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Following numerous tragic events this past year, including the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, Rams players came together to discuss how they could help address injustices that continue to plague society. Focused on long-term, systemic change, the players decided to pool resources together to financially support organizations who are doing this critical work.
The Rams invited 25 social justice non-profits to share with the players information about their work, those they serve and how the players could be of the greatest assistance. After listening and learning, the players rewarded each organization with a donation ranging from $20,000 to $50,000.
MICHAEL BROCKERS, JOHNNY HEKKER, SEBASTIAN JOSEPH-DAY and ANDREW WHITWORTH helped lead the process, participating in virtual conversations with the organizations and determining how to allocate the funds.
“As a leader on this team, it was important to me to be part of these conversations,” said Brockers. “My teammates and I are very aware of the social injustices that continue to occur, and we made a decision to become actively involved in helping to be part of the change that is desperately needed. It was awesome to hear from so many different leaders and non-profits that are putting the work in to make real change and I’m honored to support them.”
“In my 15 years in the NFL, this has definitely been one of the most inspiring things that I have had the opportunity to be part of,” said Whitworth. “It was an amazing process that allowed us to learn about a variety of non-profits working across Los Angeles to positively impact lives and advance social justice. The chance to hear directly from them on how we could help left us both humbled and motivated. On behalf of my teammates, we thank them for their daily passion and commitment to drive equity and are proud to support their important work.”
Below are the 25 recipient non-profit organizations who are working to address education inequities, youth justice, community-police relations and anti-recidivism as well as providing access to mentors and basic human needs including housing and food.

St. Joseph Center – ($25K recipient) – St. Joseph Center is committed to addressing homelessness through a racial equity lens and providing working poor families, as well as homeless men, women, and children of all ages with the inner resources and tools to become productive, stable and self-supporting members of the community

VENICE, CA — Across Venice and LA County, the coronavirus pandemic has led to more competition for food supplies at store aisles, diminishing a vital reservoir that food pantries and shelters have relied on in the past.

The Knights of Columbus, an organization of volunteers, is stepping up to fight the problem by supporting food banks in Los Angeles through a $100,000 donation, a fundraising campaign, and increased volunteerism from Los Angeles chapter members and the general public.

They partnered with the St. Francis Center in Los Angeles, The St. Joseph Center in Venice, Proyecto Pastoral at Dolores Mission Catholic Church in Boyle Heights, East San Gabriel Valley Coalition for the Homeless in Hacienda Heights, and St. Madeleine Catholic Church in Pomona.

It’s part of the Knights of Columbus’ first phase of the “Leave No Neighbor Behind” campaign, which mobilizes its 1.25 million members and provides a total of $1 million to at-risk communities across the U.S. The Knights launched an additional multimillion-dollar effort worldwide and nationwide in April. That donation amount is expected to increase as needs progress in the pandemic.

Patch reached out to Knights of Columbus Rep: Stephen Bolton, State Secretary, California State Council, and St. Joseph Rep: Va Lecia Adams Kellum, President & CEO for what people should know about why food banks are vital for the LA community during the pandemic. Here are the questions and responses.

Q: What’s the most urgent reason people should keep food banks in mind right now?

A: St. Joseph: We are only beginning to glimpse the repercussions of this pandemic, particularly its consequences for the most vulnerable people in our communities, those already suffering the impact of chronic economic disadvantage, and the folks who don’t have a cushion to protect themselves against the financial shock of this crisis.

People faced with economic devastation, job and wage loss, and long-term unemployment are dealing with not having enough to feed themselves or their families. Food insecurity and the shortage will only worsen as time goes on, and food banks are the first line of defense for many people who otherwise won’t have access to a need as basic as food. As income lines fall, so does nutrition. Food banks are a reliable source of high-quality food, produce, and protein, vital to maintaining overall health and wellbeing.

The food banks in our communities are lifelines for a great many people who would otherwise have nowhere to go for food and sustenance.

A: Knights of Columbus: Now more than ever, as community members are facing unemployment and limited access to resources, food banks are in high demand for increased donations and volunteers. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused greater competition for food supplies at grocery stores, diminishing a vital reservoir that food pantries and shelters have traditionally relied upon.

The Knights understand that food banks are an essential resource in these communities. Through the Leave No Neighbor Behind campaign, the Knights have donated $1 Million to food banks across the country and $100,000 to food banks in Los Angeles. Additionally, members are encouraged to increase volunteerism at their local food banks.

Q: Are the food donations top priority for food banks right now, and if so, what items can people provide?

A: St. Joseph: Yes, absolutely. Donations help buffer interruptions or shortages in the supply chain. Certain items are harder to stock as demand increases, and essentials become costlier and harder to find.

If the community would like to help, they can donate basics like dry goods – rice, beans, powdered milk, canned goods, tomato sauce, tinned vegetables, tinned protein (tuna, chicken). All non-perishables are welcome. They are easy to store and always necessary.

We also need proteins such as cheese, eggs, meat, chicken. Frozen food is easier for us to manage. And all produce such as fruits and vegetables are also great donations. Other items are also very important — and particularly costly for people who are facing financial challenges. These include diapers, baby formula, pet food, and feminine hygiene products.

Because we have had to adapt our services to meet the social distancing guidelines, the food pantry is pre-packaging groceries for take-out. This means we need a steady supply of sturdy plastic grocery bags for grocery pickup. And to keep everyone safe, we always are grateful for donations of pocket-sized hand sanitizers and face masks.

A: Knights of Columbus: In terms of how the food donations work, we are organizing the Knights to be able to pick up food from their local parishes or buy extra canned goods at the grocery store and then deliver those to food pantries and organizations that are most in need.

Q: What else should readers know about this important community effort?

St. Joseph: Like we saw in 2008 economic downturn, one of the first places people turn is a food pantry. We are seeing this now. Our food pantry is an immediate and responsive way to help. When times are challenging, food pantries make a significant impact by helping people save money on food that they can then use toward rent or keeping the lights on. Food pantries like ours at St. Joseph Center, really help ensure that children, families, and seniors continue to eat and stay healthy and we are so proud to partner with the Knights of Columbus to provide to this vital resource in this time of need.

It’s a sobering fact that more than 2 million people in Los Angeles are considered ‘food insecure’, meaning they don’t have enough money or resources to feed themselves or their families. These alarming statistics existed before the COVID-19 pandemic, which has only increased the need. For instance, at St. Joseph Center, we are seeing a 75% increase in people coming to our Food Pantry for help. Food banks create security where it is lacking by providing a stable and reliable source of quality food for seniors, individuals, and families, and that is especially important as we grapple with the effects of this public health crisis.

It’s important for people to know that everything helps. No donation or offering is too small. It will have an impact, and all support is very much wanted and needed.

A: Knights of Columbus: This will be an ongoing effort that we will continue throughout the rest of the year, and as long as the COVID-19 crisis and economic downturn of the United States continues.

Additionally, the Knights are continuing long-time work around blood donations. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, thousands of blood drives have been canceled, resulting in a shortage of over 100,000 units of blood. In response to current shortages, our members and their families, who are not affected by underlying conditions, are being encouraged to donate blood.

Q: Do food banks help fill the gap for a lot of people in our community? And if so, explain why.

A: St. Joseph: Very much so, especially right now. With so many people dealing with income, wage, and employment loss, money is just scarce. Food banks ensure that no matter a person or family’s economic situation, there will be food available and accessible for those who need it. Food banks make sure that no one goes hungry.

A: Knights of Columbus: Food Banks do fill the gap in our community, as it is one of the first places people turn to when hunger becomes a growing concern. As many families have already stocked their pantries in preparation for shelter in place orders, others are relying on food banks in order to keep food on the table, which is why the Knights of Columbus is committed to keeping families fed through the continuation of this important effort.

We will leave no one behind.

Q: Where can they provide donations? Can people also donate money?

A: St. Joseph: To schedule drop-offs, or to find out other ways to help, please email our Volunteer Manager, Shelly Aydin saydin@stjosephctr.org; Yes – https://stjosephctr.org/donate…

A: Knights of Columbus: Those wishing to support the Knights efforts can make a monetary donation to K of C Charities at www.kofc.org or by mail to Leave No Neighbor Behind, Knights of Columbus Charities, P.O. Box 1966, New Haven, CT 06509-1966.

The Knights of Columbus also provides resources and ways for those interested in volunteering in their communities. Learn how to get involved with a local parish, a Knights of Columbus chapter, or a community food bank at kofc.org.

President and CEO of St. Joseph Center Dr. Va Lecia Adams Kellum shares on CNN the severity of the pandemic in our country and it’s affect on LA County renter households, families and children.
“Families are desperate. There is a lot of anxiety. As we see children going back to school, families are stretched more than ever. This is something that vulnerable families have faced for a long time with systemic racism in our country and so many people are out of work or unable to meet the rent before this tough time. They’re just very desperate and very frightened,” Kellum said.
If you want to help make a difference, please visit www.stjosephctr.org/donate to donate.

VICE News looks at a program known as Project Roomkey, housing the homeless in LA

This was a special panel discussion with three esteemed African American Female Leaders. The conversation addressed institutional racism, homelessness, and generational poverty. Combatting the homeless crisis in Los Angeles will take an all-hands-on-deck approach and a commitment to dismantling the racist structures that have prevented so many of our Black and Brown neighbors from thriving.

Guest Panelist:

President & CEO of St. Joseph Center

Va Lecia Adams Kellum, Ph.D.

U.S. Congresswoman & Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus

Karen Bass

CEO of Funders Together to End Homelessness

Amanda Andere

By STEVE LOPEZ COLUMNIST

In Los Angeles County, African Americans represent 7.9% of the population.

In the latest homeless count, with double-digit city and county increases that are uniformly disappointing and disturbing, Black people make up 34% of the 66,000-plus total.

As has been true in other recent years, that is out of whack by four times, and it’s a particularly important number to highlight today, as a reinvigorated national conversation on racial disparities is taking place across the United States.

“Without institutional racism, there would be 15,000 fewer people experiencing homelessness, almost all coming from Black and Native American populations,” said the summation of county statistics released this week by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

On Friday, I toured skid row in downtown Los Angeles, which I first became familiar with 15 years ago after befriending a homeless African American musician. I vividly recall how police back then routinely issued tickets for things such as jaywalking to people who suffered from severe mental illness. My friend was a target more than once.

The area is still an outdoor museum of social and economic failure, with the stark results on full display. Tents and blue tarps are still everywhere, people sleep on clogged sidewalks, and the vast majority of homeless people on skid row — I’d say 75% or more — are Black.

You can find homeless Black people in any part of L.A. County these days, but why such a concentration on skid row?

For one thing, a county health official told me, many neighborhoods don’t have as much supportive housing, addiction rehabilitation and mental health resources as skid row does, due partly to organized neighborhood opposition throughout L.A. Through the decades, if you’re destitute, sick, hungry, traumatized, skid row is where you go. And for decades, Black Angelenos have disproportionately grappled with all of those things.

In L.A. County, racial disparities abound. Black people are twice as likely to die of COVID-19 as white people.

In Los Angeles Unified, the second-largest school district in the country, about 90% of those who attend district schools are students of color, and 80% of LAUSD students fall below the poverty line.

A Times study published a few days ago determined that of the nearly 900 people killed by police in L.A. County since 2000, 80% were people of color.

As I wrote on the first day of major demonstrations in Los Angeles, for all the wealth in the state that ranks as the fifth-largest economy of the world, schools are not equal, access to healthcare is not equal, criminal justice is not equal, and neither is access to good jobs with decent pay.

“You have all these institutional things that over decades and decades broke down the Black family,” said former state Sen. Kevin Murray, who was a member of the Legislative Black Caucus and now directs the Weingart homeless services agency in the heart of skid row.

What followed was mass incarceration and its aftermath.

When those incarcerated people were let out, Murray said, “sometimes after a relatively minor offense, they had nowhere to go and barriers kept them from gainful employment. They had no safety net, no family support system … and [homelessness] is the expected result of the kind of institutional racism people are now starting to resist.”

“What’s inherent in these disparities,” said Va Lecia Adams Kellum, who is on the front lines of the fight against homelessness as president of the St. Joseph Center, “is that rather than arrest kids, let’s educate them and let’s employ them because we know what happens when they’re educated and housed and working.”

Adams Kellum is on a LAHSA committee studying homelessness among African Americans. The chair of that committee is Jacqueline Waggoner, a LAHSA commissioner who works in the affordable housing field.

“Government created the differences we see in housing,” Waggoner said, touching on the long history of housing discrimination that drove segregation, and redlining, the practice of refusing to issue or insure mortgages in African American communities.

In a region where housing costs have soared and wages have remained flat, Waggoner said, people of color have been hit hardest.

“A lot of people are on the cliff edge of homelessness every day, and if you are poor and a person of color, you’re always with your feet half off that block,” Waggoner said.

It’s interesting that she mentioned redlining because when I was on skid row Friday, I stopped to see a guy I know who has been homeless for a decade or so and goes by the name of Old School. He wasn’t there, so I asked his homeless friend if he’d tell Old School to give me a call.

And how are you? I asked the friend.

“Not well,” he said, telling me about his diabetes and other issues. “How could I be?”

Old School called a few minutes later and I asked him why such a disproportionate number of homeless people in L.A. are Black.

No hesitation on his part.

“Because of deprivation,” Old School said. “That’s a penalty that was imposed on African American families. Employment opportunities dried up, housing dried up, and they drew a red line straight across the board. People are penalized for the color of their skin … and after the Rodney King riots, everyone was labeled a looter or a thief. The image of the African American male is of a thug.”

The demonstrations and violence across the U.S. since the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer have unleashed more than a few racist outbursts, and that kind of ugliness will never go away. But there’s also been an encouraging multi-racial demand for reforms on many fronts.

“The collective action and multi-cultural protests give me hope, because nothing will change until … people see that it’s my brother, it’s my last breath, I can’t breathe because he can’t breathe,” said Adams Kellum. “As a Black person, I love seeing that it’s not just us saying this.”

But are we willing to do more than protest? Are we willing to move away from what Waggoner calls “race neutral” policymaking and embrace “racial equity” policymaking, even if money is short because of the pandemic’s devastating effect on government budgets?

Are we ready to end the glaring disparities in K-12 education? Are we ready to invest in more homeless prevention for the families of color most likely to show up in next year’s homeless count?

L.A. County needs another half-million units of affordable housing, Waggoner said, but there’s been fierce opposition to new development in California neighborhoods zoned for single-family homes.

“Is there a willingness in the community to say we want to fight racism by allowing density?” Waggoner asked.

Los Angeles is not alone when it comes to disproportionate homeless statistics, Waggoner said. Black people represent about 13% of the U.S. population and 40% of the nation’s homeless population.

“If we can fix it for Black people, we can fix it for everyone,” Waggoner said. “Because they’re the hardest hit.”

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kimberly Hamilton.

So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I have always been invested in the success and growth of others. You can ask anyone who knows me and they will more than likely call me mama bear. I really struggled to plant my feet into the social service field upon earning my bachelor’s in Psychology at UC Santa Cruz. A lot of organizations were looking for someone with experience that I just hadn’t grasped yet as a fresh graduate and oftentimes, I felt hopeless about starting my career.

St. Joseph Center honestly found its way to me at the most perfect time in my life, with the help of my amazing mother. She met our fearless CEO, Dr. Va Lecia Adams Kellum at a mutual family friend’s get together and got her business card after hearing about the work that the agency does. I was blown away by their impact in the community and reached out to her the first chance I could get. I was invited into the agency to share more about myself and had such a good feeling in my gut the moment I walked inside, almost like I was home. This was the first place that I had honestly been seen and empowered to begin my journey as a social worker, after what seemed like an eternity of rejection.

I was in a space that created an opportunity for me that is literally the cornerstone of the agency: hope through empowerment. I was surrounded by compassionate workers who will use everything they have to support those in their care. Stepping into the agency propelled me into my purpose of serving and empowering others. I have been blessed with such a unique role that supports others while they gain skills and experience for the jobs they want to pursue in culinary and technology. I get to show up for others and remind them that anything is possible, as long as they work hard and keep their attention on it. I am so, so grateful for my journey at the agency. It has really helped me to ground myself in my purpose and I am inspired by the stories of our community members daily.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It has been a bumpy road, with a couple of detours that I am grateful for because it really helped to prepare me for where I am at today. This is my first job in my field and I really struggled with imposter syndrome in the beginning. There were days where I would actually lookout for someone to notice I had NO idea what I was doing and then let me go. I had very high expectations for myself and wanted to be able to figure out everything and help everyone when I first started at the agency three years ago. I have since learned to cultivate boundaries and patience for myself because most of us don’t know what we are doing! I learned to trust myself and my compassionate heart and have become more accepting of the things I can’t control. I have had a lot of support from my coworkers to help overcome these challenges and am so grateful to have learned from them as I am still cultivating my craft as a social worker.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with St. Joseph Center – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
I am filled with pride when I think of the agency I am connect with. I am proud to say that we are a one stop shop for social services and help our community in a multitude of ways through housing, outreach and engagement, mental health and education/vocational training. You name it, we more than likely offer the service. SJC is filled with people who truly care about the well being of others, especially during a time of need. I am very proud to be connected to so many hard working people that help to uplift our community.

I reside in our education and vocation sector as vocational case manager. We have a culinary training program and web development bootcamp for women that are hosted out of our main site in Venice. I support our students and remove and challenges or barriers that impact their program participation or day to day lives. This can be anywhere from transportation barriers, housing issues and food insecurity, to name a few. I am known for figuring things out and making our students feel seen. I notice red flags and anticipate any challenges that may arise for our students as well while linking them to community services and resources.

I think what sets me apart from others is the level of care and compassion I put into my work. I treat others with a level of kindness that makes me very unique from my coworkers. This really helps me to create meaningful relationships with the people we serve. It is so important for the work that we do!

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I want to reach more people and take my work a step further by earning a master’s degree. I feel that the knowledge and framework I will establish will help me to be a better social worker and empower myself with more opportunities.

I am bouncing between an LMFT and MSW program. I feel that my interest in serving others is very broad and would like the opportunity to hone in on that!

Listening to the radio in his car earlier this month, Joe heard California Gov. Gavin Newsom announce a new statewide program that would move homeless residents into hotel rooms to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“Everyone seemed really concerned,” he says. “Even on the radio, people were saying, ‘Watch out as soon as this hits the homeless community.’” Joe was concerned, too, as he’d been living in his car since he was evicted from his Los Angeles apartment last August.

Joe—who didn’t want his last name to be shared—couldn’t find more information online about the governor’s announcement. But last year, he had given his phone number to an outreach team at St. Joseph’s Center, a homeless service provider that has worked in LA neighborhoods for 40 years. In mid-April, he got a call back: Joe’s age—he just turned 72—made him eligible for the program, and there was a hotel room ready for him.

Now Joe has access to hot showers, three meals a day, and a reliable power source to charge his laptop. He’s a musician, so he’s thrilled to have a comfortable place to play his guitar. He’s also eligible for rental assistance, and plans to research how to apply for Section 8 vouchers. “When you’re on the road all the time, it’s really hard to keep that up,” he says. “I feel so lucky and fortunate.”

Joe is among the first of California’s 150,000 homeless residents to be given hotel rooms as part of a new statewide initiative called Project Roomkey, the same program he heard about on the radio that day. In the April 3 announcement, the state set a goal of securing 15,000 hotel rooms for homeless residents—specifically those who test positive for COVID-19 and don’t require hospitalization, those who have been exposed and need to be isolated, and those like Joe who are over 65 or have underlying medical conditions, putting them at greater risk of dying from the disease.

Three weeks later, the state says it has met its goal of securing 15,000 rooms, heralding the program as a success. But only a third of those rooms are currently filled, meaning about 3 percent of the state’s homeless residents have been moved into hotels. While the state’s goal falls painfully short of what’s needed, the governor and many mayors possess extraordinary powers at the moment to seize private property for public use. Using this emergency authority to commandeer hotels could house people more quickly—and in much greater numbers—offering safer, faster protection for the state’s most at-risk residents.

Service providers are eager to participate. When St. Joseph’s Center’s CEO Va Lecia Adams Kellum got the call last month that her organization would be able to start housing their most vulnerable clients for up to three months through the program, her team knew exactly who needed to get inside first. Using a standardized data-tracking tool, caseworkers were able to prioritize their lists of clients based on health history, disabilities, and age. Within five days of getting the call, St. Joseph’s Center had moved 119 people, including Joe, into a hotel on LA’s Westside.

The hotel staff takes care of housekeeping, the local nonprofit Everytable delivers three meals a day, and a team of nurses and social workers coordinated by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) stop by for health and wellness checks. “The pandemic makes things more complicated, but the need is more urgent than ever,” says Kellum. “The key is all of us working together to get through this by saving as many lives as possible.”

A handful of hotels currently housing homeless residents are proving that the state’s initiative—by far the most comprehensive of any state in the U.S.—can work. According to the California Hotel & Lodging Association, over 1,100 California hotels have volunteered 145,000 rooms to the state’s health department for COVID-19 efforts. But a growing chorus of homeless advocates, legal advisors, and medical experts say without the swifter action of commandeering, more people will become sick and die.

“There is nearly universal agreement that unhoused residents are extremely vulnerable right now, both in terms of risk of contracting COVID-19 and of having negative outcomes from the disease if they do contract it,” says Shayla Myers, a public interest attorney with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles. “Under the circumstances, commandeering property to bring unhoused people inside and de-densify shelters is no more extreme than issuing shelter-in-place orders and effectively shutting down most of the state to slow the spread of the disease.”

An estimated 80 percent of hotel rooms in the U.S. are currently empty, according to a report by STR, a data-forecasting company that tracks the hotel industry. Each night, in cities across the country, these hotels turn on the lights in vacant rooms to spell out words liked HOPE and LOVE, or display a single heart. It’s meant to show unity in the face of the deadly coronavirus pandemic, yet it literally highlights the empty rooms that could be used to keep people alive. Hundreds of thousands of hotel rooms sit unoccupied as the virus races across a country told to stay home—yet where over 575,000 people are experiencing homelessness on any given night.

Many U.S. cities are now attempting to use hotels to house people who are recovering from COVID-19 or need to self-isolate. But more cities are looking to hotels as a preventative measure to stop a disease which has started to rip through the country’s homeless communities, something experts say needs to happen immediately to prevent more deaths.

A study published at the end of March estimated that homeless residents infected with COVID-19 are twice as likely to be hospitalized and two to four times more likely to die compared to the general population—resulting in a total of 21,000 hospitalizations and 3,400 deaths nationwide. Moving unhoused people into hotel rooms could help prevent many of those hospitalizations and deaths, the study notes. “Emergency accommodations with private sleeping and bath space should be the preferred option for all clients.”

On March 18, before Project Roomkey had been announced, Newsom said the state was speaking with 900 hotels about housing homeless residents. By April 18, Newsom’s office had secured 10,974 hotel and motel rooms, with 4,211 homeless residents moved in. On that day, Newsom stood in a parking lot of a Motel 6 in the Silicon Valley city of Campbell, California, and announced that the state was making 5,025 rooms from the chain available at 47 locations in 19 counties.

But whether or not those counties choose to fill those rooms is being left up to local jurisdictions.

Under Project Roomkey, cities and counties negotiate most leases directly with hotels, which are paid for in part by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds that are expected to cover 75 percent of the costs. Service providers in various parts of the state told Curbed that cities and counties are negotiating 90-day hotel leases for as low as $80 to $90 per night. With a new stream of revenue in place, the hotels are then able to rehire unemployed workers to provide cleaning services, operational tasks, and other managerial duties. A variety of subsidized meal programs are also available at the state and local levels.

Large cities including Los Angeles and San Francisco have since announced their own hotel room goals, some of which, if met locally, could end up doubling or tripling the state’s total number. But the move-in process has been slow overall, with a lack of information available for at-risk residents, and finger-pointing between cities and service providers for causing delays.

San Francisco, like Los Angeles and San Diego, had at first focused on moving unhoused people into large emergency shelters instead of hotel rooms. But shelters—along with other congregate living situations where people are sharing bathrooms, eating areas, and spaces to sleep—don’t offer protection against outbreaks of infectious diseases like COVID-19, says Steve Berg, vice president for programs and policy at the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

“The CDC has guidelines for what they should be doing, but even if you’re following those guidelines it’s not a guarantee of safety,” says Berg. “If someone contracts the virus, there will be a risk to others.”

Under Project Roomkey, cities and counties negotiate most leases directly with hotels, which are paid for in part by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds that are expected to cover 75 percent of the costs. Service providers in various parts of the state told Curbed that cities and counties are negotiating 90-day hotel leases for as low as $80 to $90 per night. With a new stream of revenue in place, the hotels are then able to rehire unemployed workers to provide cleaning services, operational tasks, and other managerial duties. A variety of subsidized meal programs are also available at the state and local levels.

Large cities including Los Angeles and San Francisco have since announced their own hotel room goals, some of which, if met locally, could end up doubling or tripling the state’s total number. But the move-in process has been slow overall, with a lack of information available for at-risk residents, and finger-pointing between cities and service providers for causing delays.

San Francisco, like Los Angeles and San Diego, had at first focused on moving unhoused people into large emergency shelters instead of hotel rooms. But shelters—along with other congregate living situations where people are sharing bathrooms, eating areas, and spaces to sleep—don’t offer protection against outbreaks of infectious diseases like COVID-19, says Steve Berg, vice president for programs and policy at the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

“The CDC has guidelines for what they should be doing, but even if you’re following those guidelines it’s not a guarantee of safety,” says Berg. “If someone contracts the virus, there will be a risk to others.”

Last week, after the announcement of a major outbreak in San Francisco’s largest shelter, where at least 92 homeless residents have tested positive, county supervisors passed an ordinance that set a deadline for its 7,500 hotel rooms to be filled with homeless or at-risk residents by April 26—essentially ordering San Francisco Mayor London Breed to commandeer the rooms if the deals are not made. This would effectively house much of the city’s homeless population, COVID-positive or not. As of April 13, only 500 homeless residents had been moved into rooms, although city officials say the number is now over 700. The process has been so slow some supervisors are raising money through faith-based groups to move people into hotels themselves.

Chris Herring, a doctoral candidate in sociology at the University of California at Berkeley and homeless advocate in the Bay Area, says that San Francisco is taking the right approach overall. He argues that commandeering the empty hotels will save lives now, and being able to keep them filled until tourist demand ramps back up could give tens of thousands of unhoused residents enough

short-term stability to allow caseworkers to place them into long-term housing after the pandemic is over.

“We should think of this as the ideal triage strategy,” says Herring. “Use the hotel as a pause to get people safe and see if we can meet their needs better than we could before. Then, as that hotel stock runs down, let’s fight like hell to get stimulus money, Section 8 vouchers, or permanent supportive housing.”

According to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, that’s the goal in LA, where the city has 36,000 unhoused residents. “In this crisis, we have a new countywide plan to find thousands of hotel and motel rooms to prevent the spread of the virus among people experiencing homelessness,” he said in his State of the City address on April 19. “And once those fellow Angelenos come inside, they must not return to the streets.”

On April 8, LA County officials set a goal to fill 15,000 hotel rooms by the end of the month, with 1,340 rooms meant to be occupied at 15 sites by the end of that week. But by April 13, only 514 rooms at eight hotels had been filled. One week later, the number of occupied rooms stood at 749.

As the number of COVID-19 cases in shelters grows, a new statewide coalition named No Vacancy mounted a series of actions urging California mayors to use their emergency powers and seize the necessary rooms to house people. Standing in front of hotels up and down the state last week—many of which were built with generous tax breaks from cities—advocates held signs and banners that read “Commandeer these vacant hotels for the unhoused now” and “Fill hotels, not graves.”

One of those signs hung on a hotel in Oakland, California, neighborhood where Debra Taylor has been homeless for six years. The 68-year-old believed her age and medical history of diabetes and hypertension made her a Project Roomkey candidate but was dismayed that she hadn’t yet been contacted by outreach teams—even after she had spoken with state workers setting up FEMA trailers for COVID-19 relief nearby. On a video call last week organized by local nonprofits that raised money to get Taylor into a hotel anyway, she said she had cried when she spent the previous night in a room that she could see from the street where she lives in her car. “Last night I was able to move my body to be able to relax,” she says. “I have not been to bed since 2014.”

Taylor expressed concern that without faster action by mayors to house homeless residents, the pandemic will disproportionately sicken and kill black Californians like herself. Only 6 percent of the state’s population is black, but black residents make up 40 percent of the state’s homeless population—and 11 percent of reported COVID-19 deaths.

“This is hitting the black race, but we’re out here and everybody is ignoring us? It’s not fair,” says Taylor. “You have all these hotels that are empty but you have all the people on the street where it’s hitting. We have no protection.”

First responders, nurses, doctors and others on the frontlines can use a show of support right now, and it’s never been easier or more delicious to do so: Your at-home dinner could mean feeding a hospital worker with a healthy, hot meal from some of the city’s best restaurants, while other spots make donating food as simple as the push of a button.

“Now, more than ever, they need our support and encouragement,” Modern Times Brewery says, “and this is our way of showing our deep appreciation for their difficult work and incredible compassion.”

Whether you’re looking to send salads, sandwiches, doughnuts, pizza or pasta, here’s how to send food directly to healthcare workers, plus how to help others in need around Los Angeles.

Food donations for healthcare workers:
Bavel and Bestia: Ordering meals from two of the city’s best restaurants? Ori Menashe and Genevieve Gergis offer a $3 add-on to brighten up healthcare workers’ days with some of the top sweets in town. When you’re ordering from Bestia or Bavel through Tock, you’ll see a “First Responder Treats” option: This sends fresh desserts such as cookies or cake to first responders, and they’re delivered each week to alternating medical facilities around L.A.

Donut Friend: L.A.’s favorite vegan doughnut shop is working with the Support + Feed initiative to donate plant-based goods to hospital workers, first responders and senior centers. Simply pull up Donut Friend’s page on most major delivery apps and click the $5 “Support + Feed” button, and doughnuts will go straight to frontline workers and seniors. A number of L.A. restaurants are also working with the initiative, including by Chloe, Hinterhof German Kitchen and Beer Garden, Crossroads Kitchen and Cena Vegan, though their donation items vary. (And if you’re feeling especially generous, by Chloe easily lets you donate up to $100 toward the cause.)

Élephante and Little Ruby: The breezy Aussie sibling spots in Santa Monica are now sending meals to hospitals all over L.A. with their “Empty Your Purse to Feed a Nurse” initiative in tandem with national effort Frontline Foods. Their New York-based restaurant group, Wish You Were Here, is running the same program out of its East Coast concepts, while in L.A., donations made through this GoFundMe result in meals that get dropped off to healthcare workers all over the city, including those at Providence St. John’s in Santa Monica, UCLA Medical Santa Monica, Cedars-Sinai in Beverly Grove, Southern California Hospital at Culver City and LAC+USC Medical in Boyle Heights. If you are a healthcare worker who’d like to request meals for your staff, email info@elephantela.com.

Gasolina Cafe: Talk about local love: If you want to support healthcare workers not just in L.A. but specifically the SFV, one of L.A.’s best Spanish restaurants is making it happen. Gasolina Cafe in Woodland Hills now offers a “buy a meal for a healthcare worker” option on its online menu, which sends a complete meal to doctors, nurses, techs and administrators in ICUs and emergency rooms in the San Fernando Valley. Just click the button and donate the $12; there’s also an option to add your name, neighborhood and a message for the hospital staff, to send the message that all of L.A. is behind them.

Larder Baking Co.: Suzanne Goin and the Lucques Group teamed up with Dine11, sending meals to healthcare workers in ERs and ICUs across the region. The chef’s bakery branch is selling breads and pastries via its Tock page with an option to add $10 to your purchase, which will deliver a meal made by sister branch Lucques Catering.

Modern Times: The funky brewery and coffee roastery with a beloved outpost in DTLA is giving healthcare workers a little something to keep going: caffeine and pastries. You can add cans of Modern Times’s own cold brew coffee and boxes of pastries via this website, at $5 each, and they’ll get delivered to nurses volunteering at command centers near Modern Times locations in L.A., San Diego, Oakland, Santa Barbara and Portland.

Olivetta and the Draycott: Marissa Hermer’s sibling restaurants are providing meals with a “YOU GIVE. WE COOK. THEY EAT.” initiative, ferrying food to Saint Johns Health Foundation, Cedars-Sinai, Santa Monica Firefighters, Children’s Hospital LA and beyond. Every donation through this fundraiser sends meals made by the West Hollywood and Palisades restaurants, which have also, separately, been whipping up donated dinners to a nominated local resident once a week. Talk about #GivingGoals.

Pizzana: We know that nothing cheers us up like pizza, and now you can give that gift to L.A.’s healthcare professionals thanks to one of the best pizzerias in town. Chef Daniele Uditi is sending Neapolitan-style pies to doctors, nurses and emergency medical workers thanks to donations via this fundraiser, allocating $3,000 each week to feed frontline workers at UCLA Medical Center, Children’s Hospital LA, Cedars-Sinai, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and the Providence Tarzana Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Playa Provisions: Brooke Williamson and Nick Roberts’s South Bay staple teamed up with local org Help Feed the Frontline, which works with World Central Kitchen to provide meals for healthcare workers across Los Angeles. Playa Provision’s takeout and delivery menu now sports a button to donate $25 to the cause, and every $25 donated pays for the lunch and dinner of two healthcare workers.

Food donations for others in need:
APL: Adam Perry Lang’s modern Hollywood steakhouse is giving back with every meal you enjoy at home. For each meal ordered from APL, chef Adam Perry Lang and his friend and business partner, Jimmy Kimmel, will donate a meal to Venice’s St. Joseph’s Center, an organization that provides the homeless and less fortunate with resources to get back on their feet.

Few for All: Restaurant workers aren’t just essential—right now, some of them are superheroes. A handful of kitchen staff from local restaurants have teamed up to start Few for All, a “buy one, donate one” program that feeds Angelenos in need thanks to your own hunger. Every item purchased gets one pound of dried pasta donated to the LA Food Bank, which means those cookie dough logs, pasta sauces and fresh noodles you’re eating are for a great cause. Check Few for All’s menu in their Instagram highlights, then DM directly to place your order.

Secret Lasagna & Market: Due to shutdowns, restaurants and their employees are some of the hardest economically hit. That’s why for every meal that you purchase from this pop-up neighborhood market, a family-sized meal of lasagna gets donated to restaurant employees who are currently out of work. The program is in partnership with No Us Without You, an organization that’s keeping undocumented workers fed; 100 percent of the sales from select bottles of wine in the market also aid the nonprofit.

The program has acquired nearly 11,000 rooms, and Motel 6 has promised to set aside 5,000 rooms in 19 counties, Newsom said.

Among the more than 100 homeless people in an undisclosed hotel on the west side of Los Angeles are two residents who are in hospice care, said Va Lecia Adams Kellum, chief executive of St. Joseph Center in Los Angeles.

“Because of Project Roomkey these men are inside a comfortable room where they can get the comprehensive and palliative care they need and die with dignity,” Adams Kellum said in an email.

Meanwhile, the nonprofit continues to offer to-go meals and groceries for the needy.

While praising municipalities that have stepped in to find temporary housing for the homeless, Newsom said Saturday there were “equivalent number of cities” that are blocking efforts to help the homeless. He wouldn’t name them.

“Please consider the morality of those decisions, consider the moment we’re in and the ethical question you’re being called and asked upon, consider your station in life and in history. All of us will be judged,” Newsom said.

Los Angeles County prosecutors requested an emergency hearing with a federal judge Friday, alleging the cities of Lawndale and Bell Gardens threatened to terminate city permits for hotels and motels participating in the program.

Laguna Hills in Orange County is also pushing back against plans to move homeless people into a hotel, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.

In Los Angeles, where more than 30 homeless people have tested positive for coronavirus, medical teams will begin screening people for the virus on the streets, along with fast-result field tests, Mayor Eric Garcetti said. Those who are infected will be offered transportation to shelters and have hotel rooms set aside for them.

So far, San Francisco is the only city in California to report a large-scale outbreak at a homeless shelter, after more than 100 people tested positive, including 10 staff. None of the people was seriously ill when tested, but three have since been hospitalized, public health spokeswoman Rachael Kagan said.

The state also reported for the first time Friday that there are 3,500 confirmed cases, or about 12% statewide, in nursing homes or adult care facilities, where infections have spread quickly.

There have been signs the outbreak is slowing in the month or more since most of the state’s 40 million residents were ordered to stay at home. Social distancing rules are being praised for that development, but they have hit the economy hard, shutting down schools, tourist spots and most restaurants and retail businesses.

But some have chafed under the restrictions, including several dozen people who rallied in San Diego on Saturday against California’s stay-at-home order.

Newsom said he wasn’t opposed to the demonstrations but urged protesters to practice physical distancing while exercising their free speech.

“This virus knows no political ideology. It doesn’t know if you’re a Republican or a Democrat,” he said.

To start lifting restrictions and allow businesses to reopen, Newsom has said the state needs to test 25,000 people a day and better track those who are infected, up to about 20,000 a day now. Several areas have begun offering tests to people without symptoms. Until now, there’s been a shortage of test swabs and the chemical agents needed to process the tests.

“While California has excelled in so many categories, we have not in testing,” Newsom said Saturday in an online conversation with former President Bill Clinton.

“Right now, we’re not even close as a nation, let alone as a state, to where we should be on testing,” he said.