For those who haven’t experienced it, the shelter access system is hard to understand at best. For those who are accessing the shelters on a daily basis, it is a constant struggle to make a reservation for a bed, keep it, and work on getting out of it to find some kind of affordable housing.

The way the system is currently set up, shelter clients have to go through a rigorous process run by a computer database called CHANGES (Coordinated Homeless Assessment of Needs through Guidance and Effective Services). Unfortunately, there is little guidance, less coordination, and the system is hardly effective at meeting people’s needs.

The process starts anywhere from 2 to 4 a.m. in order to be in line for a reservation station that will open up at 7 a.m. out of one of the seven locations that are available. No, they do not wait in line at the shelter in order to get a bed. Three out of seven of the reservation stations are shelters but they can only refer clients to other shelters and not their own. The majority of these locations are located in the Tenderloin. There is one in the Mission, and one in the Bayview.

Shelters are located in these neighborhoods, as well as South of Market, but there is no guarantee that a person will end up at the shelter they had hoped for, and they could have to trek to the other side of the city just to make curfew. Muni tokens are supposed to be available for a shelter resident to get from one place to another, but just ask anyone who’s tried to get a bed: this is rarely if ever the case.

If a shelter client is lucky, they will receive a seven-night stay after their long wait from the previous day. They would then have to ask for two extensions for a total of 21 days, and then they would most likely request a “case management” bed which would then give them a longer stay—anywhere from 3-6 months, depending on the shelter. If one does not receive a seven-night stay, they have the option of waiting for a few rounds of bed “releases” in the evening for a possible 1-night stay. The beds are released into the CHANGES system when a shelter client does not make their curfew or when they are not in their bed when one of two bed checks are conducted.

So let’s recap: if you do not have a place to stay at night and are in need of a shelter bed, the first step is to find the closest reservation station, the second step is to meet the eligibility requirements by signing a consent form which shares your information within the system, your fingerprint, Social Security number, and a digital photo image. The third step is to wait in the resource center for a possible one-night stay. If none is available, camp out in line that night or early in the morning to wait for a seven-night stay. Fourth step, ask for two seven-night extensions, but make sure to ask before your stay expires, or else you will have to start all over again! Fifth step, ask for a “case management” bed which is supposed to give you access to a case manager who will help you find housing or employment as well as make referrals which would then give you a longer term stay anywhere from 3-6 months. Unfortunately, many of the case managers have too large a caseload to properly see individuals on a regular basis, so many people do not even know who their case managers are or when to make an appointment.

Confused yet? It’s about to get even more difficult: On July 1, there are going to be major changes to CHANGES: There will no longer be any long-term stays at the shelters because the case management beds will not exist. Clients will have to go through the same rigorous process outlined above, but will only be able to receive a maximum stay of 88-90 days before returning to the resource center to start all over again. They will have to request a seven-night stay, and then extend it three times for a total of 28 days. They will then have to return to a resource center if they want another seven-night stay. If they want to continue to stay at the shelter for any length of time, they must submit a service plan/goals sheet that will outline their exit from homelessness in order to be approved for a one-month stay, and then if they are following their plan they will receive another extension for one month. This will be up to the discretion of the shelter staff. It is yet to be determined who that will be.

A client will be able to receive help from a case manager to write their service plan if a case manager is available. The thing is, because of the economy, shelter hours are going to be changing to cut costs. They will only be operating during the evening, and it is not clear when case managers will hold their hours. According to the Human Services Agency draft, “case management/referral services would be made available during the evenings for clients in by curfew but prior to lights out,” which makes no sense whatsoever because referral services should be made when hours of operation for those referrals are open. There is also not a lot of time between curfew, dinner, and bed checks before “lights out.” Apparently, there will be a roving team of case managers who will follow clients from shelter to shelter, but there are as yet no details as to how the process will work.

As of February 1, these changes have come into effect at two shelters. Already there has been chaos and confusion as to how the process works and the negative effects it has had on clients. From managers to supervisors to frontline staff, there is a different answer as to what is going on. Those who are already in 3- or 6-month stays are supposed to be able to finish out their stays, but if they happen to miss curfew one night, their bed is released and the remainder of their stay has been lost in the system. Staff is already overburdened, and the added time to extend stays at the front desk is taking time away from addressing clients’ needs. In the old system, when a shelter resident’s 3- or 6-month stay is up, they are not allowed to stay at that same shelter right away. In this new system, a person should be able to return to a 7-night stay at any of the shelters. This is not currently happening, so residents have less opportunity to reserve a bed.

Why are these changes taking place without comprehensive, formal input from clients, frontline staff, and homeless advocates?

lindsayparkinson

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 1st, 2009 at 12:05 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.