‘The Covid Hotel Welcomes You to the Future’ is performed by Stephanie Bell, Henriëtte Brouwers, John Malpede, Richard Volis, Iron Donato, Leyla Martinez, Tom Grode, Jaiye Kamson, ToneTone Taylor and Lorraine Morland.

Adversity Generates Innovation
A series of panel discussions kicked off at the Museum on Wednesday, March 27, 2024.

Featuring Dr. Jennifer Sudarsky, M.D., who served as Medical Director of the QI sites from April 2021 until their closure in June 2022; with Marissa Axelrod, RN and Alternative Healing Practitioner, who was one of the first staff at the original QI site; Dr. Emily Thomas, Star Clinic Medical Director, Housing for Health; and Soma Snakeoil, Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Sidewalk Project, which improvised responses to help people living on the streets survive the pandemic. The panel was moderated by Clancey Cornell, a clinical social worker and member of LAPD’s archive staff whose interviews are featured in the exhibition.

Housing is Healthcare (Part 1)
April 11, 2024

Panel/conversation with Heidi Behforouz, MD Chief Medical Officer, Housing For Health, LA County Department of Health Services, Angi Enriquez, RN, PHN, Permanent Supportive Housing Supervisor, Housing For Health LA County Department of Health Services, and Steve Diaz, Skid Row activist. moderated by Clancey Cornell, a clinical social worker and member of LAPD’s archive staff whose interviews are featured in the exhibition.

“Housing is Healthcare (Part 1)” is intended to highlight the experiences of frontline workers involved with LA County’s Quarantine and Isolation (QI) sites during the COVID-19 pandemic and to explore lessons learned about how to expeditiously place and maintain homeless individuals successfully in housing. Key topics include housing placement and retention strategies, Housing First successes and failures, anticipating post-placement challenges, the role of permanent supportive housing on the housing continuum, best practices for ongoing support, and markers of successful transition, including measurement criteria and anticipatory strategies.

Housing is Healthcare (Part 2)
May 22, 2024

The panel will feature LA County’s Quarantine and Isolation (QI) site staff, Tina Juarez, mental health clinician (Department of Mental Health), Bianca Martinez, social worker (First to Serve). Joining them in conversation is Molly Rysman, Housing for Health (LA County Department of Health Services), who is a principle in envisioning and realizing the Skid Row Community Action Plan. Moderated by Clancey Cornell, a clinical social worker and member of LAPD’s archive staff whose interviews are featured in the exhibition.

The conversation, Housing is Healthcare (Part 2) is intended to highlight the experiences of frontline workers involved with LA County’s Quarantine and Isolation (QI) sites during the COVID-19 pandemic and to explore how best practices of the QI sites can and are being implemented to provide needed healthcare to houseless people and how the provision of healthcare is an opportunity to get people housed. The QI model brought medical professionals, mental health professionals and social workers together to save lives, provide needed treatment for untreated conditions beyond Covid, and to find post-quarantine housing placement for patients.

The lessons learned have not been lost and are being integrated into new initiatives. The focus of this conversation will be to articulate best practices, explore how they are stimulating new initiatives and to imagine how medical Triage sites, building on the Quarantine and Isolation Site model can be realized throughout the county.

COVID CONFIDENTIAL – The Nuts and Bolts of Operating a QI Site and the Impact of It
October 16, 2024
This presentation by Eric Espinosa, former Director of the Quarantine and Isolation Medical Shelters, unpacks the logistical details of what’s required to run a recuperative healthcare site. Espinosa’s talk reveals the financial—cost saving!—realities and lessons learned from the QI program, and the ways the QI playbook is informing efforts to improve healthcare and provide housing for our community’s most vulnerable citizens.

GOING FORWARD – Best Practices from the Covid Medical Shelters Being Implemented Now
October 22, 2024
This conversation spotlights programs that are taking new approaches to supportive housing and healthcare access. The panel features Dr. Shayan Rab, Associate Medical Director, LA County Department of Mental Health (DMH), who was dubbed “LA’s First Street Psychologist” by the LA Times. Dr. Rab will share his vision behind DMH’s Homeless Outreach and Mobile Engagement (HOME Team), which takes to the streets to reach people experiencing chronic unsheltered homelessness and who have profound mental health needs. Also featured is Victoria Onwualu, Director of Housing and Health Programs, Wesley Health Centers + JWCH Institute, who oversees the JWCH Safe Landing Site program she at the Cecil Hotel, and Gabriela Ramirez manager of the Interim Housing Outreach Program (IHOP).

Reimagining Healthcare For Our Homeless Community
January 25, 2025, at CASA 01010, in Boyle Heights.

Following the performance a panel discussion features Molly Rysman, from LA County Department of Health Services (DHS) Housing for Health; Dr. Karla Gonzalez, MD, MPH, Medical Director of Urgent Care, LA Medical Center and Medical Director, The Wellness Center; Lorenzo Antonio Gonzalez, MD MPL, Mobile Clinic Program, DHS; and Jennifer Sudarsky, M.D., former Medical Director of LA County’s Quarantine & Isolation (aka. “Covid Hotel”) sites. The conversation will be moderated by Sara Fetherolf, LAPD’s Public Programs and Engagement Specialist/ACLS Leading Edge postdoctoral fellow.

Reimagining Healthcare For Our Homeless Community
February 4, 2025 at Hope on HydePark

Panel discussion with Denise Davidosky, Intensive Services Manager, Occupational Therapy Training Program, Special Service for Groups at Hope on Hyde Park; Mary MacAdam, MPA, Homeless Services Program Manager at Clínica Monseñor Oscar A. Romero and Gabriella Sehwani, OTR/L, Occupational Therapist SSG/OTTP.