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Jacksonville homeless shelters running out of isolation space for COVID patients

The CEO of Changing Homelessness says shelters are back to level one COVID protocols that the shelter task force put together in April 2020.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla — Shelters have been filling up and they’re running out of isolation space.

The CEO of Changing Homelessness says shelters are back to level one COVID protocols that the shelter task force put together in April 2020.

Shelters are asking folks a series of questions, along with doing COVID testing and temperature checks before letting them enter the building. These are all ways to reduce the spread of COVID.

The CEO of Changing Homelessness, Dawn Gilman, says they have about 150 hotel rooms that are still occupied with people that were homeless on the street with an underlying medical condition.

And in the last two weeks, the organization has opened an isolation facility with 25 beds for those who are homeless and COVID positive.

Gilman says although they now have isolation space they still don’t have enough space and it’s getting overwhelming for the shelters.

“Most of our shelters had some sort of outbreak at this point. So as far as shelter capacity you mentioned that the hospital's beds are pretty full at our shelter our capacity is changing on a daily basis," said Gilman. 

Gilman says shelters are scrambling to find isolation space so she's encouraging the community to do their parts in staying safe.

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