https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV

The National League of Cities learned today two attendees of the Congressional City Conference 2020 have tested positive for COVID-19. The individuals were active participants in the conference—attending general sessions and workshops.

The conference attendees are currently under the care of healthcare professionals, recovering at home and feeling better.

The health and safety of our conference guests is our top priority. While we are not able to officially determine how and when these individuals contracted the virus, nor are we permitted under privacy laws to disclose the names of individuals, we wanted to alert you immediately on the potential exposure risk. At this time, these are the only two known confirmed cases.

Through guidance provided by the DC Health department, if you are feeling sick, please stay at home. Contact your healthcare provider immediately to let them know you may have been exposed and need to be evaluated.

As we each navigate this unprecedented time in our country, we understand the additional anxiety this news may cause. We will continue to update you as we learn of any additional information on www.ccc.nlc.org and through email. For frequently asked questions, please visit this page. If you have any immediate questions please feel free to contact questions@nlc.org.

https://www.prokerala.com/news/photos/novel-coronavirus-stable-for-hours-on-surfaces-study-1668409.html

https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/local/coronavirus-lewis-reed-stl-gun-storage/63-d929e1f6-db74-4784-9ee3-d4e3cca2eef2

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/election-polling-locations.html

Read the full guidelines at https://www.lamayor.org/sites/g/files/wph446/f/article/files/Mayor%20Memo%20-COVID-19%20LA%20City%20Guidelines.pdf

Update: On March 18, President Donald Trump announced that the Department of Housing and Urban Development will suspend evictions and foreclosures until the end of April. Government-backed mortgage buyers, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will do the same for at least 60 days.

As the nation responds to the coronavirus outbreak, moratoriums on evicting renters take hold in cities and counties as means to curb the spread of the novel virus and mitigate the social and financial distress caused by it.

The National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) estimates that 43 million households or 109 million people in the U.S. are renters. According to the Eviction Lab, a Princeton-based endeavor led by sociologist Matthew Desmond, evictions occurred at an estimated rate of four every minute in 2016.

Apartment List, an online marketplace for rentals, states that 3.7 million American renters have experienced an eviction. The latter disproportionately befalls households with children, who are twice as likely to face housing insecurity regardless of marital status, Apartment List says.

Displacing renters amid the coronavirus outbreak, which led President Trump to declare a national emergency this week, could intensify the transmission of the disease.

“It would be both wrong and dangerous to kick people out of their homes during this public health emergency,” Laura Curran, county executive of Nassau County in Long Island, New York, said on Twitter.

On Friday, Curran placed a moratorium on evictions.

Also yesterday, the Real Estate Board of New York, REBNY, together with apartment owners representing over 150,000 rental units pledged to suspend eviction warrants for the next 90 day in light of “the ongoing Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis.”

“We will help our residents weather this crisis safely in their homes,” REBNY Chairman William C. Rudin and REBNY President James Whelan stated in an open letter signed by nearly 30 building owners and managers.

“Starting immediately, we are voluntarily pledging that we will not execute any warrant of eviction for the next [90] days unless it is for criminal or negligent behavior that jeopardizes the life, health or safety of other residents,” the letter reads. “With all the stress, health risk and economic suffering going on now, no one should have to worry about losing their place to live during this crisis.”

No evictions for those who can prove adverse impact by COVID-19

Across the country, in San Francisco, Mayor London Breed issued a city-wide moratorium on evictions on Friday. The executive order, which will initially last for a month, will shield residents from losing their homes due to financial hardship related to business closures, layoffs, working hours cuts or medical expenses incurred because of COVID-19.

“This moratorium will help people stay stable if they lose income because they get sick, a family member gets sick, or their job is impacted by the economic damage the coronavirus is causing,” Breed said in a press release.

Under Breed’s order, tenants struggling to meet their monetary lease obligations because of “a COVID-19 related impact” must notify their landlords and substantiate their inability to pay rent with documentation. After the emergency declaration is lifted, tenants will have up to six months to catch up on any back-due rent.

Rent help rather than eviction halt

Breed’s measure resembles the ban on evictions approved by city lawmakers in San Jose, California, earlier this week. There, rental property owners, who face penalties and fees if they do not comply with the moratorium, protested the measure, San Jose Spotlight reported.

The news outlet cites Yolanda Chavez saying, ““I’m a mom-and-pop landlord who has worked three jobs to pay rent while I attended San Jose State University full-time. I worked hard and I’m still working hard. I have to make my payments, how am I going to make my payments and pay my mortgages?”

Addressing the challenges that landlords could experience because of eviction prohibitions, the NMHC is advocating for federal short-term financial assistance to renters, instead.

In a press release yesterday, the Council made its case by quoting Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program Fellow Jenny Schuetz, who writes, “Short-term financial assistance would help poor families continue paying rent and buying food until the broader economy stabilizes. It would be more effective than a temporary moratorium on evictions (as some jurisdictions have enacted), since landlords also need money to pay their mortgages, property taxes, and utilities.”

Yet, eviction moratoriums, achieved through executive measures, court orders or police declarations, are also in place in Austin, Texas; Boston, Massachusetts; Miami-Dade County in Florida; Montgomery County in Virginia; and Travis County in Texas.

More eviction moratoriums considered

Meanwhile, city council members in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. are pushing for a halt on evictions.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said on Twitter, “As we work to contain the spread of coronavirus, we must ensure people aren’t being evicted from their homes. I strongly support the proposal for a temporary moratorium and will work with the City Council to get it passed as quickly as possible.”

In Seattle, the largest city in Washington, the state where the most COVID-19 cases have been reported so far, Mayor Jenny Durkan said yesterday that she will issue a ban on evictions. Her announcement followed a meeting with Vice President Mike Pence.

“We cannot let individuals lose their homes or go hungry at this critical time,” she said in a statement. “Over the coming days, we will announce more support from the City for individuals and families and be prepared to connect more individuals with other non-profit and philanthropic resources.”

While cities and counties are considering individual, local actions, four Assembly members in California’s State Legislature penned a letter on Friday to Governor Gavin Newsom and Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye to stop evictions and eviction lawsuits state-wide for a minimum of 45 days.

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders also called for “an immediate moratorium on evictions, foreclosures, and on utility shut-offs.” The U.S. Senator spoke Thursday in his home state of Vermont.

On federal level, U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) published a joint statement yesterday, urging President Trump to “to issue an immediate, nationwide moratorium on all foreclosures on and evictions” from properties owned or insured by federal agencies or enterprises.

“Foreclosure and eviction moratoriums have previously been implemented in response to a variety of natural disasters including hurricanes, floods, and tornados,” the senators state. “Considering that Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) has already proven to be equally or more disruptive, deadly, and widespread, the precedent for weather related natural disasters should inform our decision to restrict foreclosures and evictions in response to the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) public health pandemic.”

Read the article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/dimawilliams/2020/03/14/cities-and-counties-halt-evictions-to-fight-the-coronavirus

Individuals experiencing homelessness include many older adults, often with compounding disabilities, who reside in large congregate facilities or in unsheltered locations with poor access to sanitation. Their age, poor health, disability, and living conditions make them highly vulnerable to illness. Once COVID-19 is introduced to this high-risk population, further transmission will be very difficult to contain. Homeless service providers and system leaders are uniquely situated to partner with state leaders to protect the health and well-being of this highly vulnerable population, and should implement all possible measures to do so.

Last week, the President signed the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act (H.R. 6074) to provide emergency funding to combat the coronavirus outbreak. The programs funded under the bill include grants for state, local, and tribal public health agencies and organizations, who are now developing plans to reduce the risk of virus transmission to vulnerable populations within their jurisdiction.

To be as effective as possible, these groups should be certain to involve homeless service system providers and leaders in strategic planning, and explore how they can support homeless providers to reduce the risk of virus transmission. This post provides guidance around three main areas: involving Continuums of Care (CoCs) in planning, funding for homeless services providers, and how to stay informed of federal guidance and other resources.

Involving CoCs in State and Local Planning
State and local leaders should tap representatives from CoCs to participate in strategic planning. This will help ensure the needs of a high-risk population are well understood and attended to in the development of a comprehensive plan. The federal government relies on CoCs to assess local need and prioritize federal funding for housing and service interventions for people experiencing homelessness; as such, CoCs should be a necessary part of COVID-19 response to vulnerable populations.. Primarily made up of local homeless service providers, advocates and individuals with lived experience, CoCs assess the extent of homelessness (including unsheltered homelessness) within a locality and evaluate the performance of the collective local response. They are well-positioned to identify local strengths, gaps, and vulnerabilities within the locality or state they cover, and can be a critical resource in addressing a COVID-19 among people experiencing homelessness.

Provide Funding to Homeless Service Providers to Reduce Transmission Risk
States and localities should fund CoCs to implement interventions that can reduce the transmission of the coronavirus within the homeless population. Homeless service providers (including providers of medical street outreach, emergency shelter, day shelter, outreach programs, case managers and diversion and housing specialists), are on the front line each day working with those at greatest risk. These providers can implement key interventions prioritized by public health departments to reduce disease transmission.

While use of funding must reflect the needs of each individual community, public health officials and homeless service providers may want to prioritize spaces in which highly vulnerable homeless adults congregate in large numbers. Examples of how new funding can be used to reduce risk of transmission into the homelessness population include:

Expanding outreach services to unsheltered individuals. This may include dedicating homeless outreach staff to accompany mobile public health services staff to ensure public health screening, education, and support services reach unsheltered individuals. It may also include equipping people living without shelter with supplies to stay safe (e.g. hand sanitizer, access to water) and resources for to bring indoors those in acute need (e.g. motel vouchers for older adults with respiratory illnesses).
Reducing high concentrations of highly vulnerable adults living in close proximity:
Targeting housing subsidies and available affordable housing units to highest risk individuals experiencing homelessness (older adults in poor health and/or with respiratory conditions) and expedite take-up of resources (reduce time it takes to inspect units, process paperwork, etc.).
Providing short-term rental assistance to help people quickly return to housing where they will be safe.
Providing help for homeless adults to reconnect with family or attain independent permanent housing, including:
limited flexible financial assistance (equivalent to 2 months of rental assistance)
Housing navigation services
Problem-solving and diversion services
Expanding temporary shelter capacity to reduce both unsheltered homelessness and reliance on overcrowded shelters. This may include:
bringing new temporary housing options online (e.g. renting apartments that can be used for short-term shelter);
working with faith communities to bring unused space on-line for shelter;
extending “seasonal” shelter options; and
allowing shelters and day programs to increase hours of operation (e.g. allow emergency shelter to stay open 24 hours a day, or allow day shelters to operate 7-days a week).
Ramping up efforts to reduce barriers to shelter and transitional housing programs. When homeless shelter programs do not admit pets, or provide shelter conditioned on following a service plan, vulnerable people will choose to forgo a bed and remain outdoors. We cannot afford to let safe beds go unused in the midst of this crisis.
Improving the hygienic conditions where large numbers of people experiencing homelessness congregate. This may include providing funds to increase the sanitary conditions of building facilities (e.g. shelters or churches that regularly host lunch or dinner programs), or providing mobile services (e.g. handwashing stations) that allow unsheltered individuals to regularly wash hands and provide self-care. It may also include funding to allow for ongoing deep cleaning of shelter and food programs, whoh might require funding for maintenance personnel and cleaning supplies.
Expanding case management capacity to help homeless individuals access health care screenings and services, including providing support services to homeless individuals who may need to be quarantined by local health officials as a preventative measure.
Reduce new entries into homelessness by ensuring individuals exiting prison, jail and hospitals are connected to housing. Provide legal representation, social work services, and flexible financial assistance to prevent vulnerable adults and families from losing their housing.
It may be too much to hope that individuals experiencing homelessness will not join those already impacted from the coronavirus. Like everyone else, individuals who experience homelessness will require a safe place to self-quarantine. They will have fewer financial and social resources to withstand the need to self-quarantine, so they must be considered when developing plans for those who are diagnosed.

Stay Abreast of Developments
The suggestions outlined above are among many other strategies that states and localities can adopt to protect people experiencing homelessness. Information about the coronavirus is developing rapidly, and the Alliance is grateful to federal and nonprofit partners who are adding to the knowledge base. Some valuable (not exhaustive) resources to protect homeless people from the coronavirus include:
ness blog post with resources as they become available.

Read the article: https://endhomelessness.org/covid-19-what-state-and-local-leaders-can-do-for-homeless-populations/

https://icma.org/coronavirus-resources-plan-and-prepare-now-it-hits-your-community

What homeless folks should know about Coronavirus (COVID-19)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1L818a9s6jVTeVVlGX76z1OfW_eH–VIm0UvYR55EWA8/

https://www.nlc.org/sites/default/files/2020-03/Morning-Consult_topline_NLC_Adults_FNL.pdf

https://www.localdvm.com/news/i-270/takoma-park-offers-grants-to-small-businesses-affected-by-covid-19/#/questions/2576118