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Topics and Issues for Providers Serving People Experiencing Homelessness
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December 14, 2021
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As local communities are preparing for the annual Point-in-Time (PIT) count, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) team developed guidance to support planning and conducting the count in ways that maximize the safety for people experiencing homelessness and the people conducting the count. Right now, Minnesota is facing some of the most severe risks of COVID transmission as any point during the pandemic. ICU bed capacity is severely limited, health care organizations are calling on everyone to get vaccinated and reduce risks of transmission, and more emergency shelters experienced their first outbreak in the past week than at any prior period in the pandemic.
Given these concerns, MDH shared guidance about the PIT count with Continuum of Care coordinators and will provide a summary on the webinar tomorrow for others who may be a part of local PIT count efforts. Decisions about how the PIT count is structured are determined locally; we are sharing this information to promote the safest ways that these activities would be conducted.
Planning phase:
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Have individuals conducting the count show proof of full COVID-19 vaccination or proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours of the count.
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Procure medical masks (surgical, KN95) to have available for people conducting the count and extra masks available for interviewees.
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MDH recommends individuals conducting the count get a COVID-19 booster and flu shot.
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Check-in with your local public health departments and public health preparedness consultants for your area. You can find those contacts here.
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Screen participants for symptoms at the beginning of the event and consider offering rapid testing.
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Have individuals conducting the count offer masks to interviewees.
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Masks should be required at any time physical distancing cannot be maintained. Because community transmission rates are high, participants could also consider wearing eye protection/face shields and gloves.
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Hand sanitizer should be provided and used between interactions.
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If in vehicles, individuals should remain masked.
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Organizers should keep track of who works together and who they interview and collect contact information in case contact tracing measures are needed in the future.
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Individuals who participated should self-monitor for symptoms for 14 days after the count. If symptoms develop, they should stay home and get tested for COVID-19.
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Participants should consider getting tested 5-7 days after the count.
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If someone tests positive after the event, they are encouraged to report their status to MDH and organizers to conduct contact tracing and share exposure notifications.
Full MDH recommendations about the Point-in-Time count can be found here.
Please join the weekly provider webinar tomorrow from 1:00-2:00 p.m. to hear from the MDH team about these recommendations and get your questions answered. Please email Elizabeth Dressel if you have any questions about your registration.
Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) continues to deploy Federal Fiscal Recovery Funds to support rapid responses to outbreaks in shelters and other temporary congregate settings for people experiencing homelessness or domestic violence. OEO is working closely with the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) to allocate available funding for targeted, immediate outbreak response activities to support an effective response and reduce the health impacts for shelter guests and staff.
Beginning Monday, December 20, the funding eligibility will be expanded to include additional isolation and quarantine spaces that are not tied to having an active outbreak. The new funding eligibility includes:
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Shelter Specific Isolation/Quarantine Space in situations where someone is staying at a specific congregate shelter or is seeking access a specific congregate shelter, has tested positive for COVID-19 or had direct exposure to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, and where there is no existing community isolation/quarantine space in the area.
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Standing Community Isolation/Quarantine Space in identified geographic areas where there are one or more congregate shelters operating and no existing isolation/quarantine spaces. There are some additional eligibility requirements for community isolation spaces, such as needing the space to serve anyone who needs it, including allowing access for guests from any area shelter when isolation or quarantine space is needed.
In addition to these expanded uses, funding continues to be available for congregate shelter or temporary congregate settings that serves people experiencing homelessness that have an active outbreak of three or more cases among staff and clients.
The survey to request funding and more details on eligible uses can be found on the Heading Home Alliance website. The survey will be updated on Monday, December 20 to include the new isolation and quarantine eligible uses. Entities can request funding back to the allocation date of September 15, 2021. The Heading Home Alliance site also has a list of frequently asked questions and answers and more detail on the buckets of allowable expenses to request funding for. If you have additional questions, please email Andrea Simonett.
Simpson Housing Services is hosting the 37th Annual Homeless Memorial on Thursday, December 16 to honor the Minnesotans who died while homeless this year. The Service of Remembrance will be held virtually at 7:00 p.m. You can find more details about the event on Simpson’s event page.
This annual event serves as a powerful reminder of the life-changing impact of your work to prevent and end homelessness, and the richness and complexity of every person’s experience. Especially if you have not participated previously, we encourage you to consider doing so.
- Last week, MDH and the Trusted Messenger program held a training that included information on how the vaccines work, how we know they are safe and effective, and motivational interviewing techniques for addressing people’s concerns about vaccinations. In case you missed the training, you view the audio recording here and see the slide deck here.
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Applications are being accepted for two open vacancies on the Task Force on Shelter through the Secretary of State’s open appointments site. Apply online for the open seats for a public member who experienced homelessness and resided in a shelter and a city representative from greater Minnesota. You can find out more about the Task Force’s work to date here.
- Reminder to share the opportunity for individuals who have experienced a housing crisis at some point to provide input on a new program Minnesota Housing is developing that will help people whose housing might be at risk. The survey is just three questions and should not take more than 10 minutes to complete. Responses will be accepted through 11:30 a.m. (CT) on Thursday, December 16, 2021. Click here to complete the individual survey.
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