Baltimore City offers new COVID-19 isolation services to homeless community
BALTIMORE -- The City of Baltimore is stepping up its efforts to keep homeless people safe during COVID outbreaks.
Today the city announced new plans to partner with Helping Up Mission to house COVID-19 patients in need of isolation services.
Over the summer, the city disassembled many of its COVID-19 isolation centers, including the one it had set up at the Lord Baltimore Hotel.
As a result, there have been few places for homeless people who have tested positive for COVID-19 to go.
But that should soon be changing due to the partnership.
Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Letitia Dzirasa said the new partnership will provide isolation services to homeless individuals who have tested positive at local hospitals and instructed to isolate.
They must have a hospital-based referral to take advantage of the services, she said.
"We have individuals who obviously are unstably housed who are not actively within a shelter setting, and so this is a place for those folks who don't have that place to go back to or that bed that's already been reserved for them," Dzirasa said.
The isolation services will be available for five to six months, she said.
After that, the city will reassess the need for those services.