The SF Department of Public Health disclosed this protocol document to me last week in a response to a records request. It’s dated May 30, 2020 and appears to be a working document about health rules for reopening and expanding congregate shelters, where people share indoor air.

[Update 8/6/20: I received these two additional documents, both with material from late June 2020, as part of a records response provided by HSH yesterday. While they don’t make current testing and congregate policy fully clear, they do help with understanding how policy thinking has been developing about testing and precautions in congregate shelters:

There has clerly been a lot of careful thinking and talking since May. Intentions and outcomes aren’t the same thing. The shelters still frankly sound scary to stay in. But this is helpful to see.

Text below here refers to the May 30 document:]

The text of the [May 30] document suggests it isn’t final, and it isn’t clear if shelter staff are following these principles currently — but as far as this document goes, it’s worrying. Advocates who work more directly with shelters note two worries: (1) the screening provisions do not include a call for testing on entry to shelters, and (2) the plan calls for shelters to place people categorized as having recovered from the virus together with people who are categorized as COVID-negative.

I’m trying to imagine living under conditions where it’s at least prudent, and sometimes even required, to wear a mask all the time, even to sleep. Not in a jail. Not as punishment for crime. As a consequence of the state of the housing market and the fading of San Francisco’s efforts to provide individual living spaces to people in need.