After a man who had been staying at the Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada tested positive for the coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, Clark County and Las Vegas city officials announced they had devised a plan to move people who would otherwise be staying at the shelter to a convention center parking lot. The county referred to the parking lot as a temporary "shelter" despite the fact that people staying there will be sleeping outdoors.
Due to the closure of Catholic Charities, we are joining with @CityOfLasVegas & area homeless providers to set up a temporary shelter @ Cashman Center. It will open tonight & run through April 3rd, when Catholic Charities will reopen #coronavirus #Vegas pic.twitter.com/XGWaREYbFq
— Clark County Nevada (@ClarkCountyNV) March 28, 2020
County and city officials expressed pride in their handling of the situation, with Las Vegas' chief community services officer, Lisa Morris Hibbler, telling the press, "We know we have one job as a public servant, and that is to serve the community, and I think that we're showing that we do that well."
On social media, however, images of city workers placing blue mats six feet apart and of people placing their belongings in so-called "social distancing boxes"—drawn so people staying in the parking lot can stay six feet away from each other—were met with scorn.
Nevada, a state in one of the richest countries in the world, has painted social-distancing boxes on a concrete parking lot for the homeless to sleep in. pic.twitter.com/svNJ0N9r3f
— A Mancino-Williams (@Manda_like_wine) March 30, 2020
Several observers pointed out that hotels in Las Vegas, one of the most popular tourist destinations in the U.S., are currently closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, leaving thousands of rooms empty while homeless people are sleeping in the so-called "shelter" of an open-air parking lot.
Nevada has a homeless population of 10,556. Las Vegas alone has 150,000 hotel rooms, all empty because of the lockdown. Yet they keep people on the streets, my heart hurts. https://t.co/5yEvOjrzAf
— Hasan Patel (@CorbynistaTeen) March 30, 2020
Literally thousands of empty hotel rooms in Las Vegas right now but officials decided to place homeless people on the ground in a parking lot https://t.co/gVvp8B0dRV
— Jon Passantino (@passantino) March 30, 2020
In Santa Clara County, California, officials have secured at least 172 hotel rooms to house people facing homelessness during the coronavirus pandemic. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said last week the city planned to rent thousands of rooms for homeless people and for coronavirus patients, and New York City officials said they had lined up 500 rooms in four hotels for the homeless population.
In Las Vegas, people are expected to stay in the Cashman Center parking lot until at least April 3, when the Catholic Charities shelter is set to reopen.
Journalist Rania Khalek expressed little surprise at the treatment of people facing homelessness in the midst of the current public health crisis.
"This is America," tweeted Khalek.
Republished from Common Dreams (Julia Conley, staff writer) under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
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