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https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-m...1-8-12_dc-virus-hotels-6pm:homepage/story-ans
D.C. pays millions to place the homeless in hotels to avoid covid-19. But many rooms are empty. And others need them.
Within a span of a few months, Charles Odom went from prison to a D.C. homeless shelter to the hospital, suffering from heart problems and shortness of breath.
Now, he is confined again, but this time to a hotel room. He gets his own bathroom and television, three meals a day, laundry and medical care. Best of all, he stays safe from the novel coronavirus, which at age 71, could be disastrous for him. “It’s really a great situation,” he said.
Odom is one of more than 2,000 D.C. residents who have spent weeks or sometimes months in hotel rooms paid for by the D.C. government, an effort that has greatly reduced the spread of coronavirus among homeless residents.
But the city has left many of the hotel rooms it rents vacant — up to 70 percent on some nights — even as it failed to recruit members of another vulnerable population: those living in crowded conditions who could easily spread the virus to their families or roommates.
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Public health planning is not a fun occupation.
D.C. pays millions to place the homeless in hotels to avoid covid-19. But many rooms are empty. And others need them.
Within a span of a few months, Charles Odom went from prison to a D.C. homeless shelter to the hospital, suffering from heart problems and shortness of breath.
Now, he is confined again, but this time to a hotel room. He gets his own bathroom and television, three meals a day, laundry and medical care. Best of all, he stays safe from the novel coronavirus, which at age 71, could be disastrous for him. “It’s really a great situation,” he said.
Odom is one of more than 2,000 D.C. residents who have spent weeks or sometimes months in hotel rooms paid for by the D.C. government, an effort that has greatly reduced the spread of coronavirus among homeless residents.
But the city has left many of the hotel rooms it rents vacant — up to 70 percent on some nights — even as it failed to recruit members of another vulnerable population: those living in crowded conditions who could easily spread the virus to their families or roommates.
=============================================================================
Public health planning is not a fun occupation.
