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Being homeless in Los Angeles and battling addiction is hard enough, but Rachel Niebur couldn’t imagine herself without her dog Petey.
Niebur credits his constant companion, an energetic black and white chihuahua mix, for helping her stay off drugs and give you a reason to get up in the morning.
“She needs me. She gives me my focus. I have to feed him. I have to walk with her. It’s a real relationship,” Niebur said, before following Petey to the small, fenced-in dog park on the shelter’s grounds in the Venice neighborhood, where the inseparable couple have lived for about two years.
For a long time, traditional homeless shelters have been off limits to pets, leaving animal owners who want to get off the streets with a difficult choice. But as homelessness rises in the United States, those working to find a solution increasingly recognize the importance of pets to vulnerable populations and look for ways to keep owners and pets together.
When given the choice between seeking shelter or giving up their pet, homeless people will almost always choose to remain on the streetssaid Tim Huxford, associate director of the Venice facility that now houses Niebur and Petey.
“So we always want to reduce the number of barriers that we have for people to get them off the street,” he said. “We realize that pets are like family to people”.
The Venice shelter operated by the nonprofit People Assisting the Homeless, or PATH, was the first of its kind in Los Angeles County in allow residents to bring petsHuxford said.
Thanks to a state grant, PATH has a budget for food, cages, toys and veterinary services under an initiative called the Pet Support and Assistance Program. In 2019, the pilot program provided $5 million to nonprofits and local jurisdictions, and that amount doubled the following year. Now, pending legislation would make the grant program permanentas it spread across the state.
State Senator Robert Hertzberg, who wrote the bill that would expand the program, estimates that about 10 percent of homeless Californians have pets. And the reason many shelters don’t accept animals is simply because they don’t have the resources to care for them, said Hertzberg, a dog owner.
He called pets “our comfort” and cited research that found animals provide companionship and a sense of purpose to people who are homeless.
The Los Angeles Democrat said it’s just “furious common sense” to give to nonprofits and other caregivers the budgets they need to feed and house petsespecially considering how much California already allocates to address the statewide homeless crisis.
“We are spending a billion dollars here to get people off the streets; Why can’t we spend a few bucks over there to put together veterinary services and food for dogs and cages? These are grants between $100,000 and $200,000, so not a ton of money in the grand scheme of thingsHertzberg said.
The money would come from the state’s general fund, so is not cutting any existing funding, Hertzberg said. The measure, SB513, passed the state Senate unanimously in January and now awaits consideration in the Assembly.
The California law is part of a broader national acknowledgment of the problem
In Arizona, for example, there are several organizations that care for animals for residents who are struggling to recover.
A non-profit shelter called Lost Our Home provides up to 90 days of pet care for the homeless while looking for a permanent place to live after a crisis such as eviction, domestic violence, or medical treatment.
Don Kitch manages one of several shelters operated in the Phoenix area by Family Promise, a nonprofit organization, among the few that allow people keep your pets in a separate area for animals on the site. He said his shelter currently housed four dogs, two cats and a guinea pig.
“Unfortunately, there are very few pet-friendly facilities around here,” Kitch said.
He said many shelters allow service animals and, less often, emotional support animals.
Kitch said the Arizona Humane Society accepts pets for 90 days to give their owners time to find stable housing, while the Sojourner Center allows victims of domestic violence to keep their pets In the shelter.
Kitch said that Family Promise used a grant from PetSmart to start its pet foster program. He said that he would welcome a law like the one in California, because “anything to defray the cost would be great for a shelter for homeless non-profits like ours.”
The national nonprofit Best Friends Animal Society has joined forces with Catholic Charities USA to champion programs that bring the homeless and their pets together. The group Feeding Pets of the Homeless organizes veterinary clinics and food and supply donation drives for pets.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and other animal care groups are urging passage of California bills.
“The ASPCA believes that the financial circumstances alone are not reliable indicators of the ability to love and care for a companion animal and that pets are an incredible source of support and companionship in our lives, especially during times of stress and uncertainty,” said Susan Riggs, the ASPCA’s Senior Director of Housing Policy.
One of Petey’s canine companions at the Venice PATH facility is Champ, a pit bull mix that his owner, Ro Mantooth, calls “the mascot” of the shelter.
“He really is my best friend. I don’t know what I would do without him” Mantooth, 29, said of Champ. “I’m lucky to have it. Not many places will accept animals, you know?
In addition to Petey and Champ, there are eight other dogs and one cat at the Venice shelter. Huxford said another PATH facility has a parrot in a cage. Technically, there are no rules about which animals can be allowedhe said, but that has yet to be proven.
“If someone came in with an elephant, I guess we would have to see it,” he said.
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