Shelter-in-place hotels provide residents with a room plus on-site access to health services, including nursing support, routine wellness checks and health screenings, as well as harm-reduction services aimed at reducing drug overdoses.
Visits among the the high-use group who received placement decreased from an average of 1.84 visits in the 90 days before the SIP hotel program to 0.82 visits in the 90 days after their hotel placement. In April 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Project Roomkey, a statewide initiative to acquire hotels in order to house the homeless across the state during the pandemic. San Francisco received federal funding for its hotel program through the Roomkey initiative. Using city dollars, San Francisco went beyond providing hotel shelter to including medical services on-site.
The study on the emergency intervention supports the idea that providing “non-congregate shelter,” meaning individual rooms, with on-site health services can alleviate overwhelmed medical systems while meeting the housing and health needs of residents, said Raven.