In this tough economy, consumers are getting hit hard. If you are lucky enough to dine out to eat, you don’t get free water unless you ask. Sit on an airplane seat, and you will be charged for checking in baggage, eating a meal, or using one of their blankets. Soon, pay toilets may be installed on planes.

The world of homelessness is no different. Consumers of homeless services just got hit over the head with a fee that some critics think could be a significant barrier toward getting off the streets; a fee for a bed.

In downtown Los Angeles, the Union Rescue Mission recently announced they will be charging seven dollars per night for some of their beds. It is certainly a last ditch effort to ensure that the shelter stays financially solvent, especially during these difficult economic times. Anyone who runs a homeless agency can sympathize.

Shelter Fees

The idea of charging people for staying in a shelter is not new. For years some shelters have quietly charged marginal fees for their beds and services. But for homeless programs that receive significant public or foundation funding, charging a fee is not allowed (the agencies I run, part of Path Partners, all fall into this no-fee category).

Proponents of shelter fees endorse the philosophical idea that all people, rich or poor, should contribute something toward their own self-sufficiency. Habitat for Humanity requires housing recipients to contribute “sweat equity” toward the completion of their new homes.

If we can ask housing recipients to contribute toward their homes, why can’t we ask homeless people to contribute toward their stay in a shelter? If a homeless person has a job, or receives public benefits, why not require that individual to contribute to the agency that is helping her or him off the street?

Room for Debate

Some argue that if we ask people to pay, then providing shelter is no longer a free handout. Paying your own way, even partially, promotes self-esteem, proponents believe.

Critics, though, see this fee as a tax on the poor who cannot afford paying for a shelter bed. A shelter tax just increases the barrier that prevents people from permanently getting off the streets.

Personally, I am not philosophically against requiring consumers of homeless services to pay. But the main goal in any homeless agency should be to help people permanently get off the streets. That means permanent housing.

Look at the $7 per night bed-charge. That totals to $210 per month. If we helped four homeless people living in a shelter pool their money together, they could rent an apartment. What is a better living situation, four people living in an apartment, or one-hundred people living in a shelter? I know what I would choose.

So if an agency is going to charge a fee, make sure it is nominal. Any fee should really go toward a personal savings account to be used for a deposit on an apartment. At the very least, fees should be designated to a fund that is specifically allocated to help other consumers of homeless services.

Shelter fees are not evil in themselves. But I will certainly put my blogging foot down when pay toilets start propping up in shelters.

Photo credit: Alan Light