Homeless shelter

Homeless shelter

Homeless shelters are temporary residences for homeless people. Usually located in urban neighborhoods, they are similar to emergency shelters. The primary difference is that homeless shelters are usually open to anyone, without regard to the reason for need. Some shelters limit their clientele by gender or age.


Conditions of use

In the United States, most homeless shelters expect clients to stay elsewhere during the day, returning only to sleep, or if the shelter also provides meals, to eat; people in emergency shelters are more likely to stay all day, except for work, school, or errands. Some homeless shelters, however, are open 24 hours a day.

There are daytime-only homeless shelters, where the homeless can go when they cannot stay inside at their night-time sleeping shelter during the day. Such an early model of a daytime homeless shelter providing multi-faceted services is Saint Francis House in Boston, Massachusetts.


Management and funding

Homeless shelters are usually operated by a non-profit agency, a municipal agency, or associated with a church. Many get at least part of their funding from local government entities. Shelters can sometimes be referred to as "human warehouses".


Services

Homeless shelters sometimes also provide other services, such as a soup kitchen, job seeking skills training, job training, job placement, support groups, and/or substance (i.e., drugs and/or alcohol) abuse treatment. If they do not offer any of these services, they can usually refer their clients to agencies that do.


Controversy

There has been concern about the transmission of diseases in the homeless population housed in shelters, and the people who work there, especially with Tuberculosis. [1]

A question has been raised as to just how much money donated to the charities which run the shelters actually gets to the homeless person and the needed services. In many cases, there is a large overhead in administrative costs which compromise the money for their homeless clients.[2]


Different models

An example of a homeless shelter which does not fit the usual model is Raphael House, a shelter for homeless parents and children, which has been operating in the Tenderloin, San Francisco, California since 1971 and was the first such shelter in that city.


See also

Penny sit-up


External links

Directory of homeless shelter directories from Information Resources for the Homeless (in the U.S.)