About HomelessHelp.net

HomelessHelp.net is a free, independent directory of homeless services across the United States and Canada — paired with plain-language guides on what causes homelessness and what actually works to reduce it. We exist to help three audiences: people who need a bed tonight, people who want to volunteer or donate effectively, and people who want to understand the issue.

What we are not

• Not a charity that takes donations. HomelessHelp.net does not accept donations, take a cut of donations made through the site, or process any payments. Every charity we link to receives donations directly through its own page. If you want to give money, give it to a listed charity — not to us.
• Not a shelter or service provider. We do not run shelters or offer direct services. We point you to the organizations that do.
• Not a government agency. We are not affiliated with HUD, the VA, the Salvation Army, the Continuum of Care system, or any government body in the US or Canada.
• Not a real-time bed-availability service. Bed counts change hourly. Always call ahead. The phone number on every resource page is the source of truth.

What we are

• A free public directory. Every page on this site is free to view. There are no ads (currently), no paywalls, no email-gated content, and no user accounts.
• Crowdsourced and reviewed. We start with a seed dataset of verified shelters in major cities. Anyone can submit a resource — we review every submission before it appears on the map.
• Open-source. The code that runs this site is on GitHub. The shelter data is in a single JSON file — anyone can audit it or contribute.
• Evidence-driven. Our Learn articles cite the underlying research — At Home/Chez Soi, HUD AHAR, Houston's Built for Zero, Helsinki's Housing First scale-up — and call out common misconceptions.

A note on accuracy

Shelter information goes out of date constantly — hours change, organizations move, phone numbers get reassigned. We refresh listings when readers flag issues. If you see something wrong, please use /submit to tell us — it takes one minute and it helps everyone after you.

Contact

To report inaccurate data, request a takedown, or otherwise reach the maintainers: open an issue at github.com/LukasJT/homelesshelp/issues.