Dozens of homeless move from street to Convention Center

Some came because they wanted shelter from a virus they heard could kill them. Others just wanted shelter of any kind.

Dozens of homeless people arrived at a parking lot on Imperial Avenue near Petco Park on Thursday morning to meet service providers, San Diego police officers and public health nurses as a first step to shelter in the San Diego Convention Center.

“Corona scares the hell out of me,” said Caron Long, 61, who has been homeless since moving to San Diego from New Orleans four months ago. “I know people have caught it and died. What’s going to keep me from catching it and dying?”

At the end of the day, about 45 people were given a cot at the Convention Center, while others were given motel rooms provided by the county or the Regional Task Force on the Homeless.

Tim Anderson, 60, said he keeps up on the news and wanted to get into the shelter after hearing about the virus. He already was wearing facial covering and keeping his distance from other people.

“I learned a long time ago to follow suggestions,” said Anderson, who has been homeless off and on since 2006. “If you do all the things that might sound trivial, we have a shot at getting out of this.”

The city of San Diego has converted Hall H and adjacent rooms of the Convention Center into a shelter in an effort to protect homeless people from the COVID-19. Several shelters in the city were vacated out of concerns that the virus would spread inside them because beds were spaced too close together, and people began moving into the more-spacious Convention Center on April 1.

With about 800 people from shelters already moved in, San Diego Police Department homeless outreach teams began telling homeless people they met on the street that Convention Center beds had become available for them last Friday. The venue is expected to shelter up to 1,500 people.

Only a couple of dozen people were brought in daily, but that number almost doubled Thursday with a coordinated outreach by police HOT officers, service providers and county public health workers who met in the Imperial Avenue parking lot. Similar coordinated outreach events will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Homeless people, many already wearing facial covering, lined up at the parking lot gate and were brought in one by one and directed to a table to fill out a questionnaire that asked if they had been in close contact with someone who had tested positive for the virus and if they had a fever, cough or shortness of breath.

They then were directed to wait in white, plastic chairs, spaced at least 6 feet apart, until their names were called to be taken to the Convention Center, where they would receive more screening.

People who were healthy would be offered a cot at the Convention Center, but people who were showing symptoms or considered vulnerable to the disease because of their age or health would be offered hotel rooms. The county had obtained 1,547 rooms for people with symptoms, and as of Thursday 194 were occupied by 213 people.

The Regional Task Force on the Homeless has 307 rooms to quarantine homeless people with 199 already occupied by 327 people on Thursday.

“I’ve been trying to get into a shelter,” said Arthetta Pappas, 54, who had come to the outreach with year-old miniature Pinscher, My Angel. “I’m going to ask for a motel room.”

Arthetta Pappas and her dog My Angel waited in an East Village parking lot for a van that was taking them to the temporary housing facility at the San Diego Convention Center on Thursday.

(John Gibbins / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Pappas said she had various health issues and hoped she would qualify for a hotel room.

Darren Branson, 52, uses a wheelchair and said he has heart failure, high blood pressure and diabetes that requires dialysis treatments three times a week, yet he also is living on the street.

“I feel like I should have been one of the first ones to get one of those hotel rooms,” he said, adding that he hoped he finally would be off the street that day.

Some people who hoped to get shelter said they were not worried about the virus, but just wanted off the street

“The virus is a bunch of B.S.,” said Andrew, who declined to give his last name. “The government is trying to take over our lives. The virus isn’t as bad as they say it is.”

Only 15 homeless people in the county have tested positive for the coronavirus, including one new person announced Thursday.

SDPD homeless outreach team officer Christopher Harrison screened people trying to get in to the Convention Center shelter Thursday.

(John Gibbins / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

While homeless people at the Convention Center have daily health screenings, it’s unknown if anyone there might have the virus, but isn’t showing symptoms.

That uncertainty was a concern to San Diego philanthropist Dan Shea, co-founder of the Tuesday Group and board member of the Lucky Duck Foundation, which is focused on helping homeless people.

“We believe it is critical to test all of the people being sheltered at the Convention Center along with those providing support and services,” he said in announcing that the Lucky Duck Foundation would fund testing for everybody at the venue. “By administering tests at the Convention Center, we can take informed action to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 throughout the community.”

Testing at the Convention Center began Thursday in partnership with Family Health Centers of San Diego, San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency and the Regional Task Force on the Homeless.

People who test positive will be immediately isolated, and a public health staff member will arrange transportation to one of the county’s public health hotel rooms.

Homeless advocate Michael McConnell said he has found many people he meets on the street know about the Convention Center shelter and are eager to get in.

“I probably sent 10 people over there this morning,” he said Thursday. “They just started walking over. It wasn’t a hard sell.”

McConnell also said many people he meets on the street have asked if he has hand sanitizer or facial coverings because they are concerned about the virus.

Laurence Moore, 52, was among the homeless on Imperial Avenue waiting to get into the Convention Center on Thursday.

“I don’t think it’s very dangerous,” he said about the virus. “I just want to be off the street.”

Moore said he had spent March in jail after being arrested for illegal lodging. It was hard to follow the news in jail, and Moore said he felt like he had walked into a different world when he got released and found bars were closed and restaurants were serving only take-out.

“I thought, ‘What’s going on?’” he said.