Animal Welfare Professionals

I'm an editor for Animal Sheltering magazine seeking shelters with programs that offer short term housing for people's pets while they are homeless/sick/otherwise temporarily unable to house or care for their pets. I'd love to hear from anyone who has a program like this and potentially feature them in our Winter issue. Thanks in advance!

We do! It's very limited, since we are a small facility and do not receive any funding for it (which we would love some!), but we have a "Continued Care" program in which we house animals for individuals that are temporarily homeless, victims of domestic violence, hospitalized, etc. www.humanesocietyofpinellas.org

Thanks for responding! That's great! Would you mind PMing me contact info for the best person I can reach out to about your program? (Looks like it's emergency boarding/pet resources?)

This is definitely an major area of need in our communities - I would love to see how something like this could be set up at my org.

Hi! I'd love to know what you're seeing in your communities. What kinds of issues are popping up that temporary housing situations for pets could alleviate? Anything in particular?

We get calls from folks who are going into rehab, temporarily homeless, or needing to complete a medical procedure of their own. These folks are not looking to surrender, but only need temporary help.

We have a program for survivors of domestic violence. We partner with a local domestic violence shelter and provide temporary placement for the animal while the survivor finds permanent housing. You can contact our Associate Director, Michelle, for more information. Michelle@cmhspets.org

Thanks so much!

Hi! Yes, we have our Good Neighbor Program. We partner with homeless, domestic violence, and other human service organizations to offer temporary shelter to pets during times of crisis and transition. www.hsccvt.org/Good-Neighbor-Program 

You can contact Cynthia Harris Cole, Animal Care Manager at cynthiahc@hsccvt.org.

Thank you!

We have a relationship with the local domestic violence shelter as well! We will keep pets for up to 60 days with no fees so they can find housing etc.

Toronto Humane Society offers 'Urgent Foster Care' which covers these sort of situations. Please feel free to reach out: lnagelberg@torontohumanesociety.com

We have a partnership with local boarding facility. They allow us to board, at no cost, pets of people facing temporary life crisis (domestic violence, medical&rehabilitation, homelessness etc). By boarding outside the shelter we do not take precious shelter space and can keep pet's location confidential (very important for domestic violence cases). In exchange, we provide marketing value to the boarding facility. JHS provides vaccines and s/n prior to boarding the pet(s) too. 

Hi Larisa, do you ask for proof of income for your program? I'm just curious how other shelters "qualify" people. 

Another question regarding the same issue, from an animal assisted therapy perspective:  How can we assist people who need it keep their pet with them, providing they are capable of caring for the pet, because I have read reports that people need their pet to assist them in dealing with their crisis, whatever it is.

I think in these cases shelters can offer other tools in the surrender prevention toolbox, e.g., pet food pantry, free or reduced medical care. But I'd consider every pet a therapy pet in their own way, and many of these programs offer very short term care--a few weeks or a month--in situations where the person would have otherwise had to surrender their pet entirely, which is a mental health boon in itself (peace of mind that the pet is cared for and the knowledge that they'll be reunited with their pet). 

For long term situations like the one you describe, I'll direct you to our article on animal orgs working with social services to keep people and pets together: https://www.animalsheltering.org/magazine/articles/all-family

I foster for La Plata County Humane Society in Durango, CO and they offer free, short term housing for people in jail, homeless, etc.

Chris Nelson
Director of Animal Services
(970) 259-2847 x104
chris@lpchumanesociety.org

@Ashley DiGrado

At the shelter I work at, we partner with local boarding facilities and subsidize boarding costs for people in times of crisis. We just started about one year ago but it is growing. We like to given presentations at local human service agencies so we can all collaborate to help families stay together!