Public Health rationale for NOT opening/re-opening communal homeless shelters during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Homeless COVID19 joint position statement, August 2020

Faculty for Homeless and Inclusion Health and UCL Collaborative Centre for Inclusion Health

International evidence indicates that communal airspace homeless shelters are unsafe during periods of SARS-CoV-2 transmission, regardless of whether control measures are in place.

The international evidence strongly suggests that symptom screening to identify potentially infectious cases among homeless people would be ineffective to mitigate the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in communal shared airspaces.

RECOMMENDATION:

Homeless people should NOT be accommodated in communal airspace sleeping facilities while Government measures to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2 remain in place.

RECOMMENDATION:

Service commissioners, statutory and faith-based providers should advocate for and resource the continued and commensurate provision of own-room accommodation with minimal sharing of bathrooms for homeless people throughout the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.