Photographs courtesy of Leah Millis / San Francisco Chronicle / Polaris.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US END FAMILY HOMELESSNESS

(Your donation today will be matched dollar-for-dollar by Google.org!)

Family homelessness is nothing less than a crisis in San Francisco. For the most part, it’s an invisible crisis – the last place you want to be with your kids is on the street. Compass is asking for donations from the community to help families who are experiencing a housing crisis. This includes our comprehensive services of shelter and housing, mental healthcare, employment services and childcare.

Your donation would also include helping the hundreds of families who are waiting for a temporary shelter unit with access to food, diapers, hygiene items, and other critical items and supportive services.

Please make your donation today and it will be matched dollar-for-dollar by our good friends at Google.org. And please share this with your friends and family!

FAMILY HOMELESSNESS IN SAN FRANCISCO

We know there are at least 2,300 families right now who do not have homes. They’re hopping from friend to friend, family member to family member – sleeping on couches, floors, and in cars – and many times they’re split up because the hosts they stay with are usually poor too, and they can’t take in an entire family – and those family members they can host usually can’t stay very long. Although safer than staying on the streets, hopping from host to host is not healthy and it’s not always safe. It’s not good for children because they can’t make it to school and when they can, they often go hungry and unable to learn and be their best. Moms and children are at higher risks for physical, mental and sexual abuse – and many are faced with the hard decision to risk sleeping on the streets or to stay with abusive hosts.

Right now – there are more than 3,200 children in San Francisco who are homeless

Compass Family Services helps families in housing crisis. Our team of case managers, crisis intervention counselors, therapists, and teachers are all dedicated to long-term solutions for each family we serve. We help by alleviating each family’s core burdens by addressing their housing, childcare, healthcare, education, and employment needs so they can focus on achieving economic stability and well-being.

Compass Family Services leads the way in helping San Francisco families facing homelessness secure stable housing. We have been service innovators for more than 100 years, and more than 95% of the families we house achieve lasting success!

Sami & Dustin's Story

You can learn more about Compass Family Service's clients, Dustin and Sami, in a feature article by Rachel Swan with the San Francisco Chronicle here: http://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Pregnant-and-living-the-hard-life-on-SF-streets-11264647.php

Dustin and Sami were expecting their first child, a baby girl, and were staying at the Navigation Center in the Mission District. The Navigation Center provides shelter and referral-based services for them, but had asked them to leave upon the birth of their baby because it exists primarily as an environment for single adults and cannot accommodate the needs of a growing family.

Dustin and Sami were placed at Compass Family Shelter and Sami just days after delivering her baby… a healthy baby girl. They were prioritized for a shelter unit because of Sami’s approaching delivery and also because she was at a higher risk for medical issues because she has Lupus. The young family will have up to six months in the shelter and a search for a stable, permanent home began on day one.

Many families, even expecting mothers, can wait months before getting in one of the family shelter units in San Francisco. There are currently just under 70 family shelter units in San Francisco.

There are currently 167 families on the waitlist for a shelter room in San Francisco.

HOW HOMELESSNESS AFFECTS PREGNANT WOMEN & FAMILIES

Pregnant women experience homelessness in San Francisco in a vastly different way than other families. Access to timely prenatal care is often difficult for pregnant women without a stable place to stay and many homeless pregnant women are forced to stay in unsanitary conditions in individual homeless shelters, on the streets, or in parks because they do not have anywhere else to stay.

A 2014 study by the San Francisco Department of Public Health found that Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital experienced a high number of pre-term births and that a lack of stable housing was a main factor. This data is consistent with the current elevated rates of pre-term birth in San Francisco and played a part in the development of the UCSF California Preterm Birth Initiative, which aims to look at root causes of pre-term birth for women with a lack of safe and affordable housing.

Women who are "couch-surfing" with family members or friends are often asked to leave abruptly and have no space for the necessary items to ensure a healthy pregnancy, such as a bed or place to store healthy food items. The same can be said for pregnant women living in emergency shelters, where they often have to sleep on thin mats on the floor, do not have access to a kitchen and/or bathroom, and must leave at 7:00am each day with all of their belongings when the shelter closes for cleaning and maintenance. Stress levels are considerably higher in homeless pregnant women and can result in high-risk symptoms that place mothers and their babies at risk for early delivery and subsequent health issues. In addition, bringing a newborn baby into any of these situations, especially emergency shelters or communal settings, creates the potential for infants to become very ill in their already vulnerable state.

PLEASE HELP END THIS CRISIS NOW!