Name: No Time Limits on Shelter Stays!
Start: 2025-11-04T17:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-11-04T18:30:00-05:00
Location: 100n Holliday St

Join us at the upcoming MOHS Oversight Hearting to demand that MOHS rescind their dangerous proposal to place limits on shelter stays.
About this Event

In August of this year, the Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services (MOHS) issued a draft policy regarding shelter stays in Baltimore City shelters. Under this proposal, families would be allowed to stay a continuous 120-days with the opportunity for a 30 day extension and individuals would be allowed to stay a continuous 90-days with the opportunity for a 30 day extension. When it was initially released, MOHS provided only a 7 day window for responses and feedback. This sidelined many important voices and folks with lived experience who could speak to the impact that this proposed rule change would have.

We, at Housing our Neighbors (HON), believe that there should be no cap on shelter stays and we vehemently push back on narratives that folks are “cheating the system” or “make more money than the case workers” and choosing to stay in the shelters. Given folks' responses in our Shelter Conditions Survey, we know that many feel safer sleeping on the street than they do staying in shelters. Ultimately, this is an issue of a lack of affordable and dignified housing options. At minimum, we’ve also found that it takes folks six (6) months to be placed in housing through the Coordinated Access system, though we know it usually takes much longer.

The proposed policy also leaves a lot of discretion to Case Managers and staff at the shelters who are able to make determinations around whether a resident is demonstrating “active engagement and participation in housing navigation services” and able to receive extensions if they need it. From our Shelter Conditions Survey, we have heard countless stories about staff mistreatment and fear of retaliation for speaking up about shelter conditions and we are concerned that this policy would perpetuate a system where folks do not feel safe using their First Amendment right to free speech.

Please join us at the upcoming MOHS Oversight Hearting to demand that MOHS rescind their proposal to place limits on stays for residents in Baltimore City shelters.