As the weather grows colder, you may find yourself experiencing a second or even third round of Covid infection.
That prompts a few questions: Will getting Covid again be similar to my previous experience? Will it be any different than last time? Will my symptoms be more or less severe?
The answer to all of them, experts say: It's complicated. It depends on how long it's been since you last had Covid, your risk of severe disease and how long it's been since you were last vaccinated if you're vaccinated at all.
"With reinfection, it's kind of all over the map," Dr. Gabe Kelen, chair of emergency medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, tells CNBC Make It. "By and large, it seems milder. But there's no guarantee."
Here's what might happen during your reinfection, with an emphasis on the word "might," experts say:
If you recover from a Covid infection, you'll emerge with antibodies in your system that "keep a lookout for a future infection," says Dr. Roy Gulick, chief of infectious diseases at Weill Cornell Medicine. Not all of them will help your body fight the next infection, but ones that do can decrease the amount or severity of your symptoms.
Similarly, staying up-to-date on your Covid vaccines puts you at "a decreased risk" of severe illness, says Dr. Lucy Horton, an infectious disease expert at UC San Diego Health. Up-to-date means to completing your primary series and receiving the booster shots you're eligible for.
Both of those factors can help prevent reinfection, but neither of them can guarantee you won't get sick again nor can they guarantee mild symptoms if you do. No vaccine or natural immunity is 100% effective, and these Covid immunity boosts generally last about three to four months before "optimal protection begins to recede," Gulick says.
In other words, if it's been a while since your last vaccine dose or infection, you may not benefit as much from your immune system's symptom-fighting defenses.
"Timing is key," Gulick says.
These days, if you get Covid, you'll likely experience the virus' omicron strain or one of its subvariants. The omicron family currently makes up all U.S. cases, with BA.5 accounting for 81.3% of them, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Omicron and its subvariants generally appear to cause less severe symptoms than previous Covid variants which could partly be because Americans are more protected with vaccines and previous infections than ever before, Gulick says. So, if you first got Covid before omicron emerged in November 2021, a reinfection may be more mild the second time around.
But a "mild" infection from the omicron family still isn't a walk in the park, even for people who are otherwise healthy and vaccinated causing sore throats, headaches, fatigue, coughs, nasal congestion and muscle aches that can last for days at a time.
Those symptoms could be worse if you're at high risk of severe Covid, which includes people who are elderly, immunocompromised or have underlying medical conditions, according to the CDC.
Last year, a small CDC study found that people who got infected with previous strains of the virus before catching omicron experienced fewer symptoms the second time around. Importantly, the study only examined the original omicron strain, not any of its newer subvariants.
Different Covid variants may also cause you to experience different symptoms, Gulick says. Studies show that sore throats are more commonly associated with the omicron family than previous variants. Similarly, previous variants like delta more commonly caused symptoms like loss of taste or smell.
Horton suggests increasing your protection against reinfection by getting an omicron-specific Covid booster, which targets both the original Covid strain and omicron's BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, if you're eligible.
You can also reduce your risk of getting reinfected by avoiding crowded indoor places and wearing a mask indoors if Covid is spreading at a high level in your area, Horton adds. Use the CDC'sdata trackerto check your local infection and hospitalization rates.
"I don't think it's inevitable that some people will experience reinfection," Horton says. "I think there's a lot of things people can do to protect themselves against it."
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A legal challenge to the governments award of multimillion-pound contracts for lateral flow tests that later failed to gain regulatory approval has been rejected by the high court.
The health and social care secretarys decision to grant three contracts to UK firm Abingdon Health was the subject of litigation by campaigning organisation Good Law Project (GLP), which has brought several cases challenging the way contracts were awarded during the pandemic.
GLP put forward a number of grounds as to why it believed the award of the Abingdon contracts was unlawful, including allegations of bias, conflict of interest and lack of equal treatment and transparency, but they were all dismissed.
In a written judgment, published on Friday, Mr Justice Waksman said assessment of the award of the contracts must involve assuming market conditions which include (1) the urgent need for the development of an effective antibody LFT that could be used for mass home-testing, (2) some uncertainty as to whether that test would be developed in time, and (3) the risk that even if it was, the need for it in very large quantities might disappear. It cannot be said that these were policy considerations which have to be disregarded.
He also said that even if any of the grounds had succeeded, the GLP did not have legal standing (sufficient interest in the dispute) entitling it to bring the claim. In reaching his conclusion, he cited the decision in the earlier challenge brought by GLP and the Runnymede Trust to the August 2020 appointment of Conservative peer Dido Harding as interim executive chair of the National Institute for Health Protection, in which the GLP was also held not to have standing.
In a statement, Abingdon Health said it had received 10.3m from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) under the three contracts awarded in April, June and August of 2020 and was now expecting to receive a further 1.5m, which had been held on charge pending the outcome of the judicial review.
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Chris Yates, the CEO of Abingdon Health, said the company did the right thing during the pandemic by responding quickly but had been caught in a political cross-fire. He added: We are, of course, pleased with this judgement, but extremely disappointed that Abingdons reputation and good standing has been called into question by the GLP.
The judgment stated that most of the tests bought by the DHSC from Abingdon were not used and became time expired.
CNN
About 11.5 million people in the United States have gotten an updated Covid-19 booster, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but more people need to prepare for fall and winter by getting their shots now, health officials said Friday.
White House Covid-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha estimated during a news briefing that about 13 million to 15 million people about half of whom are seniors will have received their bivalent booster shot by the end of this week.
Our message is very simple: Dont wait. Get vaccinated. Go get vaccinated now; get it before Halloween so you are ready before Thanksgiving and Chrismas and the holidays, Jha said.
In the US, some models have predicted that Covid-19 cases will begin to rise again this month and continue to increase into the winter.
The most important thing every American can do to reduce their likelihood of having significant, preventable health issues in the next three to six months is to go get an updated Covid vaccine, Jha said. Beyond that, we need to make sure that everyone over the age of 50 or otherwise with high-risk conditions gets treatments if they do get infected. We have treatments widely available.
Respiratory viruses are known to spread quickly in winter, when people people head indoors and gather for holiday celebrations. Rising Covid-19 cases in the UK and Europe may be a signal of whats to come in the United States. Although the Omicron BA.5 subvariant continues to dominate globally, other variants are beginning to spread, too.
According to a study released Friday by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the US Department of Health and Human Services, Covid-19 vaccinations led to nearly 700,000 fewer hospitalizations and up to 370,000 fewer deaths from the coronavirus last year.
That translates to more than $16 billion saved in medical costs, the office said in a news release.
The study analyzed and extrapolated data from 26.8 million older Americans and others enrolled in a Medicare fee-for-service health plan through the end of 2021. It included data from the Delta and Omicron surges last year.
This report that they have issued, I believe, doubles down on the work that were doing on vaccination, why its so important to continue this effort and to get the right information out to Americans who can benefit and ultimately stay alive, stay healthy, stay out of the hospital and help us defeat Covid once and for all, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said Friday.
An analysis published this week found that if more people in the United States get their booster by the end of the year, about 90,000 Covid-19 deaths could be prevented this fall and winter.
But if booster vaccinations continue at their current pace, the nation could see a peak of more than 1,000 Covid-19 deaths per day this winter, according to the study by The Commonwealth Fund. There are now more than 400 daily Covid-19 deaths, on average, in the United States.
Becerra said the administration continues to urge people to get the updated Covid-19 boosters now available for ages 12 and up. Moderna and Pfizer have requested US Food and Drug Administration authorization for the updated boosters for children as young as 5.
We hope that with this report we can continue to encourage Americans to get updated with their vaccinations and get us prepared for the fall and winter thats coming, Becerra said.
COVID-19 hospitalizations have been steadily increasing in Maine, going from 150 in late August to 221 on Friday, a 47 percent increase. But public health experts are not issuing the same type of dire warnings as during last years winter surge.
I wouldnt say its alarming, Dr. Dora Anne Mills, chief health improvement officer for MaineHealth, the parent organization of Maine Medical Center in Portland and seven other Maine hospitals, said in an interview on Friday. But its also not unexpected.
Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a series of tweets on Wednesday that COVID-19 hospitalizations are going up in part because all hospitalizations are going up, and also because COVID is starting to increase.
Shah said more people are in the hospital to begin with. And on top of that, more people are getting COVID and landing in the hospital.
The Maine CDC does not officially keep track of those who are hospitalized for COVID-19 compared with those who are hospitalized for some other reason and coincidentally have COVID-19, or catch it while they are in the hospital. But Mills said the proportion of people who coincidentally have COVID-19 and are in the hospital is higher than last winter.
While the increased hospitalizations are concerning, one reason they are not causing alarm among health officials is that the tools to fight the pandemic are better, with increased vaccinations and much easier access to treatments.
That is borne out in another statistic showing a marked decrease in the percentage of COVID-19 patients in intensive care compared to last winter. Currently, 37 of the 221 COVID-19 patients are in intensive care, or about 17 percent of the total. In December 2021 and January 2022, 25 percent to 35 percent of all hospitalized COVID-19 patients were in ICU wings.
Mills said improved treatments and vaccination rates since last winter including booster shots are largely why fewer COVID-19 patients are in intensive care.
What we did not have at that time that we do have now is easy access to outpatient treatments, Mills said.
Last fall, Maine experienced a jump in hospitalizations from the delta variant, followed by the omicron surge in the winter.
However, one reason hospitalizations continue to be a problem even if the situation is not as acute as last winter is that many seniors, especially in rural Maine, put off getting tested for COVID-19 until several days after theyve become ill, Mills said.
Paxlovid, the anti-viral oral medication that is 90 percent effective at preventing those infected with COVID-19 from hospitalization, is ineffective after a patient has had symptoms for five days. Treatment with monoclonal antibodies which patients receive as an infusion is only effective the first seven days after the onset of symptoms.
We are seeing quite a few older people in the hospital who are quite ill, who did not get Paxlovid, Mills said. They tend to think theyve just had a bad cold and think they are OK and wait longer than five days to get tested. They are not realizing that early testing and early treatment is really important, especially if you are older.
While the states overall hospitalization rate has increased in recent weeks, MaineHealth hospitals have experienced a decline in COVID-19 hospitalizations, from 100 on Monday to 71 on Friday.
Karen Cashman, spokeswoman for Northern Light Health, the health care system that operates Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor and Mercy Hospital in Portland, said COVID-19 hospitalizations were fairly stable this week, reporting 57 on Friday.
Statewide, hospitalizations jumped from 197 on Monday to 221 on Friday.
Meanwhile, the rollout of the omicron booster shot is continuing, and public health officials are strongly urging people to get their COVID-19 booster and influenza shot. Many places including pharmacies and doctors offices will give both shots during the same appointment. Forty-eight percent of Maine residents have had at least one booster shot, tied with Rhode Island as the second-highest rate of boosters given in the United States, according to the New York Times vaccine tracker. Vermont has the best rate at 53 percent boosted, while the national average is 33 percent.
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AUSTIN, Texas Austin Public Health (APH), Austin Independent School District and community partners are hosting the annual Boo the Flu (and COVID, too!) clinic this Saturday, Oct. 8, from 10 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. atAllison Elementary School. Seasonal flu, COVID-19 shots andupdated (bivalent) boosterswill be available.
"We know a lot of children are getting upper respiratory illnesses already this fall,"said Dr. Desmar Walkes, Austin-Travis County Health Authority. "The flu season has started, and I really want to see more families getting flu shots and COVID-19 vaccines, including boosters. We need to set our community up for success before the holidays."
Late this summer, health experts sharedconcernsabout the upcoming flu season based on trends observed in the Southern Hemisphere. The highest flu ratesreported in Australiathis year were among children.
Everyone 6 months and older is eligible for a flu vaccine in the U.S. Still, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports thatpediatric coverage ratesare much lower than they were before the pandemic. Young children 6 months - 4 years became eligible for COVID-19 vaccinesin June, and only about 5% of this age group in Travis County is fully vaccinated. Children 5-11 years have been eligible foralmost a year, and only 40% in Travis County have completed their primary series.
Flu and COVID-19 vaccines can be given at the same time. APHs vaccination team--recently certified as an Exemplary Provider--will administer flu and COVID-19 vaccines during the clinic Saturday. Theyll offer COVID-19 primary series doses (Moderna, Pfizer and Novavax) and updated boosters (Moderna and Pfizer).
"This fun, family-friendly clinic is a great opportunity to get up to date with your vaccines,"said Adrienne Sturrup, APH director. "Our Mobile Vaccination Program has been staffing smaller pop-up events, and theyre excited to help even more families get extra protection before cold/flu season and while COVID-19 is still in the community."
Expect games, treats, and community resources at Boo the flu and COVID, too! Allison Elementary is located at 515 Vargas Rd. Spanish interpreters will be on-site.
Vaccine Providers
VisitVaccines.gov(Vacunas.govin Spanish) to find flu and COVID-19 vaccine providers near you.
Free COVID-19 tests
Free at-home test kits and PCR testing are available at APHs Metz Elementary testing site (84 Robert T. Martinez Jr. St., Austin, TX 78702), and the Department of Health and Humans Services listscommunity-based testing sites online.
Free masks(N-95 respirators)
Use theCDCs mask-locator toolto find pharmacies near you that provide free masks (N95 respirators). It does not show current inventories, so check with the location for availability.
About Austin Public Health
Austin Public Healthis the health department for the City of Austin and Travis County. Austin Public Health works to prevent disease, promote health and protect the well-being of all by monitoring and preventing infectious diseases and environmental threats and educating about the benefits of preventative behaviors to avoid chronic diseases and improve health outcomes
Published on October 06, 2022
Spooky season is in full swing and along with ghosts and goblins, the Denver Department of Public Health & Environment (DDPHE) reminds everyone that cooler temperatures could lead to an increase in COVID-19, influenza (flu), and other respiratory diseases.DDPHE has the following recommendations to say boo to respiratory illness before fall celebrations and gatherings get underway.
Carve out time to get vaccinated:
Vaccines arent scary, theyre science!Staying up to date with COVID-19 vaccines and your annual flu shot is the best way to save lives, prevent prolonged sickness and hospitalization. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends COVID-19 vaccines and seasonal flu vaccines for everyone 6 months and older.
According to the CDC, if a patient is eligible, both influenza and COVID-19 vaccines can be administered during the same visit, including boosters. There is no evidence getting a flu vaccination raises the risk of getting sick from COVID-19 or any other virus.
Dont forget your BOO-ster shot:
As fall gatherings head indoors, DDPHE strongly encourages everyone who is eligible to consider receiving an Omicron (bivalent) booster vaccine to provide better protection against currently circulating COVID-19 variants.
Everyone 12 years and older is eligible to receive the updated booster if it has been two months or more since their primary vaccination series or last booster dose.The Colorado Department of Public Health & Environments (CDPHE) vaccine calculator is a good tool for keeping track of COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters. Mass vaccination sites at Ball Arena, Water World and Dick's Sporting Goods Park are back and offer the two new, Omicron (bivalent) booster shots that take aim at the latest variants of COVID-19. Appointments are recommended.
COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective at protecting people from getting seriously ill, being hospitalized, and even dying as new variants continue to emerge.
Dont be frightened of the flu shot:
DDPHE anticipates more flu activity this winter than the previous two years. DDPHE recommends everyone get a flu shot. Getting a flu vaccine is an essential part of protecting your health and your familys health every year.
Flu shots are readily available. Medicare, Medicaid and most private health insurers cover the full cost of a flu vaccine. Some pharmacies, like CVS and Walgreens offer free flu shots.
DDPHE continues to urge everyone to be mindful and take precautions when going about their fall routines. If you feel sick, stay home and get tested. More information and resources are available at denvergov.org/covid19.
A sign is posted at a vaccination booster shot clinic on October 01, 2021 in San Rafael, California. Photo: Justin Sullivan (Getty Images)
The toll of covid-19 in the U.S. this winter will depend heavily on how many Americans are able and willing to get an upgraded booster shot, suggests a new expert analysis. Even a moderately successful booster campaign would save tens of thousands of lives as well as billions of dollars in medical costs, researchers with the Commonwealth Fund predict. Currently, however, booster rates are abysmally low.
The passage of time and the emergence of new variants, particularly the Omicron variant, have weakened the ability of the original vaccines to prevent infection and illness from the coronavirus. But theyve remained very effective at preventing severe illness and death, and for those at higher risk, such as the elderly, the first round of booster doses have further lowered the odds of serious outcomes from infection.
Throughout the pandemic, the Commonwealth Funda nonprofit organization focused on health care reformhas conducted research trying to quantify the exact benefits of covid-19 vaccination. Their latest report, released Wednesday, is an update to a similar analysis conducted in July. Since then, the Food and Drug Administration has authorized the release of an upgraded booster dose for the general public, one meant to boost immunity to both the original strain of the coronavirus and the most common Omicron variants now circulating in the world.
This time, the researchers plotted out three forecasts for the country from October through March 2023, assuming that covid cases will once again surge this winter. In the baseline scenario, the current daily rate of Americans getting boosted would remain the same. In another, around 50% of eligible people would get boosted by the end of the year, mirroring the rate of seasonal flu vaccination during the 2020 to 2021 winter. And in the last, 80% of eligible Americans would get the booster.
Under the status quo, the researchers predict that the country would once again experience a wave of death and illness, though not as huge as those seen in past winters. At its peak, they estimated, covid-19 would kill up to 1,200 Americans a day, while hospitalizing another 16,000 (last winter saw a sustained average of over 2,000 deaths a day and nearly 150,000 Americans hospitalized at any one time). But under either of the other two scenarios, daily deaths would be kept below 400.
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Overall, the roughly 50% vaccination scenario was estimated to result in 75,347 fewer deaths, 745,409 fewer hospitalizations, and over 19 million fewer infections, while the 80% vaccination scenario would prevent around 90,000 deaths, 936,000 hospitalizations, and over 25 million infections. The savings in direct medical costs would also range from $44 billion to $56 billion.
The recent FDA approval of bivalent boosters offers an opportunity to curb transmission; a vaccination campaign that moves aggressively could avert a surge of hospitalizations and deaths, and save money in the process, the authors wrote.
The authors note that many of the assumptions theyve made in these forecasts might lead to a conservative estimate of the benefits provided by a successful booster campaign.
For instance, research has suggested that the upgraded shots should provide even stronger and perhaps longer-lasting protection against the current iteration of the coronavirus than the original boosters. But the authors assumed that the added level of protection seen with these shots would be about the same as that provided by the original boosters against the primary Omicron variant seen last winter. Cases of covid-19 this winter might also be higher than they predicted, especially if a new variant better at partially evading previous immunity once again emerges. The analysis also didnt look at the potential impact of long covid, which vaccines seem to reduce the risk of.
As things stand now, however, even a modestly effective booster campaign isnt certain. Only around 5% of eligible Americans have gotten the upgraded boosters to date. Some of this lag might be due to timing, since its recommended that people wait at least three months following their last covid-19 case to get a new booster. But the U.S. has already done worse at boosting its residents than many peer countries, with less than half of Americans having gotten their first booster. That said, a recent Pew survey has indicated that 48% of Americans have gotten or plan to get the upgraded boosters.
Without a more dedicated effort and funding to promote and deliver those shots, though, the authors caution that were gearing up to see many more preventable deaths and hospitalizations this winter.
As population immunity wanes and new variants capable of evading protection from earlier vaccines and natural infection continue to emerge, surges in hospitalizations and deaths during the upcoming fall and winter are increasingly likely. Federal funding for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments has stagnated, hindering access at a crucial time, they wrote.
CLEVELAND, Ohio For the first time since summer, four Greater Cleveland counties improved to green, or were designated as having low COVID-19 transmission, on the latest U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention map.
And also for the first time in months, a majority of Ohio counties were classified as green. No Ohio counties were designated red, for high COVID-19 transmission. The CDC map was updated late Thursday.
In early March, all of Ohios counties were green or yellow; none were red. Since then, a fluctuating number of counties have been red.
Among Greater Cleveland counties, Cuyahoga, Lake, Ashtabula and Geauga counties were designated yellow. Portage, Summit, Medina and Lorain counties were classified green.
People who live in yellow-designated counties, and are at risk for severe COVID-19, should ask their healthcare provider whether they should wear masks or take other precautions, according to the CDC.
People in red counties with high transmission are advised by the CDC to wear masks indoors. Counties are considered to have high transmission levels when community coronavirus circulation could overwhelm local hospitals.
Across Ohio, 25 counties were classified yellow, and 63were classified green, for low COVID-19 transmission.
Counties are classified as low (green), medium (yellow) or high (red) under the CDCs system for estimating the risk of COVID-19 infection.
The new CDC color-coded designations were introduced on Feb. 25. In early March, all of Ohios counties were green or yellow; none were red.
Oct. 6 Northern Ohio county designations
Ashtabula County: Yellow (medium transmission)
Cuyahoga County: Yellow (medium transmission)
Geauga County: Yellow (medium transmission)
Lake County: Yellow (medium transmission)
Lorain County: Green (low transmission)
Medina County: Green (low transmission)
Portage County: Green (low transmission)
Summit County: Green (low transmission)
Sept. 29 Northern Ohio county designations
Ashtabula County: Yellow (medium transmission)
Cuyahoga County: Yellow (medium transmission)
Geauga County: Yellow (medium transmission)
Lake County: Yellow (medium transmission)
Lorain County: Yellow (medium transmission)
Medina County: Yellow (medium transmission)
Portage County: Yellow (medium transmission)
Summit County: Yellow (medium transmission)
Related coverage:
New COVID-19 cases in Ohio under 10,000 for the first time since April: weekly coronavirus update for Thursday, Oct. 6
Greater Cleveland counties yellow for medium COVID-19 spread; masks advised for those at risk; CDC map for Sept. 29
Disability Scoop
Scott Landes, associate professor of sociology in the Maxwell School, was quoted in Disability Scoop for their storyCOVID-19 Was Leading Killer Of People With Developmental Disabilities. The article explains how recent research shows that people with developmental disabilities were more likely to die from COVID-19 during its peak than others. Landes states, Even when we adjusted for age, sex and racial-ethnic minority status, we found that COVID-19 was far deadlier for those with IDD than those without.
In California's capital, massive tent encampments have risen along the American River and highway overpasses have become havens for homeless people, whose numbers have jumped a staggering nearly 70% over two years.Among the 9,300 without a home is Eric Santos, who lost his job at a brewery and was evicted from his apartment in July. Now he carries a list of places where free meals are available and a bucket to mix soap and water to wash his hands, and to sit on."The bucket is part of my life now," the 42-year-old said, calling it his version of Wilson, the volleyball that becomes Tom Hanks' companion in the film "Castaway."Cities big and small around the country are facing a similar experience to Sacramento.Fueled by a long-running housing shortage, rising rent prices and the economic hangover from the pandemic, the overall number of homeless in a federal government report to be released in coming months is expected to be higher than the 580,000 unhoused before the coronavirus outbreak, the National Alliance to End Homelessness said.The Associated Press tallied results from city-by-city surveys conducted earlier this year and found the number of people without homes is up overall compared with 2020 in areas reporting results so far.Some of the biggest increases are in West Coast cities such as Sacramento and Portland, Oregon, where growing homelessness has become a humanitarian crisis and political football over the past decade. Numbers are also up about 30% in South Dakota and Prince George's County, Maryland, and 15% in Asheville, North Carolina.The data comes from the Point in Time counts the federal government requires communities to conduct to reflect how many people are without homes on a given winter night. The counts usually rely on volunteer census-takers and are always imprecise. This year's tallies were conducted amid the pandemic and advocates caution changed counting methods could have thrown off results.Research has shown places seeing spikes in homelessness often lack affordable housing. Making matters worse, pandemic government relief programs including anti-eviction measures, emergency rental assistance and a child tax credit that kept people housed who may have been on the streets otherwise are ending.Donald Whitehead Jr., executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, said the counts are generally rising more where housing costs are jumping the fastest but the government's response makes a difference, too. Some communities where numbers are down, he said, "are really looking at housing people versus criminalizing people and putting them in encampments."In Sacramento, where rents are soaring and officials disagree on how best to deal with the problem, homelessness has jumped 68% from 2020 to 2022 the most among larger cities reporting results so far.The surge has been driven in part by the city's legacy of being more affordable than other California cities, which has attracted new residents, overwhelming the housing market. People moving out of the San Francisco Bay Area, 90 miles to the southwest, have flooded Sacramento with more potential homeowners and renters, driving up prices.A Zillow analysis found the average rent in July was $2,300 a 28% increase since July 2019, before the pandemic began. Sacramento County's median income was about $70,000 in 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The crisis has deepened even as things have improved in other California cities that have contended for years with homelessness. Sacramento's efforts to address the problem have been marred by years of squabbles between the city and county governments.Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg has made reducing homelessness a priority since taking office in 2017. The city now has more than 900 beds in shelters and motels, compared to about 100 five years ago and has moved to ban single-family zoning, a move that could make it easier to build more housing.But so far, it hasn't been enough."People are becoming homeless much faster than we are getting them off the street," Steinberg told the AP. Santos is among them. He's been able to sign up for food assistance but is still on a waiting list to access other benefits, he said. Each night he hunts for a park bench that feels safe to sleep on. When he lost a suitcase to broken wheels, he got rid of some of his warmer clothing, a decision he regrets as the fall evenings get colder."Luckily I've been able to keep afloat with what I have," he said.Steinberg has advocated for adopting a legal right to shelter and a legal obligation for people to accept it when offered. The approach has drawn some criticism from advocates who say it's just a means of taking the problem out of the public eye without providing meaningful help for those who need it.County officials voted in August to ban camping along Sacramento's American River Parkway, with a misdemeanor charge for people who don't comply. City voters will decide in November on a ballot measure requiring the city to open hundreds more shelter beds. But it would only take effect if the county agrees to pony up money for mental health and substance abuse treatment.Still, the rise in homelessness is not uniform across the country.In Boston, the number of people sleeping on the streets and in shelters has dropped 25% over two years as advocates focused on finding permanent housing for those on the streets the longest.In some cities, "housing first" policies intended to move the homeless into permanent homes have paid off. And while the pandemic brought economic chaos, an eviction moratorium, boosted unemployment payments and family tax credits prevented some people from becoming homeless at all.Along with Boston, numbers have fallen by about 20% or more in Houston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Even in California, homeless counts are down in San Francisco, and growth has slowed significantly in Los Angeles.The numbers have also dropped in California's Orange County, where there have been extensive efforts to remove encampments though some advocates there question the accuracy of the count.In Boston, Steven Hamilton moved into a new apartment in September after decades staying on a friend or relative's couch or in a homeless shelter.With the help of a program run by the Boston Medical Center, he was able to get a subsidized apartment in a public housing development. His portion of monthly rent is $281 or about 30% of his Social Security payments."I'm grateful," he said. "I am not looking to move nowhere else. I am going to stay here until eternity. I lost a lot of stuff. I'm not going through that again."After what he called a "horrible nightmare" in a shelter with residents injecting drugs in the bathroom, the studio apartment has changed his outlook. He's planning to get furniture, save money for a car and hopes to invite his family for Thanksgiving. "I have a place I can call my own," he said. Hamilton's studio apartment is the result of a Boston strategy whereby the city and area nonprofits use extensive outreach to get people who've been on the streets for over a year into apartments and then provide services such as drug treatment and life-skills training like budgeting with the help of case managers. Since 2019, annual funding in Boston for homeless programs has jumped from $31 million to over $51 million.Those efforts were bolstered last year by a city program that pulled together a list of homeless individuals to target for housing and other services. The city also moved to shut down one of its biggest homeless encampments, going tent-to-tent to assess the needs of those living there and referring more than 150 to shelters and other housing. The efforts have not been seamless. There have been reports of a cleared-out tent city re-emerging. And family homelessness numbers, though down from 2020, have ticked up in the past year.Still, the city has been able to reduce the numbers of homeless people to about 6,000, down 25% since 2020.Boston's shelters have become less crowded even as Zillow found the city's average rent rose to $2,800 this summer up 13% from three years earlier.Housing advocates say prioritizing chronically homeless people ensures funds have the greatest impact, since the long-term homeless spend so much time in shelters. It also costs less to provide permanent housing than temporary shelter.Lewis Lopez is among the success stories.After cycling in and out of Boston shelters for several years, Lopez finally secured keys to his own apartment. No longer fearing his possessions would be stolen or he would get into fights over food, the 61-year-old felt he had finally gotten his life back."I felt so free, like a ton of bricks were lifted off my shoulders," Lopez said of the studio apartment he has lived in for five years, paid for partly with federal funds. "I felt like part of society again," he said.___Casey reported from Boston. Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Kavish Harjai in Los Angeles contributed.
In California's capital, massive tent encampments have risen along the American River and highway overpasses have become havens for homeless people, whose numbers have jumped a staggering nearly 70% over two years.
Among the 9,300 without a home is Eric Santos, who lost his job at a brewery and was evicted from his apartment in July. Now he carries a list of places where free meals are available and a bucket to mix soap and water to wash his hands, and to sit on.
"The bucket is part of my life now," the 42-year-old said, calling it his version of Wilson, the volleyball that becomes Tom Hanks' companion in the film "Castaway."
Cities big and small around the country are facing a similar experience to Sacramento.
Fueled by a long-running housing shortage, rising rent prices and the economic hangover from the pandemic, the overall number of homeless in a federal government report to be released in coming months is expected to be higher than the 580,000 unhoused before the coronavirus outbreak, the National Alliance to End Homelessness said.
The Associated Press tallied results from city-by-city surveys conducted earlier this year and found the number of people without homes is up overall compared with 2020 in areas reporting results so far.
Some of the biggest increases are in West Coast cities such as Sacramento and Portland, Oregon, where growing homelessness has become a humanitarian crisis and political football over the past decade. Numbers are also up about 30% in South Dakota and Prince George's County, Maryland, and 15% in Asheville, North Carolina.
The data comes from the Point in Time counts the federal government requires communities to conduct to reflect how many people are without homes on a given winter night. The counts usually rely on volunteer census-takers and are always imprecise. This year's tallies were conducted amid the pandemic and advocates caution changed counting methods could have thrown off results.
Rich Pedroncelli
Research has shown places seeing spikes in homelessness often lack affordable housing. Making matters worse, pandemic government relief programs including anti-eviction measures, emergency rental assistance and a child tax credit that kept people housed who may have been on the streets otherwise are ending.
Donald Whitehead Jr., executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, said the counts are generally rising more where housing costs are jumping the fastest but the government's response makes a difference, too.
Some communities where numbers are down, he said, "are really looking at housing people versus criminalizing people and putting them in encampments."
In Sacramento, where rents are soaring and officials disagree on how best to deal with the problem, homelessness has jumped 68% from 2020 to 2022 the most among larger cities reporting results so far.
The surge has been driven in part by the city's legacy of being more affordable than other California cities, which has attracted new residents, overwhelming the housing market. People moving out of the San Francisco Bay Area, 90 miles to the southwest, have flooded Sacramento with more potential homeowners and renters, driving up prices.
A Zillow analysis found the average rent in July was $2,300 a 28% increase since July 2019, before the pandemic began. Sacramento County's median income was about $70,000 in 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Michael Dwyer
The crisis has deepened even as things have improved in other California cities that have contended for years with homelessness. Sacramento's efforts to address the problem have been marred by years of squabbles between the city and county governments.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg has made reducing homelessness a priority since taking office in 2017. The city now has more than 900 beds in shelters and motels, compared to about 100 five years ago and has moved to ban single-family zoning, a move that could make it easier to build more housing.
But so far, it hasn't been enough.
"People are becoming homeless much faster than we are getting them off the street," Steinberg told the AP.
Santos is among them. He's been able to sign up for food assistance but is still on a waiting list to access other benefits, he said. Each night he hunts for a park bench that feels safe to sleep on. When he lost a suitcase to broken wheels, he got rid of some of his warmer clothing, a decision he regrets as the fall evenings get colder.
"Luckily I've been able to keep afloat with what I have," he said.
Steinberg has advocated for adopting a legal right to shelter and a legal obligation for people to accept it when offered. The approach has drawn some criticism from advocates who say it's just a means of taking the problem out of the public eye without providing meaningful help for those who need it.
Rich Pedroncelli
County officials voted in August to ban camping along Sacramento's American River Parkway, with a misdemeanor charge for people who don't comply. City voters will decide in November on a ballot measure requiring the city to open hundreds more shelter beds. But it would only take effect if the county agrees to pony up money for mental health and substance abuse treatment.
Still, the rise in homelessness is not uniform across the country.
In Boston, the number of people sleeping on the streets and in shelters has dropped 25% over two years as advocates focused on finding permanent housing for those on the streets the longest.
In some cities, "housing first" policies intended to move the homeless into permanent homes have paid off. And while the pandemic brought economic chaos, an eviction moratorium, boosted unemployment payments and family tax credits prevented some people from becoming homeless at all.
Along with Boston, numbers have fallen by about 20% or more in Houston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Even in California, homeless counts are down in San Francisco, and growth has slowed significantly in Los Angeles.
The numbers have also dropped in California's Orange County, where there have been extensive efforts to remove encampments though some advocates there question the accuracy of the count.
In Boston, Steven Hamilton moved into a new apartment in September after decades staying on a friend or relative's couch or in a homeless shelter.
With the help of a program run by the Boston Medical Center, he was able to get a subsidized apartment in a public housing development. His portion of monthly rent is $281 or about 30% of his Social Security payments.
"I'm grateful," he said. "I am not looking to move nowhere else. I am going to stay here until eternity. I lost a lot of stuff. I'm not going through that again."
After what he called a "horrible nightmare" in a shelter with residents injecting drugs in the bathroom, the studio apartment has changed his outlook. He's planning to get furniture, save money for a car and hopes to invite his family for Thanksgiving.
"I have a place I can call my own," he said.
Hamilton's studio apartment is the result of a Boston strategy whereby the city and area nonprofits use extensive outreach to get people who've been on the streets for over a year into apartments and then provide services such as drug treatment and life-skills training like budgeting with the help of case managers.
Since 2019, annual funding in Boston for homeless programs has jumped from $31 million to over $51 million.
Those efforts were bolstered last year by a city program that pulled together a list of homeless individuals to target for housing and other services. The city also moved to shut down one of its biggest homeless encampments, going tent-to-tent to assess the needs of those living there and referring more than 150 to shelters and other housing.
The efforts have not been seamless. There have been reports of a cleared-out tent city re-emerging. And family homelessness numbers, though down from 2020, have ticked up in the past year.
Still, the city has been able to reduce the numbers of homeless people to about 6,000, down 25% since 2020.
Boston's shelters have become less crowded even as Zillow found the city's average rent rose to $2,800 this summer up 13% from three years earlier.
Steven Senne
Housing advocates say prioritizing chronically homeless people ensures funds have the greatest impact, since the long-term homeless spend so much time in shelters. It also costs less to provide permanent housing than temporary shelter.
Lewis Lopez is among the success stories.
After cycling in and out of Boston shelters for several years, Lopez finally secured keys to his own apartment. No longer fearing his possessions would be stolen or he would get into fights over food, the 61-year-old felt he had finally gotten his life back.
"I felt so free, like a ton of bricks were lifted off my shoulders," Lopez said of the studio apartment he has lived in for five years, paid for partly with federal funds.
"I felt like part of society again," he said.
___
Casey reported from Boston. Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Kavish Harjai in Los Angeles contributed.
