By Henry McDowell
As a number of posts on this blog have already examined, COVID-19 has the potential to be absolutely devastating to homeless populations, with issues such as lack of healthcare, cramped homeless shelters, and a lack of sanitation. However, today I want to consider what can be done to avoid this catastrophe, by looking at the success of one state that, so far, has had only one case of COVID-19 among its homeless population.
Admittedly, going into the pandemic, Hawaii started out with a clear advantage: by being located on multiple islands, they were able to better limit travel not just in and out of the state, but also between islands. This has clearly been very beneficial, as so far Hawaii has only had 675 cases and 17 COVID-19 related deaths over the course of the pandemic. The only states to have a smaller total number of cases are Alaska and Montana, and Montana has had one more COVID related death than Hawaii.
However, this is not the sole reason for the lack of homeless cases. Multiple hospitals and homeless shelters throughout Hawaii have begun aggressively screening and subsequently testing any clients that show potential symptoms. Additionally, many homeless shelters have temporarily rented additional housing for their clients to comply with social distancing without decreasing capacity.
Pictured: A Community Health Center in West Hawaii
Source: https://www.westhawaiitoday.com/2020/03/18/hawaii-news/21-tested-for-covid-19-at-community-health-center/
So what can we learn from Hawaii? The most important lesson is to be prepared. Because of their isolation from the mainland, Hawaii was both given more time to prepare, and used that time wisely to restrict travel, increase homeless shelter capacity, and rapidly increase testing. If the rest of the United States had similarly bought itself time by closing its borders sooner and increasing testing, the effects of the pandemic could have been far less devastating.
Check out these articles for far more detail on Hawaii’s homeless COVID-19 cases:
https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/05/denby-fawcett-hawaiis-homeless-have-avoided-covid-19-so-far/
https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/post/hawai-i-homeless-update-movement-street-covid-19-shutdown
As a number of posts on this blog have already examined, COVID-19 has the potential to be absolutely devastating to homeless populations, with issues such as lack of healthcare, cramped homeless shelters, and a lack of sanitation. However, today I want to consider what can be done to avoid this catastrophe, by looking at the success of one state that, so far, has had only one case of COVID-19 among its homeless population.
Admittedly, going into the pandemic, Hawaii started out with a clear advantage: by being located on multiple islands, they were able to better limit travel not just in and out of the state, but also between islands. This has clearly been very beneficial, as so far Hawaii has only had 675 cases and 17 COVID-19 related deaths over the course of the pandemic. The only states to have a smaller total number of cases are Alaska and Montana, and Montana has had one more COVID related death than Hawaii.
However, this is not the sole reason for the lack of homeless cases. Multiple hospitals and homeless shelters throughout Hawaii have begun aggressively screening and subsequently testing any clients that show potential symptoms. Additionally, many homeless shelters have temporarily rented additional housing for their clients to comply with social distancing without decreasing capacity.
Pictured: A Community Health Center in West Hawaii
Source: https://www.westhawaiitoday.com/2020/03/18/hawaii-news/21-tested-for-covid-19-at-community-health-center/
So what can we learn from Hawaii? The most important lesson is to be prepared. Because of their isolation from the mainland, Hawaii was both given more time to prepare, and used that time wisely to restrict travel, increase homeless shelter capacity, and rapidly increase testing. If the rest of the United States had similarly bought itself time by closing its borders sooner and increasing testing, the effects of the pandemic could have been far less devastating.
Check out these articles for far more detail on Hawaii’s homeless COVID-19 cases:
https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/05/denby-fawcett-hawaiis-homeless-have-avoided-covid-19-so-far/
https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/post/hawai-i-homeless-update-movement-street-covid-19-shutdown
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