The Virginia Emergency Shelter Learning Community was developed from a core understanding of emergency shelter’s vital role in the state’s efforts to end homelessness.

  1. The Marvin Rule Has to Go: During our first ESLC session, Alliance staff asked participants to review their shelter’s guest handbook. Are there any rules that are there for a very important reason, but you can’t remember why? These are Marvin Rules and they’ve got to go.
  2. Staff Buy-in is Critical: When top-down changes are made without an opportunity for staff input and training, resistance is likely. Providing training opportunities and sharing outcomes helped demonstrate the value of adopting a low-barrier, housing-focused shelter model, and garnered support from staff and other key groups.
  3. The Only Way to End Homelessness is to Get People Housed: For some reason, we decided many years ago that people experiencing homelessness needed to first learn life skills before they could successfully exit to housing. This has led to long shelter stays and individuals being kicked-out of shelter for lack of progress.

Read the full article on ending homelessness by Kendall Cloeter at the National Alliance to End Homelessness