New Approach – Homeless Shelter Dog Park

Affordable housing and homelessness

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

We have been providing shelter, support, and services to people and families experiencing homelessness since 1997. In that time, we have seen—experienced—that people and families in crisis do better with every seemingly insignificant addition we make to the environment we foster. We understand that dignity is found in the little things, and we think this little thing will further improve the chances that those we serve will succeed when they leave our shelter. We can improve wellness by providing a small dog park at our shelter.
Significant research exists on the benefit of dogs to people experiencing homelessness, including a reduction in loneliness, improved mental health, and reduction in risk behaviors such as substance use (King, Smith, Kabrick, Dzur, Grandin. Physical and behavioural health of dogs belonging to homeless people. Anim Welf. 2024). We want to encourage these benefits at our shelter so that our residents achieve even greater success when transitioning out of it.

This grant will support the construction of a dog park at our new shelter for people—including families with young children—experiencing homelessness in the San Fernando Valley, specifically the Santa Clarita Valley. With our proven track record of providing shelter, support, and services to people and families experiencing homelessness since 1997, we are well-prepared to lead this project. Our new shelter serves 69 individuals and eight families (up to 32 people) daily, with more than 200 people using it over one year. In our experience, people whose journeys have been fraught with trauma are better off when we allow them to bring their dog to the shelter if they have one. So, we do. We're conscious that requiring someone to give up their best friend as a condition of shelter puts them in a profoundly difficult situation, so we don't.
This project will enhance the experience for the people and families we serve. All the great programs in the world mean less without an opportunity for self-expression, accountability, and a means to care and provide for family members, including their dogs.
The dog park will require fencing, shade structures, benches, landscaping, a bag dispenser, a supply of biodegradable bags, and two or three garbage bins. We view this dog park as being approximately .5 acres in size.
This isn't just a dog park. It's an opportunity for people, families, and their dogs to thrive, providing respite on hard days and a place to celebrate the good ones.

The issue of homelessness in L.A. County is extraordinarily complex and becoming more so with each day that passes. There are very real considerations in the political, financial, infrastructure, civic, and nonprofit arenas that profoundly influence how the current injustices of the problem become better or worse. This project cuts through the complexity of those considerations. L.A. County will be different due to this dog park because it represents a simple, straightforward, humanizing step that we can take to make things better for people and families who take the brunt of injustice.
This is an easily replicable enhancement that other shelters in L.A. County can implement – it doesn't require large amounts of ongoing funding, it improves long-term outcomes for people who are healing, and it demonstrates that, sometimes, the simple things are the most important. Beyond politics, economics, and infrastructure, there is a way for us in this field to get back to basics.

This is a qualitative enhancement of the environment we provide for people who are served by our shelter programs, both individuals and families. We are confident that its existence at the shelter will improve the well-being of the people and families we serve, will allow them to feel more comfortable during their time there, and will enable them to exercise some of the things we emphasize—accountability, self-reflection, and building on strengths, which includes caring for others.
We expect that these qualitative enhancements will be demonstrated in some of the outcomes we measure to gauge the success of our evidence-based programming: more sustainable transitions to permanent housing, increased participation in the community, more comprehensive participation in case management, and fewer incidences of departing the shelter program due to frustration.