People without homes in Canada are hit harder by COVID-19 because they can’t stay away from others easily, have other health problems, and can’t get good medical care. In shelters, it’s tough to keep clean, get a test, or stay away from others. So, special plans are needed to help them and the people who help them. There are ideas to keep people without homes safer from COVID-19. These ideas come from studying lots of info and asking experts across Canada. The ideas suggest quick actions like working together, using the right safety gear, making shelters less crowded, grouping people, testing, tracking cases, handling outbreaks, creating places to isolate, and getting vaccines.
Mandate And Scope
This report aims to show how people without homes are more at risk during COVID-19, how it affects them and their helpers, and give ideas to stop bad things from happening in another crisis. Many groups and people help those without homes, including the homeless themselves. These suggestions are mainly for those making rules, offering social help like housing or shelters, and health services. Many others need to help find ways to protect and support the homeless during the pandemic.
Vulnerability And Those Experiencing Homelessness
People without homes have faced many health problems, like not having a place to live, being poor, the opioid crisis, and now COVID-19. Past health problems like SARS, H1N1, flu outbreaks, meningococcal disease, tuberculosis, and Hepatitis A show that COVID-19 is a big risk for people without homes in Canada. About 30% of homeless people already have a cough, and 40% get out of breath easily, making it hard to check and help them.
COVID-19 And The Homeless Community
In late 2019, news about a new virus called SARS Co-V 2 started coming from China. By March 2020, the World Health Organization said COVID-19 was a pandemic because it was causing big problems all around the world. Without a good vaccine or treatment, it was clear that we needed strong health actions like washing hands, keeping distance, lots of testing, and isolating sick people.
From the start, it was clear that COVID-19 wouldn’t affect everyone the same way. People without homes would be hit harder because they are more likely to get sick and have less access to care. Homeless people often have more physical illnesses, mental health problems, and issues with addiction, making them more vulnerable to diseases.
For people without homes, following health advice like staying away from others, washing hands, wearing masks, and getting tested is very hard. In shelters, people might sleep in a big room with 70 beds, line up with many others for meals, and have only one washroom, making it tough to keep clean.
Mental illness and addiction often take priority, and living in constant crisis means planning ahead is hard. Early symptoms of COVID-19, like feeling sick or tired, are common for homeless people who deal with chronic illness, pain, addiction, mental illness, and violence every day.
Testing and tracing are also difficult because homeless people often move around a lot and may not trust the testing process. At first, there were no places for people to stay while waiting for test results or to isolate if they were sick.
People without homes often don’t get enough vaccines and have higher rates of diseases that vaccines can prevent. Outbreaks of diseases like Hepatitis A, flu, and meningococcal disease happen a lot. Without a special plan to give COVID-19 vaccines to homeless people, COVID-19 outbreaks in shelters will keep happening even after the national crisis is over and the general population is safe. Without focused vaccine plans for shelters, COVID-19 could be a big problem for homeless people for many years.
