Emergency Shelter

Definition and Overview

• Emergency Shelter means any facility with the primary purpose to provide a temporary shelter for people experiencing homelessness. Emergency Shelter, also known as shelter, provides a safe place for those experiencing homelessness to stay temporarily. Emergency Shelter guests do not sign leases or occupancy agreements and are not charged rent.
• In addition to providing a safe space and connecting guests to housing and services, Emergency Shelter is designed to reduce the harm associated with unsheltered homelessness, such as frostbite, exposure, victimization, violence, exploitation, and trauma.
• Length of shelter stay varies depending on shelter type, as well as the shelter’s policies and procedures. Rather than using a standard or pre-determined length of stay for all guests, it is a best practice to base length of stay on person-centered metrics for how long households need to resolve housing barriers; the individualized approach is more likely to result in positive exits from shelter to housing. 
• The goal of Emergency Shelter is to end homelessness by connecting shelter guests to housing and the supportive services they need to maintain housing. In general, Emergency Shelter falls into three categories (day shelter, overnight shelters, and navigation campuses): 
  • Day Shelters provide a place for persons experiencing homelessness to gather during the day but do not provide sleeping accommodations. Day Shelters’ primary purpose is to provide temporary, safe shelter for people experiencing homelessness, such as through welcoming guests to stay at the facility for as many hours as it is open. 
  • Overnight Shelters are typically categorized as congregate or non-congregate. 
    • Congregate Shelters typically include cots, bunks, mattresses, or other arrangements in a room or series of rooms with limited private space. Congregate Shelters generally present higher risk for the spread of airborne illnesses and may be less trauma-informed.
    • Non-Congregate Shelters include separate sleeping areas or rooms for guests. Non-congregate Shelters generally present lower risk for the spread of airborne illnesses and may be more trauma-informed, if implemented effectively.
    • The most effective Emergency Shelters maximize access to shelter, such as operating 24/7 Shelters and ensuring shelters are as low-barrier as possible. Low-barrier refers to removing barriers that prevent the target population from accessing a particular service or program. For example, spaces that do not require guests to relinquish their pets or that increase flexible hours of access are generally considered lower-barrier compared to others.  
  • Navigation Campuses are service-enriched facilities focused on moving individuals and families into permanent housing options by providing shelter spaces and other services. “Navigation” means outreach, engagement, and connections with persons experiencing homelessness to the services, medical care, and housing opportunities necessary to exit homelessness and secure safe, stable housing as quickly as possible. “Campus” may include a single building or multiple buildings that are not part of one enclosed space. To be considered a campus, different buildings or different spaces within a building must be part of the same holistic programming and connected to one another in regards to the services and mission. The different buildings should also not be so far separated from each other that they are unable to work together as one central navigation campus, despite not being contiguous.
• Shelters that incorporate isolation or quarantine space, as needed, can help ensure guests do not lose access to their shelter bed and services if they contract COVID-19 or other communicable diseases. 
• Staffing best practices at any type of Emergency Shelter include maintaining a staff-to-participant ratio of no less than one case manager for every 20-to-30 households (i.e., a 1:20 through 1:30 case management ratio). As much as possible, shelters should maintain additional staff (not only case managers) who focus on housing resources, such as case conferencing, housing navigation, landlord outreach and mediation, and other housing-focused services needed to create permanent housing exits for guests. Additionally, shelters may consider operating a robust peer program that complements case management and housing staff, but that does not count toward the 1:20 or 1:30 ratio. 
• As with all programs, staffing structure and model should center lived experiences of homelessness and related systems, and hiring peers when possible. Shelters may consider hiring nurses, clinicians, and other clinical or specialty professionals, but only if the program cannot secure the staffing through existing medical programs or partnerships as these positions can often be funded through Medicaid or other insurance or services funding.

Program Parameters

Supportive Services

• Essential services: Efforts to provide supportive services to those who are in an Emergency Shelter. These services include finding housing options that resolve guests’ homelessness as quickly as possible. Efforts include (i) housing search and placement and navigation, such as activities to assist guests to locate and obtain housing; (ii) housing stability case management, such as assessing, coordinating, and delivering individualized services to obtain housing, developing case management plans, and support groups; (iii) legal services necessary to resolve a legal problem that prohibits the guest participant from obtaining permanent housing; (iv) services for physical health care, mental health care, behavioral health care, and other medical care; (v) implementing and maintaining diversion programming; and (vi) other reasonable and necessary costs that help resolve a household’s homelessness, including but not limited to child care and transportation.
• Educational, vocational, and work-based learning opportunities: Efforts to connect individuals and families with educational, vocational, and work-based learning opportunities that resolve the individual’s homelessness as quickly as possible. Shelters may consider creating or connecting to peer mentoring programs and hiring peer mentors with lived expertise of homelessness to work in the shelter and contribute to program design or improvement. 
• Recovery care and related residential programs: Efforts to connect program participants to community resources that offer recovery care and related residential programs, including transportation to those services.

Operations

• Operations: Efforts related to maintenance (including minor or routine repairs), rent, security, fuel, equipment, insurance, utilities, food, furnishings, and supplies necessary for the operation of the Emergency Shelter.
• Grant Activities: Efforts focused on administering a specific grant or funding source may improve effective operations, as well as effective program implementation. Such efforts include planning and executing program activities, such as (i) general program or grant management, oversight, coordination, monitoring, and evaluation; (ii) salaries, wages, and related costs related to preparing program budgets; developing systems for ensuring compliance with grant requirements; developing interagency agreements; and preparing reports and other required documents or activities; (iii) accounting or other services; and (iv) other reasonable and necessary goods and services required to implement the grant program, such as evaluating program results against stated objectives, occupancy costs, and training on program requirements. 

Expected Outcomes

• Outcomes typically focus on housing outcomes, such as increased exits to permanent housing; decreased length of stay in shelter before exiting to permanent housing; increased rates of housing being secured and retained, including reduced returns to homelessness; and homelessness diversion (e.g., providing an immediate and safe housing alternative for those who present at the shelter and are able to avoid needing to enter the shelter and homelessness response system). Other targets may relate to low-barrier sheltering and accessibility (e.g., less than 5% of guests should receive a ban from shelter, with goals of 100% of guests seeking services still being able to access them) and connections to other services, such as community resources and benefits acquisition.