Mayor Lightfoot Announces Housing Plan to Patients and Homeless
Mayor Lori Lightfoot announces plans to house residents experiencing homelessness and residents awaiting COVID-19 test results via Twitter Live Stream.
Chicago – Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced a new partnership with the YMCA and five Chicago hotels to house health care workers, people awaiting COVID-19 test results and residents experiencing homelessness on March 23.
Her plan, which was announced at a press conference that was streamed via Twitter, is set to offer 2,000 patient beds by the end of the week. Healthcare workers, patients with low symptoms and people awaiting test results will be housed in hotel rooms. According to the mayor, they are being housed in the hotels to stop the transition of the virus to their homes and communities.
Lightfoot also announced she signed an agreement to reopen Metro South Medical Center, located at 12935 S. Gregory St. The medical center will offer 200 additional beds by Thursday, March 26.
“In the absence of federal leadership, we have created a model and plan that can be followed by other cities and towns across the nation who themselves are grappling with the COVID-19 crisis,” said Lightfoot about the need to create a housing protocol.
Mayor Lightfoot said that hotel workers would staff the five hotels but made certain that they would receive proper training and would not interact with patients.
Lightfoot did not name five hotels or their locations due to privacy concerns but said that they geographically spared throughout the city.
To address the needs of Chicago’s homeless population during the pandemic, Mayor Lightfoot, Commissioner of the Department of Family and Support Services Lisa Morris Butler and Chicago YMCA president Richard Malone announced the opening of three YMCA locations to house up to 400 displaced individuals.
According to the 2019 Homeless Point - in - Time Count and Survey, nearly 5,300 individuals are experiencing homelessness in Chicago. To meet social distancing requirements in shelters set by the Centers for Disease Control, Chicago shelters have placed beds six feet apart to prevent the spread in facilities and also reduced the number of beds per location.
“Due to the social distancing required to stop the spread of COVID-19 the city of Chicago shelters are facing new challenges related to space and capacity,” said Butler.
Butler also stated the Department of Family and Support Services placed hand washing stations and passed disinfecting wipe and hand sanitizer at large encampments.