White Bird Medical Clinic has partnered with Kaiser Permanente to develop a safe, COVID-19 screening and testing center for Lane County’s unhoused populations.
Advocates and public health officials acknowledge they so far haven’t seen the kinds of viral transmission and outbreaks they feared in the homeless community.
One possible reason is that the life of an unhoused person often means being outdoors—which reduces risk. There is also less social contact—a personal safety strategy that ironically keeps homeless people safer during the pandemic. But White Bird’s Chris Hecht said there’s a downside.
“The same social distancing can lead to social isolation which makes everything harder.”
As winter approaches, Kaiser Permanente’s $100,000 award will help White Bird construct a separate entrance to their Eugene clinic on Mill Street and add negative-pressure exam rooms for safe COVID-19 symptom monitoring.