Dolores Street Community Services

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REPORT FINDS “STAY OVER PROGRAM”
SUCCESSFUL IN HELPING HOMELESS FAMILIES

The Controller’s Office evaluation found the overnight shelter at Buena Vista Horace Mann School provides families experiencing homelessness with a safe place to sleep at night, especially families who are Latino and speak Spanish, and has successfully connected families to housing resources.

KEY FINDINGS
· SOP served 59 SFUSD families in its first 11 months, or 193 individuals. Most families stayed overnight.
· 66% of families connected through the Stay Over Program were not previously connected to the City’s Homelessness Response System.
· After SOP opened to all SFUSD students in April 2019, overnight occupancy increased significantly, reaching a monthly average occupancy of 65%, up from an average 5% before April.
· 95% of SOP families were assessed at an Access Point, where families can access the system of care and available resources.
· Nearly two-thirds of SOP families have exited from the program to their next placement on the path to secure housing. Six families are renting their own place.
· The SOP is highly cost-effective. Compared to a similar family shelter in San Francisco, the Stay Over Program has a 21% lower cost per bed per night ($34.51 vs $43.60).

“All of us at Dolores Street Community Services are proud of the extensive and strong collaborative case manage del that we have built in partnership with the Department of Homelessness and the school district for SOP families,” said Laura Valdez, Executive Director of Dolores Street Community Services, the non-profit organization that runs the Stay Over Program. “We are humbled by the resilience of the families at the Stay Over Program and their determination to have an exit out of homelessness. Yesterday, one of our families who had been at the SOP for several months, a grandmother raising her young granddaughter, received the keys to their new apartment. We can’t forget that homelessness is a traumatic event in a child's life that has an impact on their education, health, sense of safety, and overall development. As we move forward the work of the Stay Over Program, we will continue to center the right of every child to have a home.”

Read the full report here:

Controller: Report Page

https://missionlocal.org/2019/08/the-difference-one-woman-makes-in-the-lives-of-homeless-and-housing-insecure-children/

The difference one woman makes in the lives of homeless and housing-insecure children - Mission Local Meet the woman who puts the family in Buena Vista Horace Mann school's family shelter . Coverage all week. The scene that unfolds