Dane County’s homeless shelters have spent the past ten months implementing plans to prevent community spread of the COVID-19 virus through the local homeless population. Now, those same pandemic-induced adaptations are helping local shelters weather this week’s dangerous cold front.
Casey Becker, Director of Dane County’s Division of Housing Access and Affordability, says that the city and county spent most of 2020 preparing to expand homeless service into additional space if it became necessary.
“So when the cold came, we had already had practice in finding these temporary spaces and finding additional capacity,” she says.
Becker says that – in preparation for this week’s cold – local officials began moving some homeless residents into hotels. That strategy was initially intended for a different use: quarantining homeless people with a higher risk of contracting COVID-19.