New app helps connect unhoused people to shelters in San Diego County
The county district attorney announced the county-wide expansion of Shelter Ready, a mobile phone app that displays what shelters have space in real-time and can take a person's needs into consideration.
'With Shelter Ready, we are equipping our partners with a powerful tool to reduce time-consuming barriers and provide life-changing assistance to people in crisis,' DA Summer Stephan said in a news release.
The app has been used in northern San Diego County for several months in a pilot phase, and is reportedly modeled on technology that has been used to help victims of domestic violence and human trafficking find shelter space quickly.
San Diego City Council approves trash fee
The app is intended to be used by service providers, not the public, and providers can input details about the person so they receive a proper space, such as a ground-floor shelter for someone who uses a wheelchair, or a space that accepts pets.
Tamera Kohler, the CEO of the Regional Task Force on Homelessness, said, 'It's incredibly timely to have an app to help connect people to services they need, including finding a shelter bed. This has been a real challenge, but that's a little easier now thanks to this innovative technology…'
In San Diego County's last point-in-time count of the unhoused population, 9,905 individuals were reported to be experiencing homelessness, with more than 5,700 of them not having a shelter, the DA's office said.
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