Extraordinary restrictions on everyday activities expanded to more areas of California on Wednesday as Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he would spend $150 million to try to head off the coronavirus from sweeping through the state’s homeless population.
Two-thirds of the money will go directly to local governments to spend on homeless services and $50 million will be used by the state to purchase 1,300 travel trailers and lease hotel rooms for emergency housing.
California has more than 150,000 homeless people, the most in the nation, and there’s concern that as the rest of the state’s residents are being told to stay apart and to frequently wash their hands, the homeless are living just as they did before the outbreak. Newsom said it’s possible 60,000 could contract the virus.
“I hope you get a sense of the seriousness we’re taking the issue of homelessness,” he said in a Facebook Live broadcast.
The state will use the trailers for homeless people requiring isolation after testing positive for the virus or who are showing symptoms. It also has identified 950 hotels that could lease rooms to local governments to house the homeless.
The California Department of Public Health said Wednesday that the state now has 13 deaths related to the virus and more than 700 confirmed cases. More than 11,900 people are self-monitoring after returning from overseas.
Newsom has issued a series of emergency orders as the crisis spreads. Last week he urged all people over 65 and those with underlying health conditions to stay inside. He also limited the size of gatherings to 250 people and called for the shutdown of bars, movie theaters, fitness centers and other gathering places, and for restaurants to only serve to-go orders.
With virtually all of the state’s children out of school because of closures, Newsom suspended standardized testing this spring. And with the economy shedding jobs he waived certain reporting requirements for businesses making mass layoffs.
Newsom said he will not issue a statewide lockdown on people’s movements, preferring to allow local governments to make those decisions. And many have enacted tighter restrictions.
Napa and Solano on Wednesday joined at least 12 other Northern California counties—an area home to about 10 million people and including all of the San Francisco Bay Area—in requiring residents to stay home and go out only for essential purposes such as trips to grocery stores and to jobs in health care and other industries deemed critical.
In Southern California, the city of Palm Springs enacted similar restrictions. Long Beach, Los Angeles, San Diego and other major population centers in the region have not gone that far but have urged people to remain at home as much as possible.
Although Newsom hasn’t ordered school closures, local authorities have done so. The governor said nearly 99% of the state’s K-12 schools are shuttered.
Districts generally ordered closures between two and five weeks but Newsom said Tuesday it’s likely most, and perhaps all, won’t reopen before summer, something Long Beach school officials pushed back on Wednesday night, saying no decision has been made.
Associated Press journalists Amy Taxin in Santa Ana and Julie Watson in San Diego, contributed to this story. Antczak reporter from Los Angeles.