Homeless

Mitch Pittman/Amazon Amazon opened Washington state's largest family shelter in March.The shelter occupies eight floors at the company's Seattle headquarters. It's large enough to allow social distancing among homeless guests. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. The timing couldn't have been better: Just as Seattle was grappling with a severe…

(SAN FRANCISCO) — San Francisco is joining other U.S. cities in authorizing homeless tent encampments in response to the coronavirus pandemic, a move officials have long resisted but are now reluctantly embracing to safeguard homeless people. About 80 tents are now neatly spaced out on a wide street near San…

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco is joining other U.S. cities in authorizing homeless tent encampments in response to the coronavirus pandemic, a move officials have long resisted but are now reluctantly embracing to safeguard homeless people.About 80 tents are now neatly spaced out on a wide street near San…

California counties are sheltering homeless residents who are infected with COVID-19, or at high risk of getting infected, in hotels and motels.In the Bay Area, San Francisco and Contra Costa counties are offering alcohol to guests who might otherwise experience withdrawal.San Francisco is also allowing guests to purchase their own…

On March 5, as coronavirus infections spread in Washington, Amazon started asking employees in its Seattle headquarters to work from home. Four days later, half of one of the company’s buildings opened for another purpose: housing homeless families.The timing was a fortuitous coincidence—at exactly the time that it was most…

The homeless population is being provided with safe housing. May 20, 2020, 3:14 AM5 min read Homeless encampments are on the rise in San Francisco, especially now, with the novel coronavirus pandemic increasing unemployment and threatening shelter space. In order to address the issue, the city is setting up sites…

The acute pain of California’s housing crisis can be measured in the human toll it takes on the increasing numbers of families made homeless by rising rents and the billions of dollars the state loses to the high cost of living. After wrestling with recalcitrant homeowners, husbanding their parcels of…

Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/ReutersOn the streets of San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, social distancing does not exist.Tents and blankets cram the narrow sidewalks, even set right against sun-faded buildings. Occupants of these encampments loll on the pavement nearby, hyper cognizant they risk losing their belongings if they leave.Makeshift shelters and overflowing carts…

A federal judge has ordered Los Angeles city and county to move thousands of homeless people who are living near freeways, saying their health is at risk from pollution and the coronavirusMay 16, 2020, 2:33 AM4 min readAssociated Press -- The city of Los Angeles and LA County must find…

Record floods have devastated East Africa this rainy season with almost half a million people displaced. Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake and connects Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. It is at its highest recorded level. Al Jazeera's Malcolm Webb reports on what that means for the communities living around the…