Protecting the Vulnerable: COVID-19 Response for People Experiencing Homelessness

About the Program

Category: Human Services (Best in Category)

Year: 2021

Maricopa County is dedicated to providing funds to address services and housing needs for people experiencing homelessness. The Human Services Department together with the Public Health Department and multiple community partners, set up a holistic response for people experiencing homelessness in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic beginning in March 2020. The response centered around five main principles including slowing the spread of COVID-19, protecting the most vulnerable, providing safe isolation, ensuring regional transportation, and housing. As the pandemic progressed, increasingly complex responses were required. What began with increasing access to hygiene and providing over 20,000 masks for people experiencing homelessness and providers, rapidly expanded to multiple full-scale hotel operations that provided vulnerable individuals with non-congregate shelter options and isolation space for those who tested positive. Providing a 24/7 hotline and transportation to the hotels, testing, and vaccination were also critical response components. Maricopa County remained focused on the future and worked toward finding permanent housing solutions by utilizing federal funding to target housing opportunities to the most at-risk in the community. Through key partnerships, the County has undertaken a wide-ranging COVID-19 response and has mitigated the spread of COVID-19 through one of the most vulnerable populations in the County.