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Chapter 6: Housing and Shelter <br />Maintain and expand programs to make housing grants to cover very low- <br />income people's rent they are staying at residential treatment sites for drug <br />and/or alcohol addiction. <br />Topic 2 Shelter <br />Emergency shelter is a critical component in the continuum of care and there will probably <br />always be some level of need for shelter services. Different shelter agencies approach the <br />provision of shelter differently, based on the capacity of the agency providing services, its <br />philosophical ideas regarding need, and/or federally/state/locally-defined requirements for <br />target population. Shelters are the least regulated in terms of level of care, service package, <br />facility types, and staff capacity, etc. The absence of standards of care has resulted in great <br />variety in quality and effectiveness of shelter services in both meeting the minimum needs of <br />homeless people and in assisting them in moving on to more stable living. <br />• Maintain the existing supply of shelter bed capacity and improve the existing <br />shelter system. <br />Action Stens <br />- Review funding streams annually to pinpoint expiring federal grants and assist <br />in planning to fill projected service gaps. <br />- Establish community-developed minimum standards of care for all shelter <br />providers regarding such topics as grievances, mutual rights and <br />responsibilities, client participation and empowerment, privacy, and health and <br />safety. <br />- Expand resources for shelters to meet minimum standards and provide an <br />appropriate mix of in-house case management, support services, and community <br />building services. <br />- Develop training and technical assistance materials to assist shelters in meeting <br />the minimum standards and to strengthen the programmatic, administrative, and <br />financial capacity of shelters to operate more efficiently and better serve <br />homeless people. <br />• To the extent resources allow, expand the supply of shelter beds acrnrding to <br />geographic and target population need. <br />Alameda County-Wide Homeless Continuum of Care Plan: April 1997 <br />79 <br />