According to numbers obtained through a public records request, so far, during the pandemic, Guilford County government has spent over a quarter of a million dollars to put 370 homeless people up at hotels.
While those homeless men and women are guests of the county, the county is paying for things like room service and meals.
The program, which began near the start of the pandemic, was created so that the county would have an option for isolating homeless residents in case they tested positive for COVID-19 or showed signs that they might have it.
County officials have been especially concerned about the potential of the disease spreading throughout the homeless community because homeless people may be less likely to follow social distancing practices, less likely to have access to gloves and masks, and the homeless population is often unhealthy due to malnourishment or an inability to afford proper medical care – which places them in a high-risk group.
Guilford County provided the following information to the Rhino Times on Friday, Sept. 4: “We have housed 370 unduplicated guests in hotels to date, who qualify for the housing support program for the homeless, as they complete their isolation/quarantine requirements. The County has incurred $248,252.50 in hotel room costs to date; with an additional invoice of $21,309.75 to be paid in next week’s check run.”
According to county officials, Guilford County has spent $6,475 for meals to feed the homeless in the hotels. That means on average, the county has spent about $17 per person on meals for the 370 homeless people.
The county has also provided some security for those being kept at hotels. Ostensibly, that’s to help protect the COVID-positive guests, but, of course, another reason for county security at the hotels is to discourage the infected homeless from leaving and going somewhere where they could infect others.
I hope they are having the healthy individuals do some type of chores such as picking up liter, etc. I doubt this is occurring since the government wouldn’t want the the homeless to earn their keep in some small way. It just might create a work ethic and get them out of this devastating cycle
My understanding is none of these are “healthy” in that they are all COVID positive so cannot be allowed contact with the public. They are in the hotels to keep them apart from the public so they won’t infect others, to quarantine them.
I hope they are restricting their use of drugs and alcohol while they are in the hotels as well as taking this chance to work on setting them up with appropriate government services that they may qualify for. Since they are “homeless” it seems most would qualify for Medicaid which would mean they could have medical coverage, and there are many other services they could possibly have if offered the proper assistance. These two weeks would be a good time for a social worker to work intensely attempting to help them change their lifestyle choices. (I think I worded this nicely)
Jesus Smiled
Or removing all the shopping carts left BY HOMELESS people in the hotel parking lots along Landmark Ctr Blvd.
But they say there is no money for the schools to be able to be set up for social distancing so the schools can open…
I’m tired of it, too.
Isn’t that a CROCK!!!!!! House the home ,open bars ,close churches and schools.Also let riotors all get together and not require them to wear masks.!!!!!When is the normal person going to rise up and say ENOUGH and get this economy back open .It would seem that these lame duck Dems in these cities would decide to stop this rioting and care about there location, buildings and houses.I guess they are waiting for these thugs to come into their neighborhoods and start burning their houses and looting.
Last time I checked Republicans were in charge of the country this would clearly follow their building of a wall, instigating social, enthic, racial,and religious separation, like the good old Jim crow days, make America great again, bull.