At least 76 homeless people have died of coronavirus in New York City so far, the social services agency head said on Monday.
That’s up from the 40 homeless deaths caused by COVID-19 around the same time last month. Fifty-two of the 76 deaths were living in single adult shelters that tend to be large and dorm-like.
Social Services Commissioner Steve Banks said 31 agency staffers have also died of coronavirus, in addition to an unknown number of workers at outside providers contracted by the city who have perished.
City homeless shelters have seen 961 confirmed coronavirus cases as of May 15, according to testimony Banks gave at a remote Council hearing Monday.
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Of those, 658 were in single adults residing in 98 different shelters and 152 were at assessment sites, either caught in people at the front door or those who connected to care before getting any ongoing shelter placement.
The city has moved thousands of homeless people from crowded shelters to commercial hotels to curb the spread of coronavirus and allow those who may be infected to isolate.
Nine thousand of the 17,000 single adults living in city shelters now reside in commercial hotel rooms, including 3,500 who were staying in them before the pandemic. To house the homeless, the city is now paying $129 a night per room.
The city aims to relocate a thousand people a week from congregate shelters to hotel rooms until widespread testing is available as part of Mayor de Blasio’s plan to contain the virus.