Emergency Shelter is an important part of the homeless system of care. But in a Housing First system, shelter by itself is not a goal. Instead, shelter must be seen as a pathway to housing.
Marin County is proud to team up with Homeward Bound of Marin and Marin Community Foundation to transform the Mill Street Emergency Shelter into Housing-Focused Shelter.
Working Toward Housing
Homeward Bound is retraining their staff and hiring a new housing-focused case manager to help all clients with individual housing plans. Clients will be required to work on their housing plans to continue to stay in the shelter.
For some clients, this will mean working on employment and financial planning to be able to live independently. For others, this will mean working with a case manager to get the documents and diagnoses necessary to get into permanent supportive housing.
Removing Barriers
In the old Mill Street shelter, clients had to:
- Pay a daily fee
- Leave every morning
- Call in to reserve their spot every day
The new Mill Street will be open 24 hours a day to allow clients to work on their housing plans and clients will no longer have to pay the daily fee. However, clients will have to be actively working on their housing plans to stay.