[Music] [Music] [Susan] Hey everybody, welcome back from the break. Uh we're nearing the end of the conference. um I hope that everybody's had a great uh time
um the last three days and have learned a lot um it's been amazing content, great connections
to be made, so I hope you've had an opportunity to soak all of that up. And hopefully, we will continue
that with um this panel you have joined today. um Practica... Practical Advice Integrating Pets to
Achieve Possible Positive Outcomes for A
ll and um... By the way my name is Susan Riggs. I'm the Senior
Director of housing policy for the ASPCA and the government relations department and this is a new
role for the ASPCA. We um... it's just a little bit over a year ago that we um... that the ASPCA decided
to really devote serious resources to developing a campaign to remove barriers to pets and housing,
understanding that it really is a challenge, you know, regardless of where you are on the economic
spectrum, but certainly for u
m, you know, folks that are um, you know, in communities of color, lower
income folks in particular. And so we're really seeking um to find solutions to intervene to make
sure that pets and people can can stay together. um So, um as an advocate for co-sheltering, we
all are primarily concerned, in the short term, with removing unnecessary barriers that serve
to keep pets and people together in precarious and even dangerous situations. But once we are
successful in identifying temporary hous
ing that removes those barriers, we appropriately turn to
providing the support and resources that ensure that both people and their pets are set up for
long-term success. From behavioral support to short-term boarding, our panelists will suggest
operational shifts and key partnerships that can make all the difference in ensuring that
long-term success. During this workshop, you'll learn practical tools for ensuring that co-housing
sets clients up for success, whether... wherever you... you
r community is in co-housing. Join us to hear
practical advice on what has been helpful and not so helpful in ensuring that pets and people
can live and thrive in harmonious shelter and support environments and set a strong foundation
for moving towards permanent housing solutions. So with that, let me introduce our panel. During
this workshop, you'll be hearing from the distinct experiences of Andrea Carter, a seasoned
practitioner of co-housing, Kirsten Jewell, a new adopter of co-housing
, and Genevieve Frederick, a
critical partner in providing pet side support. So, um first, Andrea Carter is director of interim
housing for PATH Partners in Los Angeles. In this role, Andrea oversees six shelters, leads a team
of over 100 professionals, and provides services for over a hundred guests. PATH Partners was
an early adopter of the co-housing model for... for serving its clients and Andrea has a
wealth of experience to share with you today. Then we'll turn to Kirsten Jewell. She
is
a manager of the Housing and Homelessness Division of the Kitsap County Department of Human
Services in Kitsap County, Washington. In this role, Kirsten oversees strategic planning, manages
the portfolio of investments of public funds, and facilitates special projects. The most special,
in my opinion, among these is currently the design and construction of the county's first co-housing
facility. During our preparation, Kirsten shared that she has been present... pleasantly surprised
at
the number of partners that have stepped up to support the project. She has come prepared to
speak to the importance of these partnerships. And last, but not least, after a long and fruitful
career in sales and marketing, Genevieve Frederick founded Feeding Pets of the Homeless in 2008.
The organization was the first national animal organization focused completely on feeding and
providing emergency veterinary care to pets of the homeless. She has built the organization into an
indispensable
partner for ensuring that the needs of pets are being met so that they can continue
to provide much needed support and companionship. So, thank you all again for joining. Before I turn
over to Andrea, I just wanted to remind everybody that we'll be taking questions at the end um
of um the panelists talks, so please feel free to drop your questions into Whova, which I've now
figured out how to use, and um if you want it to be directed to a particular, person feel free to
include that as wel
l. And without further ado, I'm going to turn it over to Andrea. Thank you. [Andrea] Thank
you, Susan and um hello to everybody. I am very happy to be here today. um As Susan said, my name
is uh Andrea Carter. I am the Director of Interim Housing with PATH, People Assisting The Homeless. um
I oversee six different interim housing shelters um and we actually have a... an amazing
pet uh grant that we received on, our first time, in 2020 which was for one of
our shelters which um is located in
Venice. um That was very successful uh and then we were
awarded a second grant which, in 2022, um which then expanded to three... uh amongst three shelters, um
which is Venice, um our Los Feliz shelter, and our um uh YWCA shelter. So, um you know, with
this pet program, uh we basically made um adjustments to our programs with how do we
incorporate having animals in our program and um the transitions of supporting
and, um you know, living and providing services for our clients along with um
their
four-legged friends, which is their pets. So, um you know, when I first started working with PATH,
uh you know, it was a lot of struggles. um We are a low barrier program, so you know, we really tried
to work hard on how do we create less barriers for our guests. um uh Some of the biggest things
that would pop up would be clients who would, um you know, want to come off the streets but
had animals. um Not all their animals were service animals, um you know, uh you know, so they
woul
d have troubles with having, you know, to get a service letter or um were emotional support
animals, so they would have trouble trying to get um that as well, those letters. So, um eventually
we decided, you know ,let's not create barriers when it comes to their pets. um A lot of people
came in then, you know, just having pets and um it was kind of a learn-as-you-go, um you know...
dealing with different types of pets, you know. um We try to not to have any barriers with
the type of pets we
had come in. We've had everything from um parrots to rabbits
to dogs to cats to rats to hamsters. um I believe, yes, turtles, fish ,everything. Yeah so,
it was... it was beautiful to see just the array of different types of animals we had coming in.
um And then also just not all the hoops, you know, people would have to jump through. So, it was
just really nice that people were able to come in, um wor... not have to worry about, you know, 'I can't
come in without my pet' or whatever the ca
se is. um You know, we would do... um we then... we then
created um an intake for the pets, as well as their owners, so that we could get to know their
pets, right. um So, we then started learning about, um you know... what are the questions we should ask?
You know, what what do the pets need? When was the last time the pets had um healthcare uh vet
care? um When was the last time they've been seen? um So, there's just an array of different things
that we started learning as we started allo
wing more pets to come into our shelters. um The
hiccups we were having, the things we had to talk about in the beginning, you know, leashes,
have.. you know, animals eating leashes, and um how do we deal with cats in the shelter? How do,
you know... that are not in cages or things like that? um uh Cleanliness? um You know, just learning
that along the way when you're dealing with different people. um You know, and... and um we've
experienced a lot of amazing things, especially with this pe
t program, we got funding. The funding
provided um amazing resources where we were able to pay for like vet care, and a lot of the
stuff that was really difficult for our clients, um you know, to pay for, and and uh vaccinations,
um and, you know uh you know, flea treatments, and, you know, different things like that. um Some
of the things that we still are working towards is like, you know, getting grooming for them
because the funding doesn't pay for everything. um So that's where a lot o
f these other amazing
resources come in, um where you have these other uh non-profits or these other organizations who
are super supportive that come in and are like, "here we can help with, you know, uh cages. We can
help with food. We can help with..." And then you just balance how do we use this funding in areas that
we really needed for our guests and then how do we get connected with our sister partners, right,
Our... our sister or brother partners um with all these other non-profits an
d stuff. um So, it's
just connecting and gaining a lot of amazing, um you know, support from different organizations
and then just teaching the basic skill sets of what does it look like to be a good neighbor, you
know, um in the shelter, what does that look like . um You know, people are coming from the streets,
so, there's a lot of behavioral things and some... a lot of behavioral adjustments that need to be
made for some of our um pets, you know, where, you know, they may have been the p
rotector
in the streets, which is understandable. um Sometimes, even the dogs or the cats or the pets
dealt with trauma in the streets and.. and different situations in the streets and, you know, now
they're coming into a shelter which is a different environment. So let's make adjustments, as well as,
you know, as well as, the people coming off from the... um the streets. So, helping with that trauma. Helping
with the new... the... the... the adjustments of learning and, you know, being now
under a roof and following
certain requirements and regulations and what do we have to do and now we gotta pick up poop after
our dogs. We can't just let them poop and walk away. um And providing them poop bags and providing
them leashes. You can't just let your dogs walk around without a leash anymore because you're in
a building and you know some people are scared of dogs. Some people, not because, you know, a dog is
mean but because just people are scared, right. um And then what does t
hat look like when you
move into permanent housing and... for the landlords, right? When you move into permanent housing, you
can't just let your dog poop and walk away or, you know... So, having those conversations
and those teachings and educating and um and, you know, and just the different stages
and levels of what does it look like having um a pet um? So, I don't know how much I could
talk or not talk, I could talk all day. But that's kind of what it looks like in an Interim
Housing S
helter. Also, working with our staff, um you know, like I said, getting
connected to different services and um working with both, you know. the... the pet parent
and also now we're taking on 'what does it look like when we're working with the pet?' um Some of
the biggest struggles, I will say, we've encountered um is when we have some of our clients needing to
go to doctor's appointments or needing to go to the DMV or needing to go to the Social Security
office, um whatever it is, um and be
ing denied allowing them to take their pets with them, right. um
In in a lot of cases, that creates barriers when people are trying to get back on track and get
their lives together and do what they need to do um and when um... sorry, can you... yes. um And you
know, just getting back together... uh getting their lives back together. and Then, you know,
they're always worried about their pets, right. um Where do they leave them? What do they do with
them? Sometimes, they have to be gone for
two to three hours at a time. Who's gonna walk them? Who's
gonna feed them, whatever the case is? They got to take the bus sometimes and then they got to worry
about, you know, that's a longer duration. So, those are some of the barriers. um Grooming has been
some of the barriers, obviously, taking care of, um you know, their... their skin care and their hair.
We, you know, we've received a lot of animals who come straight off the streets and they're matted
if they have longer hair, um nail
care, you know... I don't know if you guys have ever seen this before
but sometimes their nails will grow into their skin if they're not getting the proper, um you know,
nail trimming. um You know, a lot of ear infections... So there's just so much that comes along with
it and the education that comes along with it. um But um so, yeah, so that's kind of what we've
experienced and I'll be open to questions later because I don't know how I could go on forever
but thank you, guys. I'm happy
to be here and I hope I shared enough. [Susan] Thank you, Andrea. Yeah
so, uh just a reminder, we've got one question on Whova, but please as you as things occur
to you, please uh post them in Whova and I'm monitoring that and we'll circle back around.
So, um with that, I will turn it over to Kirsten. [Kirsten] Hi, everyone. I'm Kirsten Jewell. I'm the Housing
and Homelessness Division Manager in Kitsap County, which is a small... smallish county across the Puget
Sound from Seattle. So, if
you're in Seattle and you want to get to my county, you have got to take a
beautiful Washington state ferry across the water. My role is primarily as a grant administrator and
community coordinator of efforts around housing and homelessness in our small community.
When I say small, our county is about 270,000 people total. My journey to co-housing
began, I think in a couple of different ways. um The first is around an initiative
that we've been working on to try to bring a trauma-informed
care lens to all of the
sheltering programs in our community that we fund and one of the things that we kept hearing is that
some of the barriers that people have to accessing homeless shelters are around the five the four P's-
so, pets, possessions, partners, and privacy. So, these are some of the things that people get concerned
about as barriers to wanting to go into shelter or being able to participate in shelter, even
if they want to. So, we were looking at how do we reduce those barri
ers. The second thing that we
looked at is some data. I love data. I'm a data geek and we collect information each year doing...
during an annual point-in-time count survey, where we try to go out to find all the people who
are living unsheltered in our community during a 24-hour period. The federal government has some
data that we're required to collect but we also collect local data that's useful to us and we ask
people questions about whether they've tried to access shelter services and,
if so, why are they
not currently in shelter and, if not, why not, and when I was looking at that data, I found a couple
of things that kind of reinforce this idea that we have some pretty significant barriers. One of
those is that people were saying that they were being turned away from shelter because they had
companion animals or pets and the shelters just weren't designed or able to accommodate those
animals. And we also had a big shortage of shelter beds for humans in general, like we
just don't
have enough beds to accommodate all the people who are trying to survive outside. So, um based on this
information, our county took a pretty unusual step for our county government, which is that we talked
to a bunch of our social service providers in the community about the need for another large-scale
shelter that could accommodate animals and the response we got is that really none of them had
the capacity to take on that kind of a project. So, the county government decided to
purchase a
building and ourselves renovate it into a shelter, which we will then contract for shelter services
to be provided by a non-profit.And we decided from the very beginning that this was going to be a
co-shelter but had no idea what that really meant. um So, we ended up purchasing a 20,000 square-foot uh fitness building. um It has a full-size gymnasium and aerobics rooms, locker rooms,
showers. It's on a big wooded lot with a big grassy backyard so it really seemed like an ideal
k
ind of base building to start with to create a shelter. And the shelter is called the Pacific Building or the Pacific Shelter. We are in the process of remodeling it. We've hired an architect
engineer to do the design work to convert it and we've submitted permits and we're sort of stuck
in permit limbo and hope... hopefully after that we'll get going on actual renovations of the
project. The facility is going to be designed to hold up to 75 people which will include men, women,
nin... non-b
inary people, couples, families, children, basically it's an everybody shelter and it will
be designed to accommodate animals, as well. We did a little bit of planning around what percentage
of people coming into the shelter might have an animal companion that we should accommodate and
we settled on um trying to accommodate up to 10 dogs at a time um and about eight cats and then
sort of assorted smaller creatures like hamsters and rabbits and ferrets and things like that. um
So, we're plan
ning for roughly 20 to 25 animals at a time and I think one of the things that has
been interesting in the design process is that it's really a different proposition to plan for
each of these different kinds of animals, it's not just one size fits all in terms of accommodation
and what their needs are. But it's... it... you really have to think through the different needs of
these different kinds of animals individually, in groups, and in relationship to each other. So,
one of the things I
would... I definitely have been on a very steep learning curve around program...
the project design is trying to incorporate living accommodations for these animals, which...
which need to be specific to the type of animal. um When we've been doing um the design with the
architect and engineer, um we didn't have any experience doing a co-shelter design and we've
been really learning a lot um primarily through um developing partnerships with organizations
within our community. So, our, lucki
ly, our architect and engineer firm has been very receptive to this
concept.They did a bunch of research themselves on co-sheltering but we also have been able to
assemble a group of veterinarians and animal care experts to be an advisory group for the project so
that they have been helping us think through some of these really critical questions around design
considerations in the facility, as well as, kind of , the considerations of how to care for the animals
afterwards, once the facilit
y is operational. So, we've designed this advisory group. We've also
reached out and formed a partnership with the Humane Society uh locally, who were wonderful.
They've already donated some things for the shelter and have... um are themselves launching a... a...
an Animal Life-Saving Care Center where they're able to provide low-cost or free um veterinary
services to some households. And so our plan is that when people bring their animals into the
shelter, the volunteer veterinarians will b
e able to see the animals on-site for some very
basic intake and assessment. And then once they are... if they need more care, we'll be able to make
a referral to the Humane Society, who will help people with some more more intensive or
high-level animal care and interventions. We had no idea, though, that there was this larger,
amazing community of all of you out there in the wider world who have a lot of experience with
co-sheltering and a lot of resources available. So, our eyes have bee
n opened and we've really had
a wonderful experience and wonderful, wonderful support from the ASPCA and My Dog is My Home and
other local shelters in the Washington state area that have been doing co-sheltering and we've just
found this amazing supportive community of people who are really working to make this the norm,
rather than the exception, in their communities. I wanted to provide just a couple of quick
observations. Let me talk about a couple of design considerations that we worked
through
and then a couple of observations about the the brother endeavor, um you know, as I talked
about... we we talked about what animals we would be able to accommodate and how we would meet
their basic needs or their... both... both their day-to-day needs, their accommodation needs, and
their veterinary care needs. um We're able to have a large dog run in the backyard and then even,
potentially, a little bit of an off-leash area um and so, trying to figure out the policies
and procedu
res for managing that, as well as, how to work that into the design of
the shelter has been very important. um We've talked a lot about kind of what... how
to set up a.. uh an operational kind of agreement for... for the animal owners to be made aware of
their responsibilities, as Andrea talked about, with when they're having their animal with them
in the shelter, what are their responsibilities around that, what is the shelter going to provide,
what are they responsible for providing, what
resources can we bring in from outside to help... all
of that has to be kind of written into policy and um and people who are bringing their animals
into the shelter have to agree to those things. And then we've just recently also been grappling
with issues like Insurance. There's some insurers or some apparently reluctant to ensure co-shelters, which I think is definitely an area that could use a lot more advocacy. um And then uh the
other thing um that we've been kind of trying to address
is some of the community larger community
concerns around this. um There's a lot of... the... the shelter is located adjacent to a neighborhood,
and so as you can imagine, there's just sort of like general outcry about 'oh my gosh we're going
to put people who are unhoused living next to us' and we've had a lot of community push back on
that. um Some of the pushback is interestingly less intense when we talk about the fact that
we're going to have animals in the shelter. Some people think
this is a great idea, so, even though
they're not in favor of a human shelter, human-only shelter, they're kind of are more receptive when we
talk about it being a human and animal shelter, so that's been very interesting. But there are still
some concerns about all of a sudden plopping down 20 animals, you know, in one building next to
a neighborhood. And how are we going to make sure we contain the noise, and the waste ,and the, you
know ,the the increased traffic, and all of that? So, th
ere's definitely some considerations there, as
well. Just a couple of kind of global observations, and then I'll wrap up. um I definitely went into
this project uh with a huge amount of naivete. It's not something that... I've never developed
a shelter building before ever, myself, and I certainly have never done a co-sheltering
one. I think it really is a lot more complex than I had anticipated to essentially design a
human shelter and an animal shelter in the same building, plus the inter
action and intersection
of those two. I think that's... I... I would definitely um go into the next one with a little more
open eyes about what it takes to do that. Obviously, it's ideal to be able to design
a shelter from scratch and you can make sure that the design meets all of these needs of
these different, you know, animals and people but all along our motto has le... has been like "don't
let the perfect be the enemy of taking action," so even though we don't have the perfect setup an
d
the perfect, you know, room availability and all of that, we're still moving forward with trying
to make sure that this project is successful. um We have found a ton of community support and
I definitely think that there's a lot of support out there to leverage, including grant funding.
um The funding that I am used to working with doesn't really let you spend it on animal care
and animal facilities ,so, what I've found is that we are having to come up with two different
funding streams
for the capital part of the project: we've got to come up with a giant chunks
of money to renovate the building but we have to kind of come up with some smaller chunks of money
to actually deal with renovating the animal part of the building because the people who are funding
the people shelter don't really want to fund the animal shelter. um I think that's hopefully going
to change over time, but that's how it is right now. So we've had to find some different funding for
those... for thos
e different shelter capital costs and the same is true with the ongoing
operational support. So, there's sort of the funding that I'm used to working with
isn't for... for caring for animals; it's for caring for people and, so, we're going
to have to figure out how to find that ongoing operational support to continue- those
volunteer veterinarians, paying for food, and, um you know, cleaning supplies, and all of the... the
kind of pet care things, as well as, the costs that might come with
providing more insurance and all
of that. So, um I just... um I hope... I hope some of those considerations are part of your thinking if
you're interested in going into a co-sheltering project. It's definitely super rewarding and
I would do it again and again but there are some things to think through and there's lots of
resources to help you, if you're interested in that. [Susan] Thank you, Kirsten. I'm already hearing a couple
of themes that I can't wait to uh hopefully tie into when we g
et to the questions section
but I did want to do this one shout out because, Kirsten, I think what... the point you raise about
funders, we've got...hopefully there's some funders um in attendance today... we've got to break
down the silos. We've got to start thinking holistically about how all these pieces fit
together and not just funding in silos and particular elements knowing that, you know, people
don't live in silos. People live in the world and there's a lot of complexity around liv
ing in
the world, including their love for their pets. So, um I'll get off my soapbox [Genevieve] Why? [laughs] [Susan] and turn
it over to Genevieve. I know that she's going to have some really exciting things to
talk about in terms of the pet side stuff, um shifting our thinking to 'okay, what do we do
today?' So once we've got folks into co-housing, um you know, with their pets and you
know they're at least um out of harm's way, they're off the streets, they're out of
danger from the po
tential domestic violence, we've got them housed. The next... the next goal,
of course, is to to move them to more permanent housing solutions. And, you know,. thinking about the
themes that I heard in your three conversations, um one is um the health and behavior
of the dog, and those two things are, of course, inextricably linked, you know, a lot of
times if a dog has been injured, if it has had um have... has not had regular veterinary treatment,
it might be in pain um so, oftentimes, be
havioral issues come from the fact that they
have an injury that's been untreated. um So, obviously, like the medical treatment and
the behavioral treatment for a pet is really important, as we think about, you know, moving
towards more permanent housing solutions, Andrea, you had mentioned things like, you know, educating
um clients to make sure that they understand that as that... they, you know, move through the housing
ladder, that they're going to have to think about things like pickin
g up poop and, you know, all of
those practical things that... um that need to happen in order to be a good tenant and to be a good
neighbor and to live in a harmonious community. And so that's kind of the theme that I've heard
on the um on the pet side is really just, you know, making sure that we're providing the clients and
their pets with the resources to make sure that the pets are healthy, they're happy, that they um
are able to thrive in permanent housing. The other thing that I hear
d is kind of on the support
side. You know, many folks obviously become um homeless or, you know, chronically homeless or even
for a period of time because of some underlying um issues. um It could be, you know, untreated um
substance abuse, it could be um mental health issues that have been untreated or maybe not under
treatment at the moment, so, obviously, that requires that um we provide some support. And, as you know,
Genevieve was just talking about, you know, how do we make sure that
um a client can be fully present
during those appointments. If they're worried about what their... where their pet is, if they don't feel
comfortable having the pet in another location where they don't have eyes on it, maybe they even
need literally the pet in their lap in order to feel calm and feel comfortable and engaged in a
conversation. That is really important to their long-term success. So, I think, you know, that's one
piece of it but even beyond that, you know, there are a lot of
necessary appointment... um appointments.
I think um Kirsten had mentioned, you know, going to the DMV, you know, going to the SSI, you know,
going to get your Social Security card, getting a driver's license, all of those things that are
really fundamental to, you know, transitioning to permanent housing or supportive housing, you know.
Those types of things, those interventions seem to be a really strong theme. I'm also seeing, um in
the chat, um you know, some conversations going on abo
ut, you know, providing crates for um for
appointments, maybe off-site or on-site having the crates available, and then, I think, encouraging
um the social service providers to accept pets or... under some conditions. So, I just... those are not
necessarily questions, but I want to open it up. Yeah please, Kirsten. [Kirsten] No, I was just going to comment
um that one of the things that we have been thinking about and and working into the design of
the Pacific Shelter, is some... some kenne
ls, um so, that if we do have people who are shelter residents
and they do feel comfortable leaving their animals while they go out for appointments, there is a way
that they could safely leave them for, you know, an hour or two uh in a, you know, in a safe environment.
And we would work out a way that... that you know the animals would have some supervision while... while
people are out doing their appointment, so I... you know, sometimes that works well, some... some
facilities just will
not take an animal no matter what you do. So, we want to make sure that if
somebody's got an inter... a job interview or, you know , needs to go to the bank or something, that there's
a way that they could leave their pet briefly. [Andrea] Right, yeah and just to piggyback, um I...
I think, honestly, one of the basic steps of 101 is education, even just for staff
and employees and these businesses and... um you know, I... I seen so many barriers come in
so many different avenues that it's l
ike, if we get them past this door, then there's another door
or you get them past this, now there's a, you know... um we provide transportation but then this Lyft
driver doesn't want their animal in their car, you know. There's just so many hiccups and barriers and
it's constant advocating and constant advocating um in so many different ways that I just feel...
it's like you need an advocate just for animals to be like, look this is so important
people, you know, this... this is so importan
t um for us to be able to, um you know, to get our
guests or our clients to the DMV, you know. If they can't get their IDs, they're not going to
get nothing. They're not getting a job, they're not going to get to go to back to school. They're
not going to get an apartment. It is the basics um that people need, we all know that, um and,
you know, and I know I wouldn't want to, you know, Genevieve you were saying "I would never tie
my dog outside. I would say nope I'm not going in there," you
know. um So I think it's just the human
side of... of us connecting to how... what would you do? how would you feel if you were in this situation?
And um, you know, with PATH, I really feel like that was the model we had in the vision we had, um
especially with my staff where it was like, you know, think of yourself. How would you treat your
family, if your family... how would you want them to be treated if they had, you know, like you said,
a dog that they've been with 24/7 and that's all
they have right and now you're asking them to say,
you know, tie your dog outside or you can't take your dog. and.... and that's been all that...
their animals have actually been their motivation for them to keep going, to... to get
their lives together, to have better, um you know, so, I... I really feel like a lot of it
is the basic 101 um just starting with education for all of these businesses and all of these
different organizations on... on just relate it to yourself and so many peop
le have animals and
and we all love animals and it's like but there... there's a disconnect for some reason where we
we put our animals and make our animals the most amazing, you know, um thing in our lives
because they're so happy and they bring us joy, but then when it comes to people who are
unhoused or experiencing homelessness, it's like it's different for them, you know. So I just feel
like that's like... we got to take it back a little. [Susan] Genevieve, did you have anything to add
or I can
go to the next question? [Genevieve] No, I... I think she's right on... on point. That it is... it's important that we
are [Susan] [unintelligible] [Genevieve] and when you know we're talking about co- sheltering, there's a lot of pieces that are
involved in a lot of organizations that need to be part of it. I know when we do wellness
clinics here in my own little town at the local food bank, we involve the Humane Society,
the city, and a organization that does spay and neuter bec
ause that isn't one of the things
that we normally do. We... when there's an emergency, if the animal is going to be under anesthesia,
we'll ask the doctor to get permission to spay and neuter from the owner. We always ask them
to update or give vaccinations while they're there, which we'll pay for, so that when they are...
but at these wellness clinics, they come in and we usually try to get a groomer there so there...
the dogs are... toenails are cut and that's done, vaccinations, a basic
exam at all of our clinics.
If the doctor during the exam sees something that he can't handle, he or she can't handle on-site
at that location, they will let us know and have that person call our office. Then it becomes what
we call an emergency case and we'll get that in... that animal in. It could be an ear infection that
they don't have the the antibiotics there, it could be all kinds of things that happen. A lot of it is
dental and that is very expensive. If you've ever had your dogs g
o and to have their teeth cleaned
and removed, it's quite expensive. So um yeah, we pay for that as well but um when those people in
our little town leave, they've got a dog license , they've got a voucher for spay and neuter, their
dog's been vaccinated- it's kind of a one-stop. um I know there's some others out there that are doing
in their communities, they're adding the other component, the human component, to helping these
people as well. Giving them their vaccinations and giving them
resources to... for whatever the
human needs. So yeah, I... it's... there's a lot of pieces that come in for... for what these two women
are doing by co-sheltering and I... I applaud them. [Susan] So... so one thing that strikes me is
um I think probably everyone in the, um you know, housing sector is familiar with,
you know ,the intake process for the human side, um and there's been a couple of allusions to,
you know, pet policies and that sort of thing. I think one of the things that... t
hat came
up um that really relates to kind of an understanding of what's going to um create
a more successful foundation for the pets is understanding what their condition is. So...
so things like vaccinations, prior injuries, um you know, issues that... that have occurred
in terms of aggression, behavior or that... that type of thing, you know, interactions with
other pets and... and that sort of thing, so um, I wanted to just kind of dovetails with
a question that was asked in chat. um C
an you guys talk a little bit, and Genevieve, I think
you even spoke to... spoke about your kind of an evaluation over the phone with folks that have
pets, your pet policies, your intake procedures for pets just to better understand what's
needed um as... as pets come into the facilities? [Genevieve] um In our program we do a.... homeless call us, a
lot of first responders, social workers, uh uh food banks, they know who we are because we've
made sure that people know how to get in touch wi
th us. So we do it this intake before, then we
verify that they are homeless and that happens by calling that social worker, maybe it's a police
officer, maybe it's somebody at the food bank where there... or a soup kitchen, or at the uh domestic
violence shelter, or at the homeless shelter. Sometimes it is that these people are so remote
and in encampments that they don't go into town a lot and they don't have interaction with those
kinds of resources, so, um they'll take a picture of the
inside of their vehicle or the their camp,
their tent or their, you know, wherever they are located. And that will, you know, why you... I let my
case managers use their discretion so then what happens then is that my group, once we get that
verification, then we call the nearest hospital that has worked with us. If there isn't one, it's
a new community that we've never worked in before, they cold call until they find a hospital that'll
work with us at a discount knowing that we're going to
pay at time of service. So, we approve a
basic exam. We're going to pay for whatever that cost is for that, then once we let that person
know, the homeless person, 'okay, we just have approval for you to go to XYZ hospital,' you make
the appointment because we don't know if you're going to have trouble getting transportation
there, if you're going to... what your situation is, so we'll... we'll let you make the appointment. But the
hospital knows that you're coming and who you are, who you
r animal is, what kind of breed, if it's
been spayed/neutered, if it needs vaccination, the hospital already knows this information. So,
they make the appointment once they're there and the doctor has done the basic exam. If there
is something else that needs to happen, they call us. "We're going to need to do an x-ray, we're
going to need to do um whatever blood work, whatever the the situation is for whatever
the um uh problem is with that particular pet. um We then approve the extra amou
nt, they give
us an estimate, and then as they are leaving the hospital, we're giving them a credit card
number and paying for the services. Sometimes it takes a few days. um Usually if it's in a real
emergency, like blood from an orifice, a broken bone, or... or a gash, a wound of some kind, we'll get
that animal in that day but sometimes it takes up to 12 days because so many of the hospitals are
so overbooked and understaffed, just like we are. um It may take up to... the average could b
e up
to 12 days before we are actually paying for it from the time that person calls until the time
we pay that hospital invoice, it could be up to 12 days because we don't getting the call backs from
the social workers to verify that they're homeless. So, that's kind of how it... it... we set up the hospital,
we need to talk to the homeless person, and then we will verify so if anybody is um wanting to do this-
work with us- they can email us at info@petsofthehomeless.org info@petsofthehome
less.org, and we can send them our policies
and procedures because I went through that pretty fast. So, you'll know exactly what we treat,
what we don't treat, and... and how... how we work it. [Kirsten] If I could add something, Susan. I think this...
this is a place where we've been having a lot of conversation. All of our shelter referrals
go through our coordinated entry program. And so, the coordinated entry program is a one-stop
intake, assessment, and referral and they do all of our
100 percent of our shelter referrals. So, they need
to... we need to work with them to add information to their screening to make sure that people are
getting appropriately referred to this shelter and animals are getting appropriately referred to
the shelter because what we recognize is that not all shelters are a good fit for all people.
So, we need to have some basic assessment of the condition of the animal, but we also need
to know if there... if the person who's looking for a referral
might be triggered by living
with animals then also not a good referral. If the animal has special needs or isn't
good with other animals in the congregate setting, also not a good referral. So, it's... it's
a two... it's a... it's a multiple... a multi-faceted um kind of conversation about whether this
animal and their person is a good going to be a good fit in the current shelter environment
that's... that's going on with that population there at that time. So, it's... it's definitely
s
omething we're thinking through and working on. [Susan] Yeah, thank you, Kirsten. um I think we have time for
one more question and I saw Artesia had her hand up. Do you still have a question? [Artesia] I do. I was like
please, because you know I'm from L.A, but I'm from LAHSA and Andrea, you know, we worked through PATH.
So that's why I was just like, you know, oh this is really interesting. um First off, I want to thank
you guys for your resources because we do come across a lot of clients
who do have uh animals and
it's hard for them to get into any type of unit and just to hear this conversation it makes me
wonder what if we can kind of coordinate some type of thing where some shelters who do or
who don't have animals, what if we're able to hire somebody who who has some type of experience
dealing with animals because I am looking at from both perspectives. Miss Kirsten, like how you said,
you do have people who, you know, do suffer from that along with how we do have ADA
units for those
who have, you know, any type of vision impairment or, you know, hearing or, you know, mobility, how is it...
how can we have one of those type of units where, you know, one is strictly for animals or a unit
is designed for animals, along with how we do have, you know, some type of transportation? How
about we can hire people who deal with animals along with that's why it's like we're both meeting
everybody halfway versus just saying no we don't deal with this or oh no we onl
y cater to this?
How can we come to a medium where we can have these conversations at the table and say not only
are we providing services for homeless services, we're also providing jobs and careers for those
who have this ability to bring this to the table? That... that's it. [Susan] Andrea, did you want to respond? I see you're off mute. [Andrea] Oh, yeah. um Yeah
you know, one... again, I feel like it's... the more conversations we're having and making this become
more of a norm, um it'
s important. um And you know, I... I feel like to get to that point, it's gonna
take a lot of talking, a lot of educating to get us to that point. um Some of the things that
we've done, you know, within my shelter, because I've experienced um, on both ends right, like
we... we try to create a low barrier environment um and meet people where they're at and meet
their animals where they're at when they come in. um But, you know, trying to look at all six of my
shelters are super different, so
just looking at what does that look like for the here and the
now, how could we create, you know... so, in some of my shelters, they're like um cubicle type settings.
um So, what we said is why don't we get the doggy gates to put in the cubicle and then, you know,
how you can go in and out, and then you know, when people need to go take their shower, they can
leave them in. They're safe, they're not running in and out. Other people don't have to be scared of
a dog running in and out and th
ey don't, you know... and they can take a step away. It's like us in our
houses, our apartments, or whatever right? Like you know, we close the door. We don't want our dogs to
always be in the bathroom with us or whatever the case. um But just trying to figure out, you know,
thinking outside the box, being creative, you know... what does that look like for the environment
that you're currently in right now you ,know what I'm saying? um And then educating your... your
team and your staff or
, you know. um A couple of my shelters, we have a dog park, right, so that has,
oh my god, blessed us so much to be able to have a enclosed gated safe area that has grass that... you
know, dog park you know, that has that space where if there is a bigger type dog or you know or if
we need to put the dog in the dog park so he can run around and they're not in a small enclosed
space. Because guess what, they start barking, you know, you keep them in the cubicles, because you keep them
in the
small space, they start barking. Now you got the uh... the net... the... the next door neighbor, our...
you know the... you know ,our other guests, "ah he's barking and ah get the F this dog out of here,"
and oh, now you gotta de-escalate and you gotta... So, it's just we gotta get ahead of the game to say
'okay, what could we do? We don't want to leave the dog in here. We, you know, we in some cases, some
dogs are quiet. You could put the gate, you know. um In some cases, let's have the dog
be in the dog
park. Communicate. Let's create goals, let's create systems, let's create ideas and think outside the
box.' um And then in other cases, where some of these um um shelters and places are being built, you
know for me, like I said we got dog parks in a couple of our places, you know. um I know you
guys mentioned kennels and things like that so, what does it look like to create a pet friendly
environment, as well as you know, we're creating an uh a healthy environment for our cli
ents in
a pet friendly environment? it coincides. It all, like you know... we got to start thinking outside
the box. We got to start bringing the people who um are professionals into these conversations and
the people specifically who are in these shelters or on the ground level because that's what I
see. A lot decisions are being made with people that have... are not in the ground level that see
what's going on or that, 'no, uh wait a minute. This is what happens when you got too many..."
You know
and having those conversations to brainstorm.' [Susan] So sadly, we have come to the end of the session. I
want to thank Andrea, Kirsten, and Genevieve for all of your insights today and I want to thank all of
you for joining us today. I hope it's been helpful. Thank you very much. [Kirsten] Thank you, Susan. Thanks,
Andrea. Thanks, Genevieve. Bye-bye [Susan] Bye [Music]
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