La Quinta bonita
King County Executive Dow Constantine announced that the county had purchased another hotel on the Eastside to provide shelter to people experiencing homelessness — the first such purchase in 2022.
The county created the Health Through Housing program in 2021, using a sales tax increase to acquire hotels left empty because of the pandemic in an effort to provide safer shelter spaces to chronically homeless people. To be considered “chronically homeless,” a person must have been homeless for an extended period of time and also have a disability.
So far, the county has provided 1,000 spaces through the program, and it intends to increase that to 1,600 by the end of 2022. Each of the sites comes with case management, around-the-clock staffing and access to behavioral health services.
The La Quinta Inn & Suites is located in Kirkland, making it the second Health Through Housing hotel on the Eastside. Other cities with Health Through Housing hotels include Seattle, Auburn, Federal Way, Redmond and Renton.
“Expanding our network and partnering with communities, we are building a regional solution to chronic homelessness and opening doors to a home for hundreds of people in King County,” Constantine said in a press release.
Masks off
Residents of the West Coast will no longer be required to wear face masks in most indoor settings as of March 11, state officials said on Feb. 28.
Washington, California and Oregon will all end certain indoor masking requirements. State officials cited declining rates of new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. However, the announcement doesn’t impact federal masking rules, which remain in place for public transportation, and it would still require masks in settings such as health care, long-term care and correctional facilities.
The Department of Health will also come out with new guidance for K-12 schools.
The Feb. 28 announcement actually moved the mask decision forward. Originally, Gov. Jay Inslee had announced modifications to masking that would take effect on March 21.
Coronavirus cases surged at the beginning of the year due to the increased transmissibility of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local health officials recommended using more protective KN95 and N95 masks rather than relying on cloth versions.
Washington state also announced greater availability of rapid COVID-19 tests. Households in Washington can get two COVID-19 tests for free each month through the mail, while supplies last. The Say Yes! COVID test program already sent out one round of tests to Washingtonians in January. It was so popular that it ran out of tests within hours and had to restock.
Ashley Archibald was the editor of Real Change through July 2023, and is now a communication specialist for Purpose. Dignity. Action.
Read more of the Mar. 9-15, 2022 issue.