Friendship Shelter

Housing Focused Shelter & Outreach

Based on the notion that stable housing supports health and well-being and thus must be prioritized above all other issues, our emergency shelter (45 beds) and bridge housing (30 beds) programs employ evidence-based approaches for ensuring shelters are dynamic, effective resources within systems that work to end homelessness. Clients work from day one with a Housing Coordinator (case manager), who helps them set and achieve practical goals for permanent housing – including assistance with searching, applying for, and moving into appropriate, sustainable housing. Progress toward those client-determined goals is monitored and supported by all shelter staff. Clients are enrolled for 30-day intervals renewable based on individual ability, circumstances, and reasonable effort on their housing plan. There is no limit on the length of stay; if a client is demonstrating effort, we will continue to work with them. Both shelters are located in Laguna Beach and provide basic needs and wraparound services including a safe place to sleep, shower, and do laundry; all meals; assistance connecting to medical/mental healthcare; income/benefit/employment assistance; and transportation support – all in the context of supporting the client’s individualized housing plan. The shelters also benefit greatly from a unique and essential meal program, in which nearly all client meals are provided and prepared by hundreds of individual, corporate, and faith-based volunteers. Since 2017, the program has also employed street outreach workers to actively engage, assess, and assist as many homeless individuals as possible to access the basic needs and services they need, including shelter and housing connections, sack lunches, physical/ mental/ behavioral healthcare, transportation, social services, and individualized housing-focused case management. Our street outreach team coordinates closely with our shelter and housing staff as well as local police and other southern O.C. service providers for prioritized direct referrals into shelter/housing based on vulnerability. Street outreach is conducted in the downtown business district of Laguna Beach – an area that includes a significant portion of southern Orange County’s chronically homeless population.

Permanent Supportive Housing & Rapid Re-Housing

Our Permanent Supportive Housing Program, established in 2014, is home to 163 adults who were chronically homeless before entry. The program is Friendship Shelter’s fastest-growing program and is intended for individuals who are chronically homeless with a disabling physical, mental, or behavioral health condition. This program follows the housing first approach with clients mostly housed in scattered-site units rented on the private market throughout southern Orange County as well as three dedicated-site apartment communities located in Dana Point and San Clemente. The primary service provided by our PSH program is the apartments themselves – scattered throughout southern Orange County – and the hope they provide by ensuring stable, safe housing for people who have previously existed on the street or in very tenuous situations for much of their lives. The key to PSH is the support – and that comes from our staff. Staff provide the voluntary day-to-day support each client needs to remain stably housed, including independent living skills coaching and connections and/or transportation to local resources for food, employment/benefit income, medical/mental health care, recovery support, and community-building activities and events. Our newest housing program is Rapid Re-Housing (RRH). Established in April 2021, this program provides housing location and navigation services, short-term rental assistance, and stabilization case management to clients who need only temporary support to rapidly obtain permanent housing that they will be able to afford on their own without financial assistance.