County’s COVID-19 hotels are pockmarked with problems

SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – A recent investigation by Investigative Data Reporter Jill Castellano at inewsource into a San Diego County program providing shelter to people exposed to COVID-19 found several areas of concern in the program.

Hotels are used to house hundreds with COVID-19 who have nowhere else to go, but the inewsource investigation focused on the program’s main hotel, the Crown Plaza in Mission Valley.

Inewsource left with several key takeaways: a suicide at the Crowne Plaza was not found out until five days later; police have fielded hundreds of calls from the Crowne Plaza during the pandemic; multiple guests have claimed security guards harassed them; allegedly, the company running the program is disorganized and fails to train staff properly; and workers say county officials aren’t paying attention to the program.

Castellano joined KUSI to elaborate on the investigation’s findings.