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FAQ's
Q. What's the difference between Emergency and Transitional shelter?
A. Emergency shelter programs offer short term housing for people who have become homeless due to an emergency situation. The goal is to stabilize their situation on a short-term basis by helping them gain access to the available resources they may need such as financial assistance, clothing needs, food pantries, etc. Transfer into a transitional shelter program may be appropriate to provide them with longer-term assistance back to self-sufficiency.The length of stay in an emergency shelter may be up to two weeks. Transitional shelter programs offer facilities for the homeless designed to meet their longer term temporary housing needs and to help them gain access to longer term human services assistance such as financial counseling, legal assistance, job skills training, mental health services, etc. The goal of a transitional program is for participants to regain self-sufficiency. The typical length of stay is over 30 days and less than 2 years.
Q. Why Does the Alliance have a transitional shelter and not an emergency shelter?
A. Our primary goal is to keep families together either by preventing homelessness or by providing longer-term shelter with the goal of returning families to permanent housing. We do not want to duplicate emergency services rendered by such agencies as the Salvation Army, Red Cross, Response, Inc. and often friends and family members. We concentrate our efforts by providing longer term shelter to assist families, as a unit, back to self-sufficiency.
Q. Why shouldn't the County Farm be used as both an emergency and transitional shelter?
A. HUD strongly urges that emergency shelters and transitional shelters be operated separately due to the liabilities and unsafe conditions that could arise by mixing people in unstable situations with people who are in a long term program.
Q. How would a family who may benefit from either your Prevention Program or your Transitional Housing Program get into your programs?
A. They are usually referred to us by any number of agencies or organizations such as the Dept of Social Services, Salvation Army, Red Cross, Pastors from various churches, landlords, etc. In any case, potential participants call the office and set an appointment for an interview. During the course of this visit, they discuss their needs and what they see as possible solutions. We explain our programs to them and answer any questions they may have. If they decide to participate, we check references that they provide in order to determine whether or not our assistance will be beneficial and effective. The results of this interview, information from references and police checks are then used to make a decision.