Steve Madrone pushes for Humboldt County to adopt more homeless policies amid COVID-19

Huffman says relief coming for tribes, fisheries

April 06, 2020

Calling for designated public lots and more accessible sanitizing stations, Humboldt County Supervisor Steve Madrone urged his fellow board members to adopt new policies to accommodate the area’s homeless population.

In a special meeting of the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors on Monday, the 5th District supervisor said that a lack of public planning has left homeless residents to take organizing and social distancing into their own hands.

“They’re currently self-regulated, and they’re on private property for the most part,” Madrone said. “We don’t really have the right as a board to say, ‘Go ahead and stay there’ … Wouldn’t it be a better situation to open up some parking lots and other facilities and allow them to self-regulate?”

Madrone said a number of nongovernment organizations have volunteered to help make sure that the homeless endure the coronavirus pandemic in a “sanitary, or semi-sanitary, situation, where we can control this a little bit better.”

The supervisor’s comments cut through an otherwise standard informational report from the county’s health officer and sheriff. Official entities are working to prepare the county for a surge in COVID-19 cases.

But although Madrone said the situation is fast becoming “untenable,” health officer Teresa Frankovich said that the county’s homeless population was already self-isolating in camps of small numbers.

Bringing homeless people en masse to one location, Frankovich said, could actually increase the risk of transmission.

Madrone countered that establishing camps in each community could be a workaround — or at least something more than what the supervisors are currently accomplishing.

Board chair Estelle Fennell and Michele Stephens of the county’s Department of Health and Human Services agreed that officials shouldn’t hasten to speak for homeless residents.

“We need to remember, we talk a lot about the homeless as if the homeless can’t hear,” Fennell said, before Stephens added, “that it’s not one type of person.”

The brief exchange was the only local policy discussion to emerge from the county’s COVID-19 update session, during which Rep. Jared Huffman video-called in to provide input.

The North Coast congressman didn’t give specifics on local relief but said officials are working toward long-term economic recovery.

“You can bet there will be a huge push for not just transportation infrastructure but the greening of our energy grid, broadband buildout to under-served areas,” Huffman said.

He added that tribes and the fisheries will also be among those benefiting from future federal relief packages.

Frankovich also spoke to local testing, saying the county still exceeds state and national averages in the number of tests it has provided to residents.

Stephens, meanwhile, advised that residents use good judgment and heed caution visiting public places like Moonstone Beach or College Cove — outdoors spots that seem harmless but could still be venues of risk if people don’t remain six feet apart from each other at all times.

“When you pull into the parking lot and you see it’s starting to get full, that’s probably an indication you should not be there,” Stephens said of local parks and beaches.


By:  Shomik Mukherjee
Source: Eureka Times-Standard