesters from Poor Magazine, a publication and activist organization, attempted to occupy the Marriott Marquis hotel in downtown San Francisco on Monday morning to demand that the city house more homeless residents in the thousands of hotel rooms left vacant during the coronavirus pandemic.

Homelessness
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City Kills Plan for Mass Coronavirus Testing in S.F. Homeless Shelters

04.29.2020
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San Francisco turned down a research startup’s offer to test all of the city’s homeless shelter residents for COVID-19, urging the firm to divert its resources to other populations, according to emails. Shelter leaders and organizers had lined up doctors and volunteers to perform the testing, and the startup had drafted a letter of understanding, when the city pulled the plug on the plan.

Homelessness
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City Outlines Plan to Move Homeless Into RVs

04.24.2020
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Vulnerable homeless people will finally start moving into recreational vehicles and live-in trailers in mid- to late May as part of a plan to curb the spread of the coronavirus that San Francisco officials announced Friday. The vehicles, including RVs that have been sitting empty for more than a month, would be stationed near the Bayview.

Homelessness
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RVs for Homeless Affected by Coronavirus Pandemic Sitting Empty

04.17.2020
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While the coronavirus was spreading in San Francisco’s homeless shelters, 30 recreational vehicles leased by the city to house people affected by the pandemic have been sitting empty for nearly a month, a city official confirmed Thursday. The RVs were intended to house people who were awaiting coronavirus testing or had tested positive for the virus and did not have access to adequate housing.

Homelessness
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Distrust of S.F. Agencies Leaves Some Homeless Wary of Quarantine Hotels

04.09.2020
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Some homeless people say they wouldn’t move into the hotel rooms progressive city supervisors have been pushing to allocate for them. That’s largely due to longstanding distrust in city agencies by homeless people who have been subject to move-along orders, police citations and sweeps that resulted in their tents and other belongings being confiscated.