Local

Jacksonville homeless shelters see zero COVID-19 cases

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Quest Diagnostics chose Jacksonville as one of only two cities in the country to provide COVID-19 tests for the homeless population. The tests were conducted in partnership with the Sulzbacher Center and UF Health Jacksonville.

Tests were administered at every local homeless shelter and service provider including Sulzbacher downtown and Sulzbacher Village, Trinity Rescue Mission, Salvation Army, Clara White Mission, Hubbard House and City Rescue Mission and both Urban Rest Stop locations.

679 people took the voluntary test last week and everyone came back negative. Cindy Funkhouser, President and CEO of Sulzbacher told WOKV that the tests were not mandatory but those who did take the tests were given a ten dollar gift card. These gift cards were funded by the Sulzbacher organization.

If someone were to test positive, they would be sent to a local hotel to be quarantined. Initial funds for the hotels are coming from the City of Jacksonville Rest Stop grand and private donors.

However, Funkhouse believes that the low number is partly due to many of the homeless shelters taking precautions early on along with Mayor Lenny Curry’s early work-from-home order.

“We had put in a lot of really stringent protocols in place around social distancing, screening everybody with temperatures that come on any of our campuses, intensive cleaning four to five times a day, all of those things,” Funkhouse said. “So they knew we had a great infrastructure in place.”

A ‘Pop-up’ Rest Stop was also established downtown at the Salvation Army where people could have a safe space during the day where they could also social distance. This rest stop included medical screenings.

One of the concerns early on for the homeless population is that many of the early public tests could only be done  if they were in a car.

The CDC sites that people who did not have a home are higher risk for COVID-19. According to the CDC website, many people who are homeless often have underlying medical conditions, are older adults, and are often in a crowded setting that could facilitate the spread of the virus.

Funkhouser expressed a concern that there may be a spike of cases soon due to people coming back to work and interacting with more people downtown, where there is a major homeless population.

“Once other people start coming into this space, we have to double down on our safety measures at the shelters to keep people safe and healthy,” Funkhouser said. “We will continue with the protocols, we will continue with the disinfecting, and the social distancing, and everything we’ve been doing. We don’t plan to stop.”

There are leftover tests from this partnership that the Sulzbacher Center will use if there is someone at any of the shelters showing symptoms. That person would go wait in quarantine at that point and wait until the test results come back.

The main goal for the rest of this pandemic is to make sure these people are not alone.

“This is scary, obviously for everyone. It’s a scary time. But imagine yourself not having a home, no way to socially isolate,  no TV, and then all of a sudden everyone in Downtown Jacksonville has disappeared,” Funkhouser said. “There has been a high level of anxiety in the homeless population.”

mobile apps

Everything you love about wokv.com and more! Tap on any of the buttons below to download our app.

amazon alexa

Enable our Skill today to listen live at home on your Alexa Devices!