SPOKANE, Wash. — COVID-19 outbreaks have been reported at eight Spokane homeless shelters, according to data released Thursday by the Spokane Regional Health District.
House of Charity, Truth Ministries, UGM Men’s Shelter, Cannon Street Shelter, Evangeline House, UGM Crisis Center for Women, Hope House and Crosswalk Youth Shelter have all reported an increase in COVID-19 cases during the month of August. The cases are among both staff members and residents at the shelters. Among all eight shelters, a total of 120 cases have been reported as of Wednesday.
UGM Men’s Shelter has reported the most cases so far with 25. The latest case was reported on Aug. 14. Crosswalk Youth Shelter has only reported two cases but the latest case was reported on Aug. 19. Hope House reported the most recent cases on Aug. 23.
UGM Director of Ministries Joel Brown told KREM 2's Morgan Trau Thursday, they've had two more cases in the last day.
"About 40% of the cases that we have are in fully vaccinated individuals, luckily they're not serious cases and they get over the illness quickly," Brown said.
He also said one of their residents passed away after catching the virus.
"We've had two clients that have had to go to the hospital," he explained. "One unfortunately passed away. He was elderly and had a number of other medical conditions on top of COVID. The other client, they had to go to the hospital as a precaution and they were sent back the next day."
Below is a chart of all cases reported at each shelter:
Even before the pandemic, Spokane has had a shortage of beds in the shelter system.
"We did not expect to deal with this," Brown said. "I don't think anybody expected to deal with this for 18 months."
Brown has become the COVID response coordinator. He thought the community was in the clear after coronavirus cases began to decrease and vaccinations became more available in the city, he said. But then, the Delta variant hit Spokane, and the virus once again made its way into UGM in August.
"When we get one case, we know we probably have five other cases already going around the shelter," he added.
But if we know anything from the virus, nearly nothing is ever an isolated incident. Brown said they have 27 positive cases, with two more potential cases being tested. Of the 27 confirmed cases, 25 were clients and two were staff members. Only two of the cases have been severe, with one person dying in early August and another being hospitalized but later recovered. He said the severe cases were both in unvaccinated people.
Now comes the additional problem, with colder temperatures coming and the health district's isolation facility contract ending in August, Brown is concerned there won't be enough space at UGM to safely manage the virus. Now, he is tasked with either isolating his positive residents and not taking in as many people or get as many people as they can out of the cold, but dealing with outbreaks.
"There's no right answer there," he added. "It's kind of, 'what's the better of two bad situations?'"
The Health District team says they and the city understand how essential the isolation centers are, especially for people experiencing homelessness that don't have the ability to quarantine.
"Our leadership and community leadership is working on another plan to have something afterward because it's still an incredible need in our community," SRHD Homeless Outreach Coordinator Kylie Kingsbury.
They arent sure when the new isolation center will be announced, but it should happen before the august expiration date, Kingsbury added.
The organizations that run the shelters include the Union Gospel Mission, Catholic Charities, Volunteers of America and the Salvation Army. The Cannon Street Shelter is owned by the City of Spokane. They contract organizations to run the shelter.
The UGM Men’s Shelter shut down in February 2021 due to a coronavirus outbreak. In February, UGM Director of Marketing and Communications Barbara Comito said the shelter experienced an outbreak of COVID-19 cases with more than 70 people testing positive since Christmas 2020. The shelter shut down for over a month due to the cases.
COVID-19 cases are on the rise across the Inland Northwest, forcing the cancellation of events and adding stress to hospitals. Hoopfest announced on Wednesday that it was canceling the 2021 event due to the coronavirus surge driven by the highly contagious delta variant. From Feb. 1 to Aug. 3, 94.5% of COVID-19 cases in the hospital were from unvaccinated patients.
During a press conference Wednesday, Harborview Medical Center Emergency Department Director Dr. Steve Mitchell said Washington hospitals are at the highest level of occupancy the state has ever seen with 1,463 COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized.