LOS ANGELES – Anxiety mounted every time someone at the homeless shelter sneezed or residents got too close.
For Matthew Padilla, a 34-year-old with a pacemaker and asthma, catching the novel coronavirus would likely mean death. So he jumped at the chance to move into a hotel room for free as part of a new California program.
Within days, he and his husband, Nito, were in a room near Los Angeles' Koreatown, where meals are delivered along with health screenings. “At the shelter I was constantly getting up, checking on him,” said Nito Padilla, 36. “And here I know he’s safe.
I know he’s OK.” The Padillas are among roughly 7,000 people in California who have been moved out of shelters, vehicles and rough streets to ride out the pandemic in