Temporary homeless shelter opens to isolate those infected with COVID-19

A new temporary tent shelter for homeless adults infected with COVID-19 opened Friday at Sand Island.

The Institute for Human Services set up the shelter in response to the need to isolate those infected with the coronavirus from individuals at its homeless shelters. While a registered nurse will be monitoring those in isolation, officials said it is meant for people who are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms; it is not meant for those needing hospitalization.

“We’re providing a safe, comfortable environment for people who are independent, who would otherwise be homeless and just need someplace to finish their quarantine,” said Jerry Coffee, IHS director of clinical development and training. “It’s a way to help manage the COVID population in congregate settings where you would have a lot of people living together and you would just need to get this person safely somewhere.”

The temporary shelter, which can accommodate 16 people, is accepting clients from any congregate shelter on Oahu, not just from IHS facilities. The nonprofit also is working with hospitals to send homeless people who test positive but aren’t seriously ill to the Sand Island shelter.

Those who come to the temporary shelter generally are required to be vaccinated, but Coffee explained that those who aren’t must agree to get their first vaccine dose.

“Anybody coming here would be a person who has been vaccinated but had a breakthrough infection,” he said. “If they are unvaccinated, as a condition of coming here, if they agree to take their first dose of the vaccine, then we’ll clear them to come in. So there’s a little incentive there to go ahead and get themselves vaccinated.”

Project Vision, a health care nonprofit, will visit the shelter every Friday to offer COVID-19 tests and vaccinations.

Vaccines have shown to be effective at preventing serious illness and hospitalization from COVID-19, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

People at the shelter will be able to bring their pets as long as they are able to care for them.

Although most of those who will be using the isolation shelter have been in congregate shelters, IHS will connect those who have been unsheltered with caseworkers.

Welcome kits stocked with toothbrushes, toothpaste and other personal care items and a blanket will be provided to those admitted to the shelter, which has a common room equipped with a television, games and books.

IHS is also providing three meals a day.

Staff will be on duty around the clock, with safety precautions including use of hazmat suits whenever entering the COVID-19 shelter.

Coffee said the tent shelter is meant to fill a gap as the city and state have decreased the number of COVID-19 isolation facilities at hotels.

“This also is becoming more of an essential resource because the state and the City and County are ramping down the COVID hotels,” he said. “Meanwhile, the numbers are blowing up. And so I suspect there’s going to be a lot of demand for this.”

The city has 30 isolation units with a total of 56 beds at Harbor Arms Hotel in Aiea. Those rooms have been 90% to 100% full, according to city spokesman Tim Sakahara.

That’s down from the roughly 400 beds that were available in 2020 through the city and state.

The temporary IHS shelter is on loan from the Honolulu Police Department, which uses it for the HONU (Homeless Outreach and Navigation for Unsheltered Persons) program, which offers services to unsheltered individuals and families.

HONU has a site at Keehi Lagoon that serves between 25 to 30 people a day and another at Keaau Beach Park in Makaha that serves between 12 to 15 people a day.

Officials said the IHS COVID-19 isolation shelter is expected to stay open for about a month but will remain in operation as long as needed.