Toronto sees its first homeless death from COVID-19

Incompetence? Lack of resources? Intentional neglect?

Everyone who works frontline providing homeless health care or shelter, whether it be harm reduction workers, shelter workers, street nurses, physicians, social workers, outreach workers and the faith community is asking how the city's public health response in the midst of a pandemic can be so bad.

The city is still only enabling mass testing in shelters after an outbreak erupts and sometimes a week later. Their contact tracing is sloppy. The move of homeless people into hotels and empty TCHC units has slowed down. Furthermore, everything is compounded by secrecy and lack of information - the city discontinued posting of daily shelter statistics, only reports homeless COVID-19 statistics three times a week, provides zero updates in the daily media briefings and worse has not communicated a comprehensive HOMELESS COVID-19 plan to us.

Over 20 shelters have now experienced COVID outbreaks. Over 300 homeless people have been infected. Frontline staff have been infected. Over 10 people have been hospitalized. Yesterday, we learned of the first death.

So, is it incompetence, lack of resources or intentional neglect?