Homelessness Service Systems Responses to COVID-19

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It is difficult to overstate the degree of uncertainty during the early days of the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, as government advice largely emphasized self-quarantine and isolation, stringent hygienic and sanitation practices, implementation of regulations around face masks and shields, and closure of congregate public spaces. This uncertainty was especially true for homelessness service providers, as homelessness is a phenomenon which has historically taken place primarily in public and communal spaces. It is important to consider that data collection among people experiencing homelessness (PEH) has always been a complex endeavor, as these populations can be transient, hard-to-reach, and reluctant to engage with researchers. COVID-19 testing was also severely limited throughout 2020, prior to the development of readily available self-administered tests. Understanding the complete picture of COVID-19 transmission within homeless populations during the early days of the outbreak, is therefore immensely challenging. For these reasons, this study, undertaken in August 2020, seeks to record the impact of the early pandemic period on homelessness service systems from a policy perspective. The value of this perspective is twofold: first, it documents how systems in a wide array of contexts responded to a critical public health crisis and can stand as a record of how systems operated prior to and immediately after the outbreak occurred, providing important historical context for future research; and second, it helps contextualize new and emerging data around the experience of PEH during COVID-19 and its lingering impacts.