As an aside, Miami arrested a Doctor for putting boxes out on the street to help the homeless.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article242118561.html
26-year-old man becomes first Miami-Dade homeless coronavirus death, Homeless Trust says
BY DEVOUN CETOUTE
APRIL 18, 2020 11:01 PM
As Miami-Dade nears 200 novel coronavirus deaths, a 26-year-old man has become the county’s first homeless person to succumb to the illness, reported the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust.
The man was a resident at the Chapman South Homeless Assistance Center in Homestead. The trust said the man, who it did not identify, visited Chapman’s health clinic on Friday with a fever.
He was immediately taken to Jackson South where he passed away a few hours later.
“We are devastated and crushed. I am so proud of the work we are doing, which makes this news incredibly difficult to swallow,” Ron Book, chair of the Homeless Trust, said in a statement. “Our deepest sympathies go out to this young man’s family, who really lost their son, brother, and friend first to homelessness and now to this.”
The Homeless Trust cares for more than 8,000 homeless people and another 1,020 sheltered. Seven homeless people have tested positive for COVID-19, the trust said.
As of Saturday evening, the Florida Department of Health reported 25,492 confirmed coronavirus cases statewide and the death toll at 748. Miami-Dade County reported 9,045 cases and 198 deaths.
While Book emphasizes the aggressive work the trust is doing for the homeless, a coalition of advocates criticized the trust for its inaction during the pandemic.
Book denied these claims and said the Homeless Trust has been handing out brochures, masks, hand sanitizer and food for seven weeks now; it has been moving people into hotel rooms for more than a month.
“It’s obvious from the conditions that I’ve seen of humans living out the street in Miami-Dade County, that we’re not prepared and that we’re not doing enough,” said Armen Henderson, a University of Miami doctor who leads the coalition. “We should absolutely do more.”
Henderson and the coalition, which includes Dream Defenders, the Circle of Brotherhood, Miami Workers Center and Struggle for Miami’s Affordable and Sustainable Housing, has been distributing food, tents and toiletries during the pandemic. The organizations have also been collecting swabs and samples from the homeless for testing.
Henderson was recently handcuffed by Miami police for placing used boxes on the curb for pickup in front of his home.
Miami’s police chief said the incident would be investigated.
CORONAVIRUS
‘We’re not doing enough.’ The race against COVID-19 to test and house Miami’s homeless
BY JOEY FLECHAS AND ALEX HARRIS
APRIL 18, 2020 07:02 AM
A moving pad, a magenta blanket and a few pillows separate the Bachmans from the concrete sidewalk on Southwest First Avenue in Miami. The coronavirus pandemic has rendered this stretch of downtown quiet, save for a few vehicles through the day and the occasional pedestrian. Anyone on foot can easily walk down the middle of the street.
Ashley Bachman, 34, has multiple sclerosis. Her 36-year-old husband Robert Bachman has epilepsy. The couple have been sleeping on their makeshift bed on the concrete near the intersection with South Miami Avenue for almost two months.
Ashley Bachman and her husband, fearful of contracting COVID-19, have been able to get into a Camillus Health program that allows them to get mental health evaluations and housing. But they are stymied by delays as shelters move people around in an effort to create distance between them and isolate those who might have been exposed.
“Ain’t no telling how long it’s going to take though,” Robert said.
“Because of the virus, that’s the major problem right now. Everything is on hold,” Ashley said.
Bachman is one of a few dozen people experiencing homelessness on this block of downtown. She’s one of hundreds in downtown and Overtown who have seen the pandemic manifest in ways that people with housing don’t experience. On the street, feedings have decreased, access to shelters and programming have become more difficult and the stream of people who would normally offer a helping hand no longer walk by.
Several weeks after the COVID-19 crisis upended daily life for people across Miami-Dade County, advocates are working to address the challenges faced by people sleeping on the street. They are frustrated that more people are not being provided housing and testing and they blame the Homeless Trust.
That frustration has drawn advocates from different corners of the area’s social safety net into a coalition that is taking on work they say the Trust and its chief, the powerful lobbyist Ron Book, should be doing.
Book paints a different picture, one of an agency whose employees are working aggressively on behalf of the homeless and that is dipping into its reserves to help them.
On Friday, a coalition of advocates led by University of Miami doctor Armen Henderson called a press conference to announce new measures to serve the homeless, from expanded COVID-19 testing to showers and portable toilets in Overtown.
Henderson and members of other community groups, including the Dream Defenders, the Circle of Brotherhood, Miami Workers Center and Struggle for Miami’s Affordable and Sustainable Housing, criticized the Trust for what they considered inaction in the face of the pandemic. Henderson said his offers to collaborate with the Trust were rebuffed. In response, he took matters into his own hands.
“It’s obvious from the conditions that I’ve seen of humans living out the street in Miami-Dade County, that we’re not prepared and that we’re not doing enough,” Henderson said. “We should absolutely do more.”
Henderson has distributed food, tents and toiletries for several weeks during the pandemic, and he’s tested 30 homeless people since mid-March. He said all 30 tests have come back negative. The physicians had 25 more swab tests to offer Friday.
The doctor also made headlines when a Miami police officer handcuffed him in front of his home while he was placing used boxes on the curb for pickup. The doctor said he could not discern any reason for why he was handcuffed. Miami’s police chief said the incident would be investigated.
Henderson and the coalition, which includes a team of physicians and medical students, on Friday handed out more tents and food to people living on downtown’s sidewalks. They also collected more samples for COVID-19 tests, swabbing people who wanted to get tested.
“I think it’s awesome what these volunteers are doing, coming out here to help us,” said Silvia Stagg, a woman who was tested under the overpass on Southwest Second Street.
Natalia Echeverri, a South Miami Hospital physician who administered COVID-19 tests Friday, said she was one of multiple local doctors who were using the little time they have between shifts to volunteer on the street. She called on the government agencies to put all of the homeless in housing immediately to truly enact the “stay-at-home” orders that are in place statewide.
“I am here because as a physician, I took an oath to help others,” she said. “This is a public health emergency for all, not for those with homes, not for those with insurance, but for every single human out there.”
Book refuted the claim that the Trust isn’t doing enough. He said staffers have been handing out brochures, masks, hand sanitizer and food for seven weeks now; they have been moving people into hotel rooms for more than a month.
“I have been moving people into hotels for days and days and days,” he said. “These folks want you to believe we’ve done nothing.”
A new contract for 200 beds at the Red Roof Inn in Homestead kicked in on Friday, bringing the Trust’s total available beds to 649. Of the total, 161 are occupied — some by families. The rooms cost the Trust $35 to $78 a night, on top of cost of three meals a day and staff to monitor the residents to make sure they don’t leave the hotels, as the first few isolated guests did weeks back. Thursday, Book said, a man threw his TV out the window of his hotel room in frustration from having to stay inside the hotel.
“Can I put everybody [in a hotel room]? I can’t afford to do that,” he said.
Book said he has no idea how much it would cost to house everyone on the streets, but said the Trust’s board gave him permission to tap into the reserves, so he is. He’s also counting on federal cash to fill in the gaps. The Trust’s plan is to triage housing — starting with senior citizens and those with underlying medical conditions. The end goal is to get each of those people in hotel rooms permanent housing afterward and not just send them back to the street when the pandemic abates.
“For somebody to come in and say we don’t have a plan? Kiss my butt,” Book said.
More than 1,500 people currently live in one of the Trust’s shelters and another 4,734 live in more permanent, affordable housing that comes with regular access to social services.
The Trust is working off a batch of 144 nasal swab tests and 100 throat tests. Book said he doesn’t have a total count for how many tests have been completed since they began swabbing people last week, but said on Thursday alone 20 people were swabbed.
Staff is focusing on people who live downtown as well as senior citizens inside the shelters.
Some people have refused shelter, fearing they may be at greater risk entering dorm-like lodgings. Some have also refused a hotel room. Book, who went along for the testing on Thursday, said they encountered multiple people who refused a test or a hotel room.
“There was this 77-year-old-man. I got on my knees and begged him to go to the hotel, but I couldn’t get him to go,” Book said. “But I got two older women to go.”
The Trust has so far found six homeless people — some sheltered, some not — who have tested positive for the virus. An employee has as well. Book said he plans to test all 426 employees at the Trust.
Henderson told reporters he called Victoria Mallette, the Trust’s executive director, four weeks ago to advocate for housing four individuals he’d met who had symptoms. He said Mallette belittled him over the phone before calling the health department to check on Henderson’s credentials and verify that he was really a physician.
Book denied that Henderson had reached out with an offer to help “recently,” but said they did speak weeks ago. He also denied that Henderson had spoken with Mallette, the director, recently.
“We have an obligation anytime we’re taking someone into our continuum to do our due diligence on them,” Book said. “I don’t know whether she asked them about his credentials.”
DEBATE OVER PUBLIC TOILETS
The COVID-19 crisis has also reignited a debate over public bathrooms, redrawing battle lines between Book and advocates for more public facilities. Book has ardently opposed opening public bathrooms in downtown, a position firmly at odds with activists and the city of Miami’s government.
The city, the tax-funded Downtown Development Authority and homeless shelter Camillus House helped pay for a $300,000 public toilet near the downtown library. Advocates and government leaders say they favor more permanent bathrooms that would serve the whole public, not just the homeless, and prevent public urination and defecation.
Other places with bathrooms people could use, such as restaurants and the library, are closed during the emergency. In unfortunate timing, that toilet was removed and placed in storage in February when the county began staging redevelopment of the civil courthouse on Flagler Street and Northwest First Avenue. One permanent bathroom at Bayfront Park remains open. Downtown Development Authority executive director Christina Crespi said it is being staffed 14 hours a day. The agency will manage the installation of at least three more permanent toilets in downtown within the next six weeks.
But a pair of portable toilets city crews placed at the northeast corner of South Miami Avenue and First Street became unusable because they weren’t maintained. On Tuesday, soiled clothing lay on the floor of one of the stalls, and feces were smeared on the ground.
“The other day it rained, and there was a stream of feces running down the street,” said Star Lee Black, a 50-year-old man who sleeps around the corner.
By Friday, the portable toilets had been moved. Milton Vickers, director of the city’s human services department, said the toilets were relocated to Southwest First Street and First Court. The city is looking to buy them from the vendor and service them with city workers, though the toilets would be available for use only between certain hours, which have not been determined.
“We are working on it,” Vickers said.
Henderson has been handing out tents to help people create boundaries between themselves on the sidewalks and encourage social distancing. In late March, when he tested 15 people and fed more during a stop under I-95 on Southwest 11th Street in Overtown, volunteers distributed more than a dozen tents. Tuesday afternoon, it looked like all of those tents were pitched, and people who would otherwise be sitting in close proximity were inside their tents.
Several people in downtown on Friday said Miami police have been telling the homeless that they need to take their tents down during the day and can only put them up at night, an order that made no sense to people on the street and the volunteers serving them. The tents allow people to have some level of shelter, with physical separation from each other, to protect against the spread of the virus.
Miami’s police department did not respond to a request for comment Friday night.
Book has always been clear about his housing-first stance, arguing that providing toilets and tents makes it harder to move unhoused individuals into housing. He also said people shouldn’t hand out tents because he worries it encourages tent cities where the disease could be easily spread.
However, he does not think areas where several tents are set up should be broken up because that disperses people — and potentially, the virus. He pointed to guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which cautioned that encampments should be left in place but residents should be encouraged to increase their distance from each other.
Henderson announced the volunteers will be working to place people in motel rooms arranged by his volunteers and collaborating with Bishop James Adams at the St. John’s Baptist Church in Overtown to set up showers and portable toilets in the church parking lot.
Access to a shower, which has been cut off for people outside shelters, would be a godsend for Ashley Bachman. As she spoke about how badly she wanted to move off the street, steps that are stymied by the virus crisis, a handful of daisies poked out of her pink bag. Slightly wilted, the symbols of purity and new beginnings could be seen over her shoulder as she spoke emotionally.
“I’m going through a lot because ... it’s just hard. I don’t like looking like I’m filthy, looking like I’m dirty,” she said, tears welling in her eyes as her voice shook. “I like to be presentable, even being homeless. It’s hard.”
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