COVID Testing Brings More Resources to HOPE SF Communities

I arrive at Hunters View this afternoon, where the South of Market Health Center is on day three of COVID19 testing to ensure that San Francisco’s most vulnerable communities are healthy and safe. Friday is food bank day, too, so the feeling is festive. Music is playing. A few tables are set up with food, some tables have clipboards and signup sheets, and other tables contain swabs and testing equipment. Jugs of hand sanitizer, standard equipment by now, are prominent on all of the tables. Everyone is wearing a mask and gloves. PeeJay and Rose Marie, residents of Hunters View, are sweeping up a giant pile of empty boxes, bags, and wrappers—the debris from the food bank that served hundreds of households earlier today. I say a quick hello and congratulations—today was supposed to be City College graduation day for PeeJay and Rose Marie—a huge accomplishment worthy of celebration, but instead, they are pushing a broom and supporting their community in the middle of a pandemic.

Residents are lined up waiting to get swabbed for the COVID19 virus – they are standing 6 feet apart while filling out their forms. The sun is shining. It feels good to be outside surrounded by a sense of community and excitement in the air. In a little while, Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Shamann Walton will arrive and get tested to demonstrate how simple and safe it is. There is a lot of stigma around testing in HOPE SF communities. I talk to Elonda, who lives in the neighborhood and just took her test. She tells me that residents are worried the swab will reach all the way to the back of their heads and hurt, but she reassures me, “it just tickled my nose a little.” I learn that 92 people at Hunters View were tested today, for a total of 180 tested over the past three days. Everyone who got tested also got a care package of household cleaning supplies, masks, and hand sanitizers.

In recent weeks, San Francisco began to understand who is most vulnerable and where the Corona Virus is most severe. Data revealed that neighborhoods like the Tenderloin, the Mission, the Bayview, and Visitacion Valley—isolated and historically disinvested neighborhoods, where families have less access to healthy food, struggle to afford housing, lack healthcare, or don’t have citizenship—carry a heavier burden of positive cases. COVID19 testing in the Mission District recently revealed that half the people who tested positive had no symptoms. Supervisor Walton told us today, “Mayor Breed and I are getting tested to stress the importance of asymptomatic testing. I have been fighting for weeks to bring testing to our communities so we can apply our resources to those most impacted. We are working hard to increase testing throughout District 10 to look out for our communities.”

Simone, the nurse who tested us, tells me how much she appreciates the community leaders for their outreach and help all day, “We would not have been able to do this without their partnership.” It’s immediately apparent how the community has come together to care for one another. Residents of Hunters View have been working tirelessly, providing a stunning amount of support and compassion. For months, they have distributed food door to door, calmed people’s fears, and helped people apply for rent relief. Today, they set up the food bank, organized and coordinated the care packages, and assisted people as they lined up for testing. Resident leaders have displayed resilience, composure, kindness, and collaboration.

I get tested, and it doesn’t hurt at all. Then I watch Simone test the Mayor. Another friendly clinician tells me, “Please spread the word. Tell everyone it’s easy. We don’t want the stigma or fear of the test to keep people away.”

Written by Ellie Rossiter, Partnership Director