Life has changed so much in such a short time. As we walk into week six of California’s stay-at-home order, our community wonders what’s next. The sense of uncertainty around COVID-19 is daunting and often overwhelming.
Despite this uncertainty, two things have never been clearer. First, the need. COVID-19 has skyrocketed the vulnerability of our unhoused neighbors—a population that was already 10 times more likely to die. The second is our community’s generous outpouring of concern and support. We couldn’t do this work without you by our side.
Moved by both, we have been working with public, private, and nonprofit partners to rapidly scale up our own emergency response across California:
- In PATH Ventures’ 14 affordable housing communities, we’re helping our formerly homeless tenants shelter in place with food, supplies, and enriching activities. This week, we also began moving 120 tenants into our newly opened PATH Metro Villas Phase 2. Ensuring people stay housed has never been more critical.
- PATH Los Angeles is providing services in 500 quarantine and isolation hotel and motel rooms. We are helping to quickly launch sites so that our unhoused neighbors are safe and can access critical services.
- In March, we launched PATH Orange County with our Placentia Navigation Center, a 100-bed interim housing program with on-site supportive services. The timing of our plan, which was already underway, allowed us to provide 100 more people with a safe space.
- PATH Sacramento is scheduled to officially launch in May. Our new program will provide 100 individuals experiencing homelessness with intensive case management services.
- PATH San Diego is working with local government agencies and healthcare providers to continue meeting our interim housing residents’ needs. We’ve increased our meal service to help our 200+ residents shelter in place and opened 20 inclement weather beds to maximize our service.
- PATH San Jose is reaching out to encampments with guidance on how to stay healthy, connecting symptomatic and high-risk individuals to care, and providing supplies and food during the scarcity. In March, we opened our Villas on the Park supportive housing community, helping 93 individuals shelter in place.
- This week, PATH Santa Barbara helped the County open a 68-room emergency motel for our unhoused neighbors in fragile physical health. We are also collaborating with the entire community to provide the highest quality of care for our 100 interim housing residents.
I hope you can join me on Tuesday, May 5th at 12 noon PDT for our Live Townhall, where our program leadership and I will take your questions on how else PATH is addressing COVID-19 statewide.
Until then, thank you for your support during a time when our unhoused neighbors need it the most. Whether it’s time, advocacy, dollars, or your messages, it makes all the difference.
Jennifer Hark Dietz
Executive Director, PATH and PATH Ventures