Sun, Feb 16
|Highways
Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD) - The Covid Hotel Welcomes You to the Future
A performance that envisions and advocates for Respite Medical sites for houseless people in every LA County neighborhood, drawing on the wisdom, compassion, and practices pioneered by frontline health workers at LA County DHS Quarantine & Isolation Medical Sites during the pandemic (2020-2022).
Time & Location
Feb 16, 2025, 3:30 PM
Highways, 1651 18th St, Santa Monica, CA 90404, USA
About The Event
THIS IS A FREE EVENT. PLEASE RSVP TO GUARANTEE YOUR SEAT!
Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD)'s new performance work, Welcome to the Covid Hotel, reveals the exceptional innovations and successes of a multidisciplinary team of healthcare professionals who ran LA County Health Department’s emergency Quarantine and Isolation (QI) sites for houseless Covid patients and people exposed to the virus in shelters.
In spring 2020, the LA County Department of Health mobilized resources to ameliorate the devastation of the public health crisis on the region’s most vulnerable population: people experiencing homelessness. Makeshift QI sites were set up at various locations, including then vacant hotels and motels. More than 10,000 people quarantined at the sites. There were very few deaths, and once released, 93% of the patients needing housing were sheltered in nursing homes, recovery programs, and transitional programs leading to permanent housing—a remarkable rate.
Welcome to the Covid Hotel unveils the unconventional approaches that engendered this success— holistic care coordinated among typically siloed practitioners, harm reduction, and housing first practices, along with an uncommon level of interpersonal care, steeped in empathy and compassion. The exhibition recreates elements of the facilities at a motel-turned-QI site and features video recordings of the medical staff telling how their work saved lives, transformed paDent care, and got people housed.
The performance will be followed by a panel discussion, “Reimagining Healthcare For Our Homeless Community” with Becky Dennison, Executive at Venice Community Housing Advocating for Innovative Supportive Housing, Dr. Ryan J. Smith, President and CEO at St. Joseph Center, and Anthony Ruffin, Staff Analyst -Harm Reduction division at Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, DHS.
The conversation will be moderated by Sara Fetherolf, LAPD’s Public Programs and Engagement Specialist/ACLS Leading Edge postdoctoral fellow.
“The lessons we learned about the power of integrated care is the real gift that emerged from this experience,” said Dr. Sudarsky. “This model successfully merged specialty silos in housing and healthcare to help vulnerable Angelenos get swift access to care. In other words, when health and housing are prioritized as a human right for an enDre community, everyone is better off.”
“This exhibition focuses on the secret sauce—the spirit of the QI workers—their commitment, passion, and courage. Their ability to improvise when so many certainties crumbled. The things they discovered and employed everyday were broad departures from business-as-usual convention. The successes they saw led to a belief that the model of care they discovered and provided can be scaled up to address the twin problems of housing and healthcare.” - John Malpede, LAPD Artistic Director.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS EVENT & LOS ANGELES POVERTY DEPARTMENT, CLICK HERE.