About this Talk
It is a common experience for human-animal families who find themselves in a housing crisis to be turned away from social services and housing opportunities due to a “no pets allowed” rule. What is the experience of homeless individuals who have companion animals? Do they have challenges accessing housing and veterinary care? Did they have their animal before becoming homeless? What are their specific needs? To learn more about homeless families with pets, My Dog Is My Home (MDIMH) collaborated with The Street Dog Coalition , Positive Tails , Planned Parenthood Project Street Beat, Animal Care Centers of NYC, and the ASPCA, Breaking Ground, Goddard Riverside Community Center, and a number of other providers and individuals to host New York City’s inaugural One Health Street Clinic. On June 15, 2019, forty-two companion animals and their thirty-five homeless guardians attended the clinic and received free veterinary attention, human and animal supplies, and access to services such as dog grooming, animal training, and human sexual health testing and care. Throughout the event, MDIMH collected 28 completed surveys, and conducted six in-depth interviews with animal guardians to learn more about the city’s interspecies homeless community and their access to shelter services. On November 23, 2019, another clinic was held, serving an additional 32 animals and their individual and family guardians, and we collected another 22 surveys. This is a presentation of our findings, as well as discussions of next steps to continue to explore the issue through additional surveys, and of solutions to address the special needs of homeless individuals and families with companion animals through the expansion of co-sheltering options and an increase in pet-friendly programs, policies, and procedures.
Learning Objectives:
Participants will learn about the human-animal bond, co-sheltering, organizational animal policies and procedures, and the debates over homeless individuals and companion animals.
Participants will gain an understanding of the challenges facing shelters and homeless individuals in securing safe housing, and some possible solutions.
Participants will be introduced to the work of My Dog is My Home, and the Co-sheltering Collaborative, which both share the vision of equitable access to housing for all.