FrenchieGirl
Senior Moderator
Jun 27, 2009 3:50 pm US/Eastern
Homeless Shelters Impose Rules To Curb H1N1
Reporting
Jasmine Kripalani
E-mail MIAMI (CBS4)
As the number of H1N1 flu cases rise nationally, local homeless shelters hope to reduce infection rates and some changes are already visible at some South Florida shelters.
Camillus House, for example, has reduced the number of beds and imposed a curfew, officials there told CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald.
The facility has enough beds for 250 homeless men and women, but has been reduced to about 180, Camillus House CEO Paul Ahr told the newspaper.
''What we're concerned about is people that are going out at night, partying, maybe shooting up and coming back and making everybody else sick,'' Ahr said.
One homeless person has already tested positive for the H1N1 flu, but it was unknown which shelter the person had stayed at.
The Miami-Dade Health Department said there have been 193 confirmed H1N1 flu cases and one death.
Other shelter operators say they have been taking precautions by checking people's temperatures as they check in, mandating that they take daily showers and adding soap dispensers.
But fewer beds and tougher rules only make life more difficult for those in need.
Claro Diaz, 73, said when he was released from Jackson Memorial Hospital he was turned away at the homeless shelter.
''They told me I was out partying,'' Diaz said. 'I told them, `Do you think the doctor signed the exit form at a party?' ''
Shelter officials said they did not know why Diaz wasn't allowed in.
Laurel Weir, policy director at the National Law Center for Homelessness and Poverty in Washington, D.C., credits shelters for their precaution in preventing any major outbreak throughout any of the nation's shelters.
''They need to look out for swine flu because these people have weakened immune systems. They're more at risk,'' Weir said.
Homeless Shelters Impose Rules To Curb H1N1
Reporting
Jasmine Kripalani
E-mail MIAMI (CBS4)
As the number of H1N1 flu cases rise nationally, local homeless shelters hope to reduce infection rates and some changes are already visible at some South Florida shelters.
Camillus House, for example, has reduced the number of beds and imposed a curfew, officials there told CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald.
The facility has enough beds for 250 homeless men and women, but has been reduced to about 180, Camillus House CEO Paul Ahr told the newspaper.
''What we're concerned about is people that are going out at night, partying, maybe shooting up and coming back and making everybody else sick,'' Ahr said.
One homeless person has already tested positive for the H1N1 flu, but it was unknown which shelter the person had stayed at.
The Miami-Dade Health Department said there have been 193 confirmed H1N1 flu cases and one death.
Other shelter operators say they have been taking precautions by checking people's temperatures as they check in, mandating that they take daily showers and adding soap dispensers.
But fewer beds and tougher rules only make life more difficult for those in need.
Claro Diaz, 73, said when he was released from Jackson Memorial Hospital he was turned away at the homeless shelter.
''They told me I was out partying,'' Diaz said. 'I told them, `Do you think the doctor signed the exit form at a party?' ''
Shelter officials said they did not know why Diaz wasn't allowed in.
Laurel Weir, policy director at the National Law Center for Homelessness and Poverty in Washington, D.C., credits shelters for their precaution in preventing any major outbreak throughout any of the nation's shelters.
''They need to look out for swine flu because these people have weakened immune systems. They're more at risk,'' Weir said.