FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How does My Dog Is My Home help humans experiencing homelessness and their pets?
My Dog Is My Home works closely with homeless services organizations to keep people with their beloved pets.
Through education, consultations, training, and resource coordination, My Dog Is My Home has helped a growing number of human shelters across the United States make the necessary changes to their facilities and policies to welcome the pets of people experiencing homelessness, dramatically improving the quality of life for both.
My Dog Is My Home has also worked with animal shelters and other animal welfare organizations to create programs that support human shelters, keeping people and animals together through circumstances of homelessness.
In these ways My Dog Is My Home has helped a growing number of people and animals around the country. Each year, more human shelters engage in our programs as they endeavor to house people experiencing homelessness together with their animals.
Why do some people experiencing homelessness have pets?
Some human-animal families go from housing to homelessness together, whether that is due to a natural disaster, domestic violence, health challenges, lack of affordable housing, or other traumatic circumstances. Some people meet their animals while they are experiencing homelessness, forming a deep emotional bond.
Most people who are experiencing homelessness have companion animals for the same reasons that we all do–love and companionship. Their pets are their family, and they want to keep them despite the challenge of losing their home. These pets are typically well-loved and well-cared for.
Research illustrates that many people experiencing homelessness are even more deeply attached to their animals than people who have homes. For people experiencing homelessness, their animals may be their only consistent source of support and companionship.
Being removed from their human parents and placed in an animal shelter is also extremely traumatic for pets who are attached to their caregivers regardless of their housing status.
What happens to people’s companion animals if they cannot stay together after losing their homes?
Most homeless shelters don’t allow companion animals, and low-income housing frequently imposes restrictions that make it difficult for people to keep their pets. Sadly, people with pets who lose their housing have few options for staying with their animals.
In a study of 66 people with pets who were experiencing homelessness, 93% of men and 96% of women stated housing would not be acceptable if pets were not allowed. A majority had been refused housing because they had pets.
Due to these challenges, many people choose to live in their cars or outside rather than separate from their beloved pets by surrendering them to an animal shelter that may ultimately euthanize them. Data collected between 2019 and 2023 shows that animals relinquished by unhoused owners were most at risk for euthanasia or other shelter death.
When no pet-inclusive shelters are available during a natural disaster, we also often see animals left behind as a last resort.
This is why My Dog Is My Home works with organizations throughout the United States to help short- and long-term homeless shelters and other forms of human housing accommodate pets.
Isn’t it better for the pets to go to an animal shelter?
A great number of animals who are surrendered by humans due to the loss of housing go to animal shelters. These shelters are already strained by overcrowding. Shelters throughout the United States are struggling due to overcrowding which leads to dogs living in crates that line hallways. Many of the animals surrendered by people experiencing homelessness do not find new homes and become part of the approximately 900,000 animals who are euthanized in United States shelters every year.
Due to a lack of options, some people experiencing homelessness have made the heart-wrenching decision to surrender their animals to a shelter. My Dog is My Home considers this an unnecessary burden to put on families who are already facing the immense grief and trauma of losing their homes.
We believe that animal shelters should be reserved for animals who do not have families rather than separating pets from their loving, responsible caregivers only because they have lost their housing.
Having lost their home, a pet may be a person’s only family member during one of the most difficult times in their life. We do not believe it serves anyone to forcibly separate human and animal family members, further traumatizing them and risking their mental and physical well-being.
Why is it essential to keep people with their pets instead of letting the pets find new homes through animal shelters?
It is essential to keep companion animals with their human carers for the well-being of both humans and animals, and to refrain from stressing already overburdened animal shelters.
If you have ever experienced the loss of a beloved pet, you can imagine what it would be like to have to make the heart-wrenching decision to surrender them to a shelter, where they may lose their life. Even no-kill shelters may euthanize dogs who struggle with certain behavioral issues.
To lose your home, and then your beloved pet, while struggling to get back on your feet, is an almost unimaginably painful scenario. Yet a lack of pet-inclusive temporary and long-term housing forces people through this excruciating process on a daily basis.
Additionally, domestic violence is one of the leading causes of homelessness for women and families. Pets are often also caught in the cycles of violence in these homes. As many as 89% of victims with pets say their abusers threatened, hurt, or killed their pets as leverage to prevent them from leaving or to force them to return in order to care for the animals (Barrett et al., 2017).
How do pet-inclusive shelters help survivors of Domestic Violence?
A 2020 report issued by Urban Resource Institute and the National Domestic Violence Hotline found that among 2,500 individuals who called the hotline for help, 50% of survivors would not consider shelter for themselves if they could not take their pets.
91% of survivors indicated that their pets’ emotional support and physical protection are significant in their ability to survive and heal.
At the time of the report, less than 10% of domestic violence shelters provided any accommodations for survivors’ pets. Thanks to the efforts of groups like Red Rover and Rescue Rebuild and their 25 by 2025 campaign, this number has gone up. Currently 19% of domestic violence shelters have on-site pet programs—an improvement, but still too small!
Given these statistics, we can see a direct correlation between the availability of pet-inclusive housing and the ability of Domestic Violence survivors to escape their abusers and thrive in their new lives.
How many people experiencing homelessness have pets?
The total number of people experiencing homelessness with companion animals in the United States is unknown, but research on a local level shows a range of 5.5%-23% across various geographic communities and sub-populations of homelessness (i.e. youth, survivors of domestic violence, etc.) (Cronley et al., 2009; Henwood et al., 2020; Rhoades et al., 2015).
Additionally, housing insecurity exists on a spectrum. While 5.5%-23% of people actively experiencing homelessness may have companion animals, many people who are imminently facing homelessness, rent burdened, or otherwise facing housing insecurity also have pets.
Why don’t all homeless shelters accept pets?
As an organization founded by several people who have experience running or working in homeless shelters, My Dog Is My Home understands what a huge task it is to operate a shelter for people alone.
Homeless shelters and other types of homeless services are often underfunded and overstretched, and including animals in a shared environment may feel like yet another variable that can add to difficult situations.
Some of the common fears that homeless shelter and housing operators have about pets are a fear of dog bites, animal nuisance issues (such as barking), cleanliness, and allergies.
My Dog Is My Home’s role is to support homeless services providers by explaining and helping to implement policies and practices that can mitigate some of these concerns. We don’t deny that having animals on site can be challenging, but the value added far outweighs the effort that is required to ensure everyone, including furry family members, can be served safely.
Isn’t it very expensive for human shelters to make changes to accommodate pets?
My Dog is My Home focuses on homelessness and animal companionship specifically because it is a solvable problem.
It is possible for homeless shelters and housing programs to accommodate pets without straining resources. My Dog Is My Home works with human shelters and housing programs to make small changes that allow them to accommodate pets without stretching budgets.
My Dog Is My Home also advocates for and supports policy changes and budget allocations on the City, State, and Federal levels for sources of funding that will financially support homeless services organizations that will accommodate people and animals together. Examples of this are the California Pet Assistance and Support Program and the federal Providing for Unhoused People with Pets Act.
Is My Dog Is My Home doing anything to prevent people and their pets from experiencing homelessness?
Yes! We believe the best way to solve a problem is to prevent it.
My Dog Is My Home supports efforts to prevent people with pets from experiencing homelessness by advocating for:
Increased availability of affordable pet-inclusive housing
Home insurance that doesn’t discriminate against specific dog breeds
An overall stronger social safety net that supports healthy, livable environments and families
What is co-sheltering?
Co-sheltering is defined by My Dog Is My Home as the sheltering of people and animals
together at the same emergency or temporary housing facility. One of My Dog is My Home’s areas of focus is on the promotion of co-sheltering in an effort to support the widespread adoption of “low-barrier” homeless shelters that do not require people experiencing homelessness to be separated from their pets.
We believe that it is possible to effectively and efficiently create spaces that accommodate both people and animals together.
How can I help?
Please donate. Your donation helps a human-animal family stay together through one of the most difficult times in their lives. You can make a one-time or recurring donation here. Recurring donors will receive a special monthly update on our work.
We’d love to see you at our annual online conference and in-person events around the United States. Our annual conference offers in-depth presentations on all aspects of our work and exciting presentations by leaders in the field.
Past presenters at our annual conference have included Julián Castro, former HUD Secretary and former Mayor of San Antonio, TX; Haben Girma, human rights lawyer and White House Champion of Change; Congressman Jason Crow; and Ann Oliva, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
We also host moving storytelling, art, and other live events throughout the United States. Please sign up for our email list to stay up to date. Subscribe here.
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Do you have skills and time to donate? We rely on volunteers to continue our mission and are always looking for people to help with all aspects of our work. Please email info@mydogismyhome.org, and a team member will be in touch with you soon.