Dangerous and ineffective: CalMatters investigates homeless shelters



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An individual stands outdoors, illuminated by soft, golden sunlight from behind. They wear a plaid button-up shirt and have shoulder-length wavy hair. The background features a blurred structure and open space, adding a sense of depth to the scene.
Catherine Moore stands in front of a now shuttered homeless shelter, where she experienced sexual harassment, in Anaheim on May 14, 2024. Photo by Jules Hotz for CalMatters

All across California, temporary homeless shelters have become the foundation of taxpayer-funded efforts to get people off the street and back into housing.

Our new investigation found that shelters have instead turned into housing purgatory. They’re a mess — dangerous, chaotic and ultimately ineffective at finding people housing.

Shelters are usually off-limits to anyone but staff and residents. To understand what’s happening inside them, investigative reporter Lauren Hepler obtained previously unreleased state performance data; reviewed thousands of police calls and incident reports; and interviewed more than 80 shelter residents and personnel.

We found that local and state agencies have spent at least $1 billion on shelters since 2018, more than doubling the number of emergency beds. As officials have ramped up encampment clearings, shelters have increasingly become central to the government response to homelessness. 

But more shelters does not equal more housing. We found that fewer than 1 in 4 people entering shelters have moved onto a permanent home. On top of that, internal records reveal allegations of shelter mismanagement, abuse and thousands of previously unreported deaths. 

  • Catherine Moore, former shelter resident: “The shelter is a volunteer jail.”
  • Dennis Culhane, leading policy expert: “It doesn’t work, and it never has.”
  • Holly Herring, shelter worker who faced homelessness herself: “I know that it is safer and more dignified for me to sleep in my car than it is in a shelter.”

Read the full investigation here, or check out just the key takeaways. Let us know if you have a story about living or working in a shelter, and click here for resources on how to file a complaint against a shelter by CalMatters’ Byrhonda Lyons.




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