People Who Use Drugs Deserve Shelter

What You Need To Know

• Low barrier shelters have more flexible regulations with less punitive measures and focus on providing support around residents’ self-identified goals. 

• Low barrier practice and policy may include less strict entry requirements such as sobriety or state-issued identification as well as having less complicated intake. Other examples include allowing pets, allowing partners of any gender to enter shelter together, and eliminating curfew or having more flexible curfew.

Where to Go for More Information

• Thinking About Starting a Supportive Housing Program? Recommendations and Considerations for the Planning Process | NASTAD

• Harm Reduction and Housing Video Series | NASTAD

• Applying Harm Reduction in Housing Settings PowerPoint Presentation (nastad.org)

• Emergency Shelter Learning Series - National Alliance to End Homelessness

• LOW BARRIER SHELTER REPORT (southbendin.gov)

• Low-Barrier Shelter: Policies into Practice (hhrctraining.org)

• Keeping People and Pets Together (endhomelessness.org)

• Scaling Services to Meet People's Needs (endhomelessness.org)

Programs To Know

• Prevention Point Philadelphia

• HOPE Shelters, Michigan

• Camillus House, Florida

• Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program

• Springs Rescue Mission, Colorado Springs 

Research

• “I don’t think of it as a shelter. I say I’m going home”: a qualitative evaluation of a low-threshold shelter for women who use drugs | Harm Reduction Journal | Full Text (biomedcentral.com)