Homeless people in the San Francisco Bay Area can not escape poor air quality after forest fires

As a smoky haze still hovered over the San Francisco Bay Area on Monday, more than 10 days after the deadly camp fire further north, one of the most vulnerable groups in the region, the homeless, could not easily seek safety indoors.

"The people staying have the respite of their house at night, some with jobs have [the] respite from the office during the day, " Catholic Charities of Santa Rosa Jennielynn Holmes, director of the shelter, told HuffPost Monday.

"These people have neither," she added, speaking about about 3000 homeless Sonoma County residents, about two-thirds of whom live outside. "They are exposed all day."

Since the camp fire started on November 8 – killing 77 people up to now and burned more than 11,000 homes – smoke from the fire flooded the skies and traveled to Sonoma County and the Bay Area, a three-hour drive south.

The air quality of the Bay Area was considered "unhealthy" for days, with an air quality index of 238 on Friday and Monday 179, by the Environmental Protection Agency. Anything greater than 100 would be considered "unhealthy for sensitive groups" and greater than 150, "unhealthy" for everyone. Schools closed as a result.

IQA measures the amount of "particles" in the air – or microscopic pieces too small to be captured by the filtration system in our lungs – which can then enter our bloodstream, posing potential health risks anyone who breathes it, especially people with respiratory problems.

Research has shown that homeless populations higher rate of respiratory problems such as asthma or chronic bronchitis, as they face additional risk factors such as living in overcrowded spaces, poor nutrition, unreliable access to medical care and regular exposure to environmental pollution. the air caused by life or leisure spent on the outside.

The homeless sleeping in the streets of San Francisco and other northern California cities have been exposed day and night during the past week to poor air pollution – and even those who have access to beds in shelters or other dwellings often still have to leave the day. , including to work.

"My kids, especially those with breathing problems, complained that their breasts were tight, they had trouble breathing, their eyes burned a lot," said Monica Steptoe, assistant director of street youth services. Larkin, a shelter for 18-24 year olds in San Francisco.

Steptoe says his group serves "a lot" of young asthmatics, some with respiratory infections. In recent days, some have reported that friends living on the street have to go to the hospital because of breathing difficulties.

While young people living in Larkin Street shelters usually have to leave every day at 8:30 am due to recent air pollution, the group let them stay or directed them to its reception center. But even at the shelter, the polluted air "seeps" through the cracks in the walls of the old building, Steptoe said.

Some of the young adults also have outdoor bike delivery jobs all day long.

"They do not want to lose their jobs," said Steptoe, noting that many homeless youth would not stay home, even though staff members would encourage them to do so. "Employment is everything for them."

In the face of worsening air pollution, San Francisco's homelessness department distributed about 1,600 masks to homeless people starting Saturday, according to the agency's communications officer, Randolph Quezada. The team also conducted more welfare checks on homeless residents and added extra beds to the shelter system last week, Quezada said.

But these efforts will not be enough. The city has about 2,300 beds in its shelters, according to Quezada. Meanwhile, San Francisco had about 7,500 people homeless, including more than 4,300 homeless or living outside, according to its latest count in 2017. And all shelters are not open 24 hours a day, prompting city officials to direct people to centers open all day, as well as other public places. places like libraries.

Holmes said that his group members in Sonoma had "definitely" noticed the recent air pollution affecting the homeless people they serve. In recent days, they have had to transport some people with asthma or serious lung problems to urgent care.

It's not just the air quality that's worrying homeless people in northern California. The available housing stock in the area has once again declined, as the camp's fire ravaged about 10,000 homes around Paradise, making it more difficult for homeless people to find affordable housing.

After the deadly fires of last year in Sonoma and Napa burned over 4,500 homes Around Santa Rosa, the number of homeless people in the region has increased by about 6% – the first increase after years of decline, Holmes said.

"The reason they can not escape [air pollution] That's because there is not enough low-income housing, "said Steptoe, noting that notoriously high housing prices in the Bay Area prevent homeless people from accessing affordable housing. "People can not even afford housing that has a job."

Rain is expected to come in the middle of the week, which could offer a respite to fires and improve the quality of the air. But then the region will prepare for the risk of landslides from the shower.

While unhealthy levels of air pollution become "a part of the new normal with climate change," said Quezada, serving a homeless population exposed and vulnerable to such poor air quality is simply " an element on which we must work ".