CHANATE EMERGENCY WOMEN’S SHELTER

An integral part of Community Action Partnership of Sonoma County, the Housing Services Department provides an extensive range of services designed to address a multitude of issues and needs related to housing concerns for the low-income and homeless segments of our community. 

The Chanate Women’s Emergency Shelter is the only non-sectarian emergency shelter in Sonoma County that is open year round and provides emergency housing and meals, with access to supportive services, to any homeless adult woman on a first-come, first-served basis.

Such a service is vital for our clientele: homeless single women and single women with children, who are often forced to endure instances of sexual assault and abuse, physical violence, and harassment in addition to the normal indignities of homelessness. Housing is one of the most basic of human needs. Chanate fulfills its major function of providing a safe and stabilizing step to full self-sufficiency for our homeless women clients.

Of the existing shelters in Sonoma County, other emergency shelters are oriented towards families and not available to our clients. And the Armory shelter, which is only open November through April, takes both men and women, making that situation extremely uncomfortable for many women since that very contact frequently causes re-traumatization for those who have experienced assault or abuse. This can, in fact, increase the length of homelessness and continual dependency on other services.

Chanate serves as the entry point into our continuum of housing services. We believe that it is critical that the emergency shelter continue ongoing operations, not only to provide for the immediate needs of a challenging clientele with multiple needs, but because we have seen a noted increase in the rate of successful placement of clients into transitional or permanent housing upon exit from this level of our housing program. Thereby, our integrated program allows these women to break the cycle of homelessness.

Meeting the two overall goals of the program; we provide:

1.      A short-term safe and secure shelter for single homeless women, allowing them to stabilize their lives and access supportive resources designed to help them achieve self-sufficiency.

2.      Access to a continuum of care through a range of housing and supportive services, including intensive case management, information and community resources, transitional housing options and homeless prevention assistance, that can empower, enrich and enable low-income individuals and households to achieve long-term stability.

CAPSC has also established the Women’s Shelter Advisory Committee which meets on a monthly basis, this group provides advice to CAPSC housing staff on the best ways to generate community support, both cash and volunteer labor, to provide for the long-term needs of the women at the shelter.

The Chanate Shelter is a Clean and Sober facility. The House Rules require daily and weekly chores. In addition to shelter, food, laundry facilities, and access to supportive services are provided. There is a weekly House Meeting. Open 365 days/year.

 Through the continued operation and maintenance of the Chanate Emergency Women’s Shelter, CAPSC will be able to accomplish the following programmatic outcomes:

·                     Provide emergency shelter to over 250 homeless women annually for an average of 21 days

·                     Provide an environment for homeless women to start the process of stabilization leading to eventual self-sufficiency

·                     Provide increased access to supportive resources for homeless women.

·                     Strengthen our internal capacity to implement and measure qualitative improvements in services and management of service-related information

·                     Develop a systemic approach to utilizing evaluation results to determine the best ways to both offer homeless women a chance to stabilize themselves from a survival viewpoint, and to create the best way for homeless women, using supportive services, to get safe and affordable housing and become self-sufficient. A part of these funds will support the staff position that coordinates and evaluates this component.

 Community Action Partnership of Sonoma County  has been operating the Chanate Emergency Women’s Shelter since 1987.

CAPSC also operates three transitional housing programs for homeless households - Rinwood Transitional House and Giffen Transitional House, and the Earle St. Apartments. The CAPSC's Caring Communities program provides related intensive case management services for chronically homeless families.

We are currently developing a 10 unit apartment complex in South Park as Transitional Housing fro homeless families.

The CAPSC's Housing Division also oversees rental assistance programs (HCA Fund) for families, seniors, the disabled, and  Fair Housing/Tenant-Landlord counseling (Fair Housing of Sonoma County).  Chanate serves as the entry point into a “continuum of care” for these housing services.

 Our agency participates in the Sonoma County Continuum of Care; the Task Force on Homelessness; the Service Providers Network: and the consortium of 10 countywide agencies implementing the HCA Emergency Homeless Assistance Fund. Shelter staff works closely with other housing and services agencies in the operation of the Chanate shelter, including taking referrals from Community Support Network, OakCrest mental health, Homeless Services Center, The Living Room, DAAC, and other similar agencies. We out-place clients into Project HOPE, Women’s Recovery, Burbank Housing affordable housing developments, Opportunity House, and other resources.

For more information on the Chanate Women’s Emergency Shelter, or to gain entry, contact our main offices at 544-6911, and ask for the Housing Department's Emergency Shelter program.

All pictures are of actual clients and staff not clip art.  Please make a request prior to using in any other format. 

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