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Luzerne County making progress filling Children and Youth caseworker vacancies

By Marisa Kendall 
 SAN JOSE, Calif. _ Since the coronavirus pandemic began, the Bay Area has moved thousands of homeless residents off the streets, out of unsafe living situations and into hotels and make-shift shelters.
 But six months into the pandemic, as some temporary programs start to close, officials, nonprofits and the people they're sheltering are grappling with one big question: What happens now?
 "We feel really lucky that we've been able to bring so many people inside, and of course no one wants to see us have to exit people to the streets," said Kerry Abbott, director of Alameda County's Office of Homeless Care and Coordination. "And we're just working as hard as we can and as fast as we can to try to keep that from happening."
 Officials are scrambling to get new housing approved and built at unprecedented speeds. They're calling on private landlords to house homeless residents with subsidized rent. And they're rushing to sign deals to buy hotels and apartment buildings before the state's rapidly approaching funding deadline.
 But officials say there's not yet enough housing in the pipeline _ or enough funding to build it _ for everyone in the temporary shelters. San Francisco, Santa Clara and Alameda counties _ which together bear the brunt of the region's homelessness crisis _ are housing more than 4,000 people in pandemic hotels, shelters and trailers. Thousands more remain on the streets and in pre-pandemic shelters.
 "The short answer is we do not have enough housing, as we all know," San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said earlier this week at the groundbreaking of a 108-bed interim housing project on Evans Lane. "We continue to need to hustle."
 As of Monday, Alameda County had more than 700 households in pandemic shelters, the majority in hotel rooms reserved for people to whom COVID-19 poses an outsized risk. Eventually, the federal money funding those rooms will dry up, and the hotel owners will want to welcome back tourists. In preparation, the county as of last week had moved 108 people from hotels into permanent housing, and intends to place about another 300 over the next few months.
 County officials also expect to submit applications for state funding to turn three hotels into long-term housing. Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom made $600 million available through Project Homekey _ including about $100 million for Bay Area cities and counties to buy hotels, apartments and other buildings and convert them into housing. The first deadline to apply is midnight Friday.
 The state already has received preliminary paperwork for at least 97 potential projects _ including 15 in the Bay Area.
 Meanwhile, nonprofit Abode Services, which runs pandemic hotels in Santa Clara and Alameda counties, is raising funding to transfer those residents into privately-owned apartments. Abode will subsidize their rent for two years.
 In San Francisco, Mayor London Breed recently announced plans to add 1,500 new units of permanent supportive housing over the next two years _ the largest increase in two decades.
 But Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the San Francisco-based Coalition on Homelessness, worries some people sheltering in hotels will fall through the cracks, especially if they have to compete for housing with people newly homeless as a result of the pandemic.
 "I think there's opportunity to do right," Friedenbach said. "I think there's tremendous potential to fail."
 Terry Hammer is worried too. A 65-year-old homeless Vietnam veteran, Hammer landed at a Milpitas motel about six weeks ago, because his age makes him more likely to develop severe symptoms if he catches COVID-19.
 Homeless for two years, Hammer most recently slept at St. James Park in downtown San Jose. The weeks he's spent in the motel have been a much-welcomed reprieve from life outside _ he has three meals a day, hot showers and a TV. Going back to the park would be tough.
 But he said so far, no one has talked to him about more permanent housing.
 "I keep asking them because I'm trying to make some plans," Hammer said, referring to staff members at the hotel. "They said we'll probably be here through Christmas, but they don't know, really. They're sort of guessing. But otherwise, my plan will be, I guess, to go back to the sidewalk."
 The Evans Lane project that San Jose broke ground on earlier this week is supposed to help people leaving hotels and temporary COVID shelters _ families will stay there while caseworkers connect them with permanent housing. The site, expected to be finished by the end of September, is one of three such projects. Together, they'll house more than 300 people in modular, tiny home-style units.
 Speed is key, officials said, because the clock is ticking. Two of the temporary shelters San Jose set up to house people during the pandemic _ Bascom Community Center and the Parkside Hall convention center _ are scheduled to close Saturday, displacing more than 100 people. The Camden Community Center, which shelters about 30 families, also is set to close soon, but a date has yet to be determined.
 And as it ramps down other facilities, San Jose is adding about 85 beds to its temporary shelter at the South Hall convention center, which will be open at least through December.
 "We'll figure out a way," said Kelly Hemphill, San Jose's homelessness response manager. "Going back to homelessness is not going to be an option."
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The Bay Area moved thousands to coronavirus hotels and shelters. Now what?