Pandemic in Seattle

(siren blares) TINA MARTIN: In Seattle, the desperate fight to contain the country's first coronavirus cases and protect the city's most vulnerable.

DOW CONSTANTINE: People who are homeless can't shelter in their own home.

They can't isolate, they have nowhere to go.

WOMAN: Working on the floors, I see multiple people dying every day.

It's really hard.

You have basically like a wildfire happening.

CONSTANTINE: We need to figure out how to help those who are least able to help themselves.

MARTIN: Pandemic in Seattle, on Local, U.S.A. MARTIN: America's first deaths from COVID-19 came in a nursing home near Seattle, Washington.

It soon became clear that the elderly were especially vulnerable.

But so was the city's largest population of homeless people.

Public health workers sprang into action desperately trying to outpace the virus's deadly toll.

In Pandemic in Seattle, we join them on the frontlines of the crisis.

♪ ROSALIND: The purpose of this meeting is to get the paperwork done so that we can move your application forward for housing.

What would you say was your last stable residence?

STEVIE: Over a year ago.

ROSALIND: Where have you lived since then?

STEVIE: I had gotten into my own apartment which then lost, 'cause I lost my job, and in the car.

We've got thick blankets, we got a sleeping bag.

Tonight I think it was, what?

Yeah, 36 out, and I mean, I was fairly warm back there.

Were you warm, kiddo?

ALEXA (laughing): Kind of... STEVIE: Kinda.

- Merry Christmas.

- Merry Christmas.

STEVIE: Since I've been out of work, this has all been really hard.

Trying to put gas in the car, trying to feed my daughter.

98% of people feel that homeless people are junkies and alcoholics, and I'm none of those.

There's a lot of us out there that are just trying to get stable and on our feet so that we can live a normal life.

CONSTANTINE: Seattle has a housing and homelessness crisis, and a lot of it really is tied up in the success we've had here.

With the run up in rents, folks have been squeezed out of housing and ended up on the streets.

I love you.

Being homeless, I feel like I'm failing my daughter.

(crying): I feel like I'm failing as a mother, that I'm not a good mom because we've lost everything.

(exhales) ♪ KATHERINE KEMPF: I am a medical student, single mom, two boys, and I am the daughter of Alan Kempf, who is a resident at Life Care Center of Kirkland.

This is Pop-Pop before his stroke.

You know, I'm my father's guardian.

He can't really talk for himself well.

This is when Pop-Pop, when he was rehabbing the first time and he went to Life Care Center.

I just wasn't able to manage his care by myself while I finished up school.

So he went to Life Care Center and became a resident there.

(birds chirping) ♪ PATTY HAYES: Last fall, I went down to meet with our Medicaid state agency, the Health Care Authority.

I said if we had a large outbreak, particularly with a homeless or nursing homes, I would not be ready to respond.

If we would have been paying attention to public health over the last 20 years, we would have been in a lot better space to respond to this.

♪ REPORTER: Seattle is the home of tech giants like Amazon and Microsoft.

It's also the site of the first coronavirus deaths here in the United States.

REPORTER: Health officials are especially concerned about a cluster of infections in Kirkland, that's a suburb of Seattle.

JENNY DURKAN: According to the World Health Organization, we are now in a global pandemic.

I truly believe that this outbreak may be one of the most transformative and consequential events that we've had in this region and in this country.

JAY INSLEE: By mid-May, we could be looking at over 60,000 people infected if we do not act.

There is a very successful effort that we can take to slow the spread of this disease.

And that's to reduce the social interactions that are not necessary in our lives.

REPORTER: - I'm sorry?

INSLEE: Yes, we are gonna have a minimum of $100 million available to protect our vulnerable, including people in our long-term care facilities and unsheltered people.

I want to thank you, be well, wash your hands, care for your family, thank you.

♪ HAYES: When the first case happened here in King County, everybody turned to us for advice and what we need in place in public health.

(elevator dings) It's empty.

(elevator chiming) Public health is the silent force that's working for the health of the community.

So we're often not seen, but we're a backstop to the safety net.

The public health efforts during this pandemic started with containment.

So we wanted people to physical distance, but also for very vulnerable people to stay at home.

Public health cares about everybody, of course, but particularly those communities that need our help and support through this.

CONSTANTINE: People who are homeless can't shelter in their own home.

They can't isolate.

They have nowhere to go.

We are all in this together and we need to figure out how to help everyone, including those who are least able to help themselves.

♪ CASEY BALLARD: I'm not really too worried about COVID-19.

It's just more the effects that it has on us getting housing.

Living in the car is definitely stressful.

We put... - My stuff in the very back.

(Stevie laughs) We just kind of have a little setup in here and we just basically every night will pick out clothes for Alexa, get her changed and it works.

We've got all our food and stuff back here too, so.

We got hooked up with Cars to Housing.

It's a program where they give you a safe place to park a car every night.

It takes a little bit of stress off of you, minus the homeless stress.

(chuckles) - How are you guys doing?

- (laughing): Good.

- Yeah?

Coronavirus, huh?

Today, we just need to fill out a budget just to kinda see exactly what's coming out of your pocket so that you can make some adjustments.

So, employment right now?

STEVIE: Oh, I'm still, I'm in training.

- Right, but you are, have you actually worked some hours at all?

- Mm-hm.

- Okay.

STEVIE: I've been working at Lice Spies, which is a lice removal service, about a month.

I absolutely love that job, but it's not a lot of hours.

TY: So, how much do you get in food stamps?

- $355.

TY: So right now, our projected income would be $826.50, okay?

If you even considering trying to get an apartment, we're talking about anywhere from $1,500 to $1,700.

(Stevie struggling) STEVIE: My tire decided to go completely down to the rim on me.

It was a $135 for them to come out.

And I'm like, "I don't have $135, I have like $30."

(sighs) Taking care of my family, taking care of housing, those are my major stressors.

You know, coronavirus, until it directly affects me, I really wanna stop hearing about it.

CONSTANTINE: We are at a critical moment in this crisis.

We're leaving the phase of COVID-19 outbreaks in concentrated areas of the county and we're entering the phase of potentially rapid and widespread infection.

Treat the next two weeks as a period of self-quarantine.

HAYES: We get the positive COVID tests in from the labs around eight in the evening.

Last night I was notified that one of our disease investigators, it's a nurse, had been one of the positives.

By the time I got to work this morning, there were ten who are out ill today out of my team.

It shows how vicious this virus is.

REPORTER: The Life Care Center in Kirkland remains at the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak.

So far, 22 people associated with the facility have died.

KATHERINE: When I heard that this outbreak was in the facility, my first thought was, "Oh, (beep)."

Hey, Pops.

My dad's quarantined in there, but he hasn't tested positive.

Can we take him out before he becomes positive?

You have basically like a wildfire happening.

And when the building's on fire, what do you do?

You get out.

(horn blaring) Well, we got the email last night.

Her school has now closed until the end of next month.

I have to figure out something to do during the day, and, you know, make sure she's taken care of.

It's not easy.

I do have a whole new respect for teachers, though, trying to get all these kids to do their work in class.

Do you have to answer these questions?

- I don't know.

- Or is it just... well, let's look.

HAYES: There was a huge discussion around the closure of schools.

Because of the unknowns around this virus, there's really intriguing questions about the role children play in this and the spread.

- (laughter) But also, public health is deeply concerned about the impact it has for families to stay at home.

KATHERINE: What's your song?

I mean, if all I had to do was stay home and home school, it'd be great.

But most of my days are really filled with phone calls and trying to get my dad what he needs, which he is not getting.

Is it possible for us to set up another call with him this afternoon?

They weren't testing everybody at first because they didn't have enough tests.

They called me back the next day and told me that he had tested positive.

HAYES: Would I have ever expected to be in the middle of a pandemic where the virus is so vicious and to have so many deaths here in Seattle?

It's horrifying.

So we're having to try and think of strategies to set up before we get so many people that the hospitals are overwhelmed like what we saw in Italy.

We are setting up what we're calling a recovery center.

Two large tents, one that will be where people will come as they're being tested and they're ill. And then the other tent where folks who have COVID can stay.

- This will be the first one of these anybody has done in the nation.

So we're breaking new ground.

But we have to break the ground fast.

(saw whirring) SHARON LEE: We are about to open 24 tiny houses for homeless men and women.

Many of the shelters, people are sleeping too close together.

If you're in a tiny house, you're automatically six feet apart.

Usually a village like this would take us like maybe three, four months.

But because of COVID-19, we were asked by the city of Seattle to set this up like in a week.

My overall fear is we're not doing enough.

Public health and the mayor are very much concerned about what's gonna happen if homeless people catch the virus.

But before the virus, we still had the same crisis.

LEO FLOR: There might be a progressive strategy where we start with something just basic, like temporary toilets, hand washing stations, but could sort of improve the sites sequentially.

CONSTANTINE: Congregate settings are a challenge.

And whether it's a homeless shelter or a nursing home, that is a place where once an infection gets started, it can spread very rapidly and with tragic results, as we saw at the nursing home in Kirkland.

♪ STEVE SEDLACEK: My dad took a fall and hit his head.

He was in here for rehab.

He's gonna be in here a couple weeks and then go back to where he lives.

And at this point, told us on Monday that he tested positive for coronavirus.

It just knocked the wind out of us.

He's in that room there and we go knock on the window and say hi through it and then they hold the phone up to him.

Hey, Dad!

Happy Monday.

- How are you doing?

CHUCK: Not bad.

STEVE: There's been 29 people that are dead from this place.

29 as of last night.

There should have been systems in place at Life Care that they could have prevented this from happening.

And to have it happen where 80% of all of the patients here get it?

Something's broken in the system.

KATHERINE: I have stood at the window asking for the specialist on the phone.

This virus is bad?

Yes.

Did all those people need to die?

No.

I worry, is my dad gonna get crappier care because they can't stand me because I'm such a thorn in their behind.

But I'm not gonna just go sit in a corner and cry about it.

No, I'm gonna fight.

♪ You took my spot.

Look at Pop-Pop.

- Hey Pops!

- Hey Pop.

KATHERINE: I see you got Steamboat Mickey.

- Oh yes.

KATHERINE: My dad was basically forced to stay in a burning building and become COVID-19 positive, and thus far he's been lucky enough not to die of that.

- (wheezing) BRADEN: Pops, are you okay?

KATHERINE: Can you breathe?

(Alan wheezing) They told me, "Well, you can discharge him."

To where?

No facility will take a COVID-positive patient.

The only place that will take them is the hospital when they progress to the point that they basically need to be put on a respirator.

- Pop-Pop, I love you.

- Pop-Pop, we love you.

I can't wait until you come out.

KATHERINE: You have a lot of laws that are supposed to be in place to protect people.

But what is the accountability?

If you're on the fringe, if you are a person without resources, you're screwed.

♪ HAYES: Even though it's impossible for a person of privilege to understand somebody who's experiencing homelessness, if you attempt to put yourself in their shoes, multiply that by 100.

That's the additional stressors with COVID coming in.

STEVIE: The clinic is closed right now due to all the coronavirus stuff going on.

You know, the income stopped and it's... honestly, it's just been one big struggle.

TY: There's some light at the end of this tunnel.

- Mm-hm.

- There may be a room that becomes available and you guys will be able to go into the shelter.

That is a possibility.

So just, you know, be encouraged in that aspect.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

I'm just-- I'm really stressed out, like really stressed out.

(sobbing): I'm scared.

Trying to maintain my family and get into housing and dealing with the COVID-19, it's... (sighs) It kinda feels like everything's just at a standstill.

HAYES: People don't know when life will begin again.

And just that unknown brings tremendous stress on people.

♪ BRADEN: Hi, Pop.

KATHERINE: You can hug him, it's okay.

He's officially testing negative.

Oh, finally, after like-- it's hard to hug you all bundled up burritoed.

It's good to see that maybe he is progressing, but I'm having a hard time trusting the system right now.

So much of this could have been avoided.

Our oversight agencies do not have the funding and resources that they need to do their job.

HAYES: That nursing home did not report to public health as is required when they started seeing an elevation in respiratory diseases.

It's clear there was a breakdown in reporting.

It's clear that the spread of COVID went faster than we realized.

So we have developed strike teams to go out on a very quick notice.

When we go into a nursing home, if there's a positive patient, we want to test everybody that is symptomatic and all staff so that we're separating folks that are symptomatic and not symptomatic.

When we go into a shelter, we will test everyone because of the high risk there.

(people talking in background) Ideally, everybody would be able to be tested.

But right now, testing has been limited.

So health care workers are such a vulnerable group that we want to make sure that testing is available as much as possible for them.

- Working on the floors, I see multiple people dying every day.

It's really hard, I'm really sad.

Some of us are getting sick.

Even with everything we're doing just because it's new, it's... you know, no one has immunity to it.

♪ (dog barking) - So this is gonna be your room.

- Oh wow, okay.

- Is this doable?

- No, this works.

- (laughs) - This is bigger than a car.

(laughter) - Oh, that's really nice.

You can stay back there.

(laughter) (laughing): I'm kidding.

This is awesome.

CHERI: So, we have shared restrooms.

There's a door here for the showers.

- Okay.

What will be going on in here is they're putting in beds and things like that.

STEVIE: Uh-huh.

Kinda like their own little clinic type thing?

- No, it's gonna be a quarantine area.

- Okay.

- In case people get sick.

STEVIE: Okay.

CHERI: These times are the most uncertain times that we have ever had in our lifetime.

So I just wanna recognize that if you know, you're having struggles, it's completely understandable.

♪ One of the things that impresses me about people who have experienced a lot of trauma is their resiliency.

Are they stressed?

Absolutely.

Are they worried?

Absolutely.

But they're putting their best foots forward and showing up for their kids, and that's amazing to me.

All I wanna do is take care of my little girl.

That's all I want.

Okay, knock it off.

- Is there a sticker on me?

- (laughs) Yeah.

She was excited to see the shelter, you know, excited to see the fact that we have somewhere to put our stuff and to sleep and it makes her happy.

So that's, that's what I want.

♪ HAYES: More and more of the modeling is showing that we may all be seeing a decrease in cases.

Public health has come up with ways of keeping people safe, but those are not permanent.

Those are meant for the COVID crisis.

Right now, we're looking still to help de-intensify homeless shelters, so we're trying to find facilities where we can get those people separated.

DELORES MACK: Most of our patient population are actually from homeless shelters.

And for the most part, if they have any needs, food, someone to talk to, we're here, we let them know 24/7.

MELISSA ESCOTO: I cried a lot when I found out I was positive.

It's really scary because you feel like you can't breathe and you don't know if it's your last day or not.

HAYES: Folks who are experiencing homelessness, we still don't have enough housing for them.

So when these folks are finished here and they're well, they might go back into the shelter again.

Why are they stepping up only now?

Cost of housing is high.

And then when you have an eviction, nobody wants to rent you.

You know, where are people gonna go?

What are they gonna do?

STEVIE: They're putting up shelters.

They're trying to help finally.

But when COVID-19's all gone, it's probably all gonna be gone.

LEE: The moment, like the absolute moment the crisis is over, all of homeless people are gonna be back on the street.

♪ HAYES: There's a huge emotional toll around all of this.

Public health is gonna actually need to be boosted here.

It's one of the reasons why I use my voice so very much.

We all have to remember this is just the first wave.

The virus is still there.

There will be a resurgence.

♪ MARTIN: As the death toll continues to rise, Pandemic in Seattle is a reminder of the crucial efforts and expertise of our public health workers.

Visit World Channel's YouTube, and go beyond the lens with executive producer Soledad O'Brien and director Rose Arce.

♪ ♪ ♪