Snohomish County launches team to help homeless during coronavirus pandemic

SNOHOMISH COUNTY, Wash. — As we flatten the curve, a new pandemic task force is working to detect and prevent coronavirus in the homeless population.

In a pandemic that's paralyzed the entire world, health care experts insist solving the Covid-19 crisis involves hitting the streets.

For the last few days, health workers in Snohomish County have scoured Everett’s neighborhoods.

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They're called the SAFE team.

On each street, with each person they meet, their goal is to detect coronavirus among the homeless.

“It's really about building a rapport, and building trust, so you can have those conversations,” said Alessandra Durham, Snohomish County Executive’s Office.

Among the homeless, Cynthia Garcia called the outreach a “godsend.”

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“My husband I have been tested,” she told KIRO 7 News. “I think everybody should (be tested), because there's carriers that they don't even know they are.”

For months now, Garcia and her husband have lived in their van.

Garcia said going to a homeless shelter is not an option, because she worries about her husband's health.

“He's got the equivalent of one lung. He gets (coronavirus) and he won't live through that,” she said.

To protect people like Garcia and her husband, the SAFE Team is hitting up as many areas of the North Sound as possible.

In just the last few days, they’ve already tested 100 people on the streets.

In the process, they hand out essentials like soap and toothbrushes.

“It really is about focusing on certain areas and reaching as many people as we can,” Durham commented.

“Outreach is extremely important, because I don't need my husband getting (coronavirus), nor me, nor my family,” Garcia said. “I have a grandson that's less than a year. I don't want him to have it either.”

The outreach along Snohomish County’s streets is only temporary.

The pilot program will last another week until April 24.

Going forward though, organizers said there's a very real possibility it will come back, especially if the need remains.

As for the question of where the homeless will go if they do test positive, health care workers said each patient would be taken to Everett’s Angel of the Winds Arena, where 150 people could be housed if the crisis continues.

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