The HRC outreach team is on the streets forty hours per week to assure the homeless get appropriate referrals and supportive services. The mobile outreach team works to establish rapport with the hard core homeless and to assist and monitor needs of street persons. There are currently eight social service agencies under contract with the City of St. Louis to provide emergency shelter for homeless people. The purpose of emergency shelter is to stabilize homeless individuals and families through a 90-day service enriched program, which initiates a wide range of services designed to assist clients in working toward independent living. Contrary to popular belief, homelessness is often not a brief situation for families caused by a temporary emergency.
Most families return to emergency shelter again and again.
Our long-term vision is that families would use shelters only for short periods of time. We believe that families will have significantly more long term successful outcomes if they utilize the shelter system as only the point of entry for assessment and use transitional housing as the stabilizing point from which to gain permanent housing. The goal of transitional housing is to provide appropriate supportive services to help people reach independent living. The length of stay is not to exceed 24 months. Those transitional housing facilities under contract with the City of St. Louis offer a service-enriched program designed to increase client responsibilities while maintaining supportive services.