The Council is Here to Support You: A Letter from Our CEO Bobby Watts

There are some things that Health Care for the Homeless (HCH) providers do better than anyone else in the country. Responding to the needs of people during natural disasters is one of them. The skills that we employ every day—treating people experiencing trauma with no identification, medical records, prescriptions, and with multiple health problems—are what are needed during that type of crisis.

We are in another type of crisis now. The whole world is concerned about how to control the spread of the novel coronavirus. Not enough organizations are focused on what the pandemic means for people experiencing homelessness, but HCH and medical respite programs are—and the Council is here to support YOU. The Council is uniquely situated to help ensure that the health needs of people experiencing homelessness are met. We are grounded in human rights and social justice and are guided by people with lived expertise in homelessness and the professionals who serve them. The Council community has a wealth of knowledge and experience which is freely shared, so that all parts of the community can benefit.

Like you, the Council staff have been working hard to deal with the ramifications of the novel coronavirus pandemic for people experiencing homelessness. We are here to support you and those you serve by advocating for public policy changes to meet this crisis—and to put in place measures to prevent future ones, to facilitate the sharing of best practices among the HCH and medical respite community, and to spread the wisdom and expertise of our community to governments, shelters, and others also serving people experiencing homelessness.

Here are some of the ways we have been striving to support you in your efforts:

• We have created a webpage dedicated to information about the coronavirus. Please check it often, as we are updating it continuously with new information.
• We have given input to CDC and HUD that they incorporated in two excellent series of publications about protecting the health of people experiencing homelessness during this pandemic.
• We have given over a dozen media interviews to inform the public about the special needs to be considered when serving homeless populations—and the services that you are providing. In addition, Barbara DiPietro, our Sr. Director of Policy, has participated in multiple webinars with government officials and other service providers.
• We are honored to be selected by Kaiser Permanente to help them award funds to some homeless health providers to address COVID-19-related needs.

We have also been working to effect change to public policy and systems.  We have communicated directly with Congress and HRSA are in the process of communicating with national associations of elected officials and those who make decisions concerning public policies with the following requests:

• Identify appropriate places to isolate or quarantine people experiencing homelessness that are Persons Under Investigation
• Prohibit evictions and sweeps of encampments, which result in disruption of care
• Expand medical services to shelters and to unsheltered people
• Expand medical respite services.

Most importantly, we are looking for additional ways to support you during this time of crisis. In addition to a webinar on Friday, March 20, we intend to hold a series of weekly forums for our community to quickly share information, strategies, questions—and solutions. Stay tuned for more information.

In Solidarity,

Bobby Watts, CEO
National Health Care for the Homeless Council

For Immediate Release

February 14, 2020

Media Contact

Barbara DiPietro, Ph.D.
Senior Director of Policy
(443) 703-1346
bdipietro@nhchc.org