Homeless put up by Fort Lauderdale have to leave hotel soon

Checkout day is coming soon — possibly Friday — for dozens of homeless people who were put up in hotel rooms to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.

But first, all 72 are being tested to make sure they don’t have COVID-19.

“We are waiting for the tests to come back today or tomorrow,” Broward Mayor Dale Holness said Thursday. “We will work with them to place them [in temporary housing] if they want to be.”

Those whose results are negative will have the option of going to a homeless shelter under a plan worked out by the county. Those with positive results will be asked to remain in quarantine at an undisclosed location.

Shaunta Cain, one of the homeless people riding out the pandemic at the Rodeway Inn and Suites in Dania Beach, said they all reported to the hotel lobby Tuesday morning for their tests.

“We’re not asking for a handout,” Cain said. “We just need help [getting into an apartment].”

Fort Lauderdale has already spent $530,000 on a hotel voucher program designed to get homeless people off the streets during the pandemic, but the money has run out just as cases are soaring.

Homeless advocate Jeff Weinberger worries that most of them will wind up back out on the street.

“Irrespective of the coronavirus, homeless people don’t like to go to shelters,” he said. “And now they have an incredibly good reason for not wanting to go. It’s called COVID-19. The bottom line is they made these promises that people would be getting housing.”

On Sunday morning, Fort Lauderdale sent letters to the homeless hotel guests saying they’d need to check out the next morning. The deal with Broward County bought them more time.

Fort Lauderdale and the county will split the cost of those extra days with money from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act.

Holness said county officials are doing what they can to help.

“It’s a situation the city of Fort Lauderdale undertook,” Holness said. “We’re here trying to rescue the situation.”

Critics have accused government officials of not being more transparent in letting the hotel guests know when they will have to leave.

Vice Mayor Steve Geller urged patience.

“We are in a war against COVID right now,” Geller said. “In the fog of war, a lot of statements get made because we’re trying to give the most current information as quickly as we can. And then when we get details we find that the details aren’t what we originally thought. I think everybody is committed to not putting the homeless out on the street in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The county is sending homeless people diagnosed with COVID-19 to a motel, said Lorraine Wilby, CEO of the TaskForce fore Ending Homelessness.

“The county asked that the name of the motel not be disclosed so people don’t just show up,” she said.

The county’s four homeless shelters are not able to operate at full capacity due to the pandemic’s social distancing requirements. Nonetheless, county officials insist they will find room for all the hotel guests who choose to move to a shelter.

County officials have worked with Broward Partnership for the Homeless Inc. to identify beds for each person at the North Homeless Assistance Center in Pompano Beach and the Central Homeless Assistance Center in Fort Lauderdale, Broward Administrator Bertha Henry told commissioners in an email on Monday.

Weinberger, founder of the October 22nd Alliance to End Homelessness, wondered how the shelters could accommodate dozens of people come Friday, assuming they all test negative.

“It’s not even in the realm of possibility that the shelters can take all these people at once,” Weinberger said.

He also said those two shelters are not taking in more residents due to a COVID-19 outbreak in early July.

“Both were locked down during the July Fourth weekend,” Weinberger said. “Quite a few people were wheeled out to quarantine.”

Officials with the Broward Partnership, the nonprofit that runs the shelters, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4554 or on Twitter @Susannah_Bryan