Covid Updates: Homeless Plan Previewed; City Drops Dr. Murphy

City plans to protect the homeless from the cold and Covid-19 this winter involve working with the state to find 150 hotel beds for the housing insecure, and opening up two overnight warming centers and one daytime drop-in center by late November.

The city has also ended its Covid-19 testing agreement with Greenwich-based doctor Steven Murphy — who is two weeks away from opening a new office in the Dwight neighborhood, where he plans to keep his local testing operation going.

Those two updates came Wednesday afternoon during Mayor Justin Elicker’s latest Covid-19 virtual press briefing. The presser was held online via Zoom and YouTube Live.

City Community Services Administrator Mehul Dalal and Homelessness Services Coordinator Velma George previewed City Hall’s efforts this fall and winter to make sure that the roughly 300-plus unhoused people currently living in in New Haven stay ​“safe from Covid, and safe from the elements,” as Dalal put it.

“This is going to be a tough winter,” he said. (Click here for a recent op-ed by the director of a downtown soup kitchen about the urgent needs faced by the city’s housing insecure this winter.)

Dalal said that that the state, the city, and local homelessness service partners like Columbus House had great success finding permanent homes this summer for people with insecure housing.

He said that statewide, roughly 1,100 individuals found permanent housing through coordinated government and social service efforts, with over 300 of those rapid rehousing recipients from the Greater New Haven region.

“We will work aggressively to house individuals” this winter, Dalal said.

Key to that effort will be partnering with the state to secure 150 hotel beds for the currently homeless, Dalal said. Those negotiations with the state are still underway.

Dalal said the city and state placed roughly 300 homeless people in hotel beds this spring and summer. Temporary housing efforts proved critical not just for transitioning people to more permanent housing, but also for facilitating other social services like providing food and Covid-19 testing.

George (pictured) said that there are currently 55 shelter beds available in the city, at Columbus House and Martha’s Place. Dalal said those reopened shelter spaces abide by Covid-19 public safety guidelines, like enforcing social distancing, mask wearing, and hand hygiene.

Dalal and George also said that the city plans to open two overnight warming center with capacities for 25 individuals each. The city is also looking to open a daytime drop-in center. The city has put out requests for bids to find adequate locations for those warming centers. ​“We do have some good leads,” Dalal said. George said the city hopes to have them open by the end of November.

“People are really interested in having their own permanent place to live,” George said when asked about what she has heard directly from local homeless people over the past few months about their needs during the ongoing pandemic.

Elicker (pictured) said that, since the start of the pandemic in March, New Haven has seen a total of 3,299 Covid-19 cases and 113 related fatalities.

Elicker and city Health Director Maritza Bond warned that New Haven — like the rest of the state and the region — has seen a recent uptick in new cases and Covid-related hospitalizations. They advised city residents to make sure to wear masks, keep distances of at least six feet when out in public, wash hands with soap and water frequently, and self-quarantine if feeling sick or after testing positive, in order to stem the spread of the virus in the coming weeks and months.

City Ends Testing Agreement With Dr. Murphy

Elicker also said Wednesday that the city has formally ended its agreement with Murphy Medical Associates, the Fairfield County-based doctors group that has provided Covid-19 testing in the city since April.

As of Monday, Elicker said, Murphy is no longer providing Covid-19 testing at the Day Street Park site he has operated in the Dwight neighborhood for the past six months. Murphy has also conducted testing in partnership with the city on the Green, in Newhallville, in the Hill, and at various neighborhood pop ups.

The mayor said the primary reason for the city ending its testing agreement with Murphy was the ​“increasing availability of state-supported testing” by Yale New Haven Hospital and by the city’s two federally qualified community health centers, Fair Haven Community Health Care and Cornell Scott Hill Health Center.

“In the beginning of the crisis, there was a lot of limitations” around anyone — regardless of whether or not they had Covid symptoms or a doctor’s note — getting tested, Elicker said. ​“Dr. Murphy was very, very helpful. That’s no long as much of an issue.”

When asked if the complaints the Independent has reported on about wait times of up to two weeks for test result turnarounds and about $2,000-plus claims submitted by Murphy to insurance companies influenced the city’s decision to end its testing agreement with the Greenwich doctor, Elicker said, ​“It was a concern of ours.”

But, he continued, ​“it’s very important to underscore we had no example where anyone was ever charged” out of pocket because of Murphy’s testing. (Even though one patient was harassed for over a month by a North Carolina-based debt collector trying to shake him down for $314 after he got an antibody test at Murphy’s Day Street Park free testing site.)

“Dr. Murphy bent over backwards to work with us on our ability to do testing,” Elicker said. ​“He followed through on his commitments.”

When reached for comment after the presser had ended, Murphy told the Independent that his clinic plans to open up in two weeks a new office on Chapel Street in the Dwight neighborhood near YNHH’s St. Raphael’s Campus. ​“Same community! Same commitment!” Murphy said by text message. ​“We will be investing significant time and efforts to care for the community.”

When asked about his experience working with the city on providing Covid-19 testing over the past six months, he said, ​“Unfortunately, the press coverage failed to grasp the significant goodwill we have given to the town and will continue to, as physicians.”