The Dover Police Department is sharing the following information with the public ahead of extremely cold temperatures tonight and in the days ahead. This is not a Dover Police Department program.
Beginning January 6, 2014, Delaware’s Emergency Shelter programs will move to a centralized intake process. The change is occurring because of a federal HUD mandate to ensure better coordination and services to the homeless. People seeking shelter should be referred to 211. An Intake Housing Specialist will be available to assist between the hours of M-F; 8-5. After hours calls to 211 will be directed to shelters with openings.
The great thing about this process is that consumers will only need to make one call. Most all of the shelters will be participating and inputting real time data into a shared data base so that opening and availability are known, thus reducing the stress of contacting multiple shelters. The Intake Housing Specialist will also be able to offer other referrals and services to assist the caller. Another benefit is that Delaware will now have better data on shelter availability and use. This does NOT apply to Child Inc., People’s Place, the Sunday Breakfast Mission or Friendship House. People will continue to contact those shelters directly.
For more information about the program, here is a link: http://www.hpcdelaware.org/resources
