(Photo by Randy Laybourne / Unsplash)
This story was originally published in Real Estate for Good, a newsletter focused on how real estate is about humans – not buildings and money.
Shelters are one of the most contentious topics in the homeless services sector, but a new crop of models seeks to change that paradigm.
Homeless shelters have long been criticized as a means of warehousing people who are homeless rather than providing them with a pathway to stable housing. Some unhoused folks have said they experienced violence, sexual abuse and other traumatizing experiences while in shelters. Some advocates have also chided the traditional shelter model for creating high-barrier, treatment-first programs that exclude more unhoused folks than they help.
“Everybody who became unhoused experienced some kind of trauma, and then by the time they get to the shelter, they’ve experienced multiple additional traumas and mental illness challenges – all those kinds of things that happen when someone is homeless,” says Lena Miller, founder and CEO of Urban Alchemy, a homeless services nonprofit based in San Francisco. “And so, I looked at the shelters and said to myself, ‘This would drive somebody crazy.’”
Miller, who has a doctorate in clinical psychology, has been working on homeless services for more than three decades. She says the traditional shelter model was poorly designed from the outset. For example, shelters often focus on serving the most people, and secondarily consider the quality of care that guests receive. Shelters also often re-traumatize people who live on the streets through poor design, negative staff interactions and the quality of the living environment, Miller argues.
The re-traumatizing aspect is one reason why some people who are homeless avoid traditional shelters. The Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated that trend because many shelters provide shared living spaces with many people sleeping in a single room, according to research from the UC Berkeley Terner Center for Housing.
There is also not enough shelter space for everyone who needs it. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness’ 2025 State of Homelessness Report, 61% of states did not have enough shelter beds to serve their local homeless population.
These challenges make the shelter system ripe for innovation, according to Miller. And it seems like officials in multiple cities agree.
A focus on wellness
Urban Alchemy is one organization working to change the paradigm about homeless shelters. The organization, which was founded in 2018, operates three shelters, which it calls “Wellness Campuses,” in cities spanning from San Francisco, California, to Portland, Oregon, and Austin, Texas. In all, more than 1,300 people live at Urban Alchemy’s wellness campuses on a given night, Miller says.
Miller says Urban Alchemy has been “piecing together” the wellness campuses they open in each location to meet the needs of their local guests. For instance, the campus in San Francisco created an intern program for doctoral psychology students to offer individual therapy sessions to guests. They also offer access to various workshops and classes that can help people learn new skills, Miller says. Guests can also access case management services and housing vouchers at the campuses.
“The very first shelter we built became the most popular shelter among the unhoused,” Miller says. “The [Homeless Outreach Team] would talk to people, and they wouldn’t accept shelter unless they would go there because it was clean and it was safe.”
The patio at Urban Alchemy’s Clinton Triangle Wellness Center in Portland, Oregon. (Photo courtesy Urban Alchemy)
The focus on wellness is what sets Urban Alchemy’s model apart from other shelters, Miller adds. That includes offering programming that not only provides housing but also addresses other issues, from employment to personal relationships. As the organization expands, Miller says she plans to standardize the model.
“We want to be the Four Seasons of shelters,” Miller says. “We believe there should be competition around that, so that everyone is trying to make the best shelter, to be innovative and have some enthusiasm and creativity around an area that nobody seems to really care about, or hasn’t seemed to.”
Community embrace
A group of three churches in the St. Paul, Minnesota area is working together to provide new shelter opportunities to people who are chronically homeless.
Known as the Sacred Settlement Mosaic, the six-home tiny home village has four homes reserved for people who are chronically homeless and who have suffered a catastrophic loss of family, according to its website. The other two homes are reserved for people who are not homeless but wish to build an “intentional family” with those who live at the settlement.
“Collectively, religiosity owns a lot of land, and they don’t pay taxes,” St. Paul resident Seanne Thomas told The Minnesota Star Tribune. “What better use of all of their real estate than to embrace and shelter those who are experiencing chronic homelessness?”
The focus on “intentionally” rebuilding connections with the local community is what sets the settlement apart from other shelter models. Shelters can help individuals overcome personal challenges they face, but they rarely help people who are homeless rebuild relationships with their community. Sacred Settlement Mosaic turns that paradigm on its head with the permanent presence of intentional neighbors who work with people exiting homelessness to maintain the village.
Sacred Settlement Mosaic. (Photo courtesy Mosaic Community Church)
This model, described by experts as the “Full Community Model,” could help people who are homeless overcome feelings of social isolation and loneliness. Research shows can lead to worse mental and physical health outcomes, thereby making it more difficult for an individual to exit homelessness.
“That’s what makes the difference between someone who’s able to transition out of homelessness and someone who gets stuck there and becomes chronically homeless,” settlement founder Gabrielle Clowdus told the outlet.
Jr McNeely, who spent more than a decade homeless, told the newspaper that the settlement shifted his perspective on how the local community saw him.
“I totally changed my whole perspective,” McNeely told the Star Tribune. “I thought they were just judging me and stuff, listening to the negative voices. Now that I’ve opened up more and let them get closer, I know they’re here to help me.”
Targeted approach
San Francisco officials are also developing a new way to address the city’s shortage of available shelter beds.
Shelters are often located on the edge of cities for several reasons, like restrictive zoning policies and land costs. These factors can also contribute to local opposition against shelters by isolating shelter locations to a few neighborhoods, which often tend to have a high concentration of low-income households. Local opposition is the primary challenge for cities face in expanding their shelter capacity.
San Francisco Supervisor Bilal Mahmood has introduced legislation that could help the city expand its bed capacity without asking neighborhoods like South of Market and the Tenderloin to carry the burden.
The bill, known as the “One City Shelter Act,” requires the city to publish a biennial report about which neighborhoods are meeting their shelter needs. Neighborhoods that are not meeting their shelter needs would receive more city funding to expand their capacity than neighborhoods that have enough shelter space.
It would also revise some of the zoning restrictions that make it difficult to build shelters. For example, it would require new shelters to be 300 feet away from existing ones, whereas the current code requires them to be at least 1,000 feet apart.
“This is a commitment to new neighborhoods that are going to help their unhoused neighbors come indoors,” Mahmood told local news station KQED in July. “We’re not going to put multiple shelters on the same block.”
This post was originally published on Next City.