Bridge to Home closed its shelter doors March 15, causing many among Santa Clarita’s homeless population to seek refuge elsewhere.

The emergency winter shelter opens every year on the Monday after Thanksgiving to offer the valley’s homeless a place to find shelter during the coldest time of the year.

Past attendance reports indicate the shelter operates at or near capacity most nights, but the most current figures weren’t yet available.

The shelter offers programs, resources in addition to shelter for the local homeless population, a number BTH Executive Director Tim Davis estimated could be as high as 2,000.

The shelter is still providing medical, dental, case management and assistance for permanent housing services.

Officials estimate the homeless populations in the Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys has increased by 64 percent in the last two years, according to numbers from Bridge to Home officials.

About Bridge to Home

Since 1996, Bridge to Home has provided shelter to the homeless residents of Santa Clarita Valley during the winter months. In 1996, the budget was 60K, and the shelter was located in a city-donated warehouse. Since then, the Shelter has moved several times to locations including the Aquatics Park, the Via Princessa Metrolink Park and Ride, the County Equipment Maintenance Yard on Centre Pointe Parkway, and on Golden Valley by the Fire Station.

Today, the shelter has a $1M budget and is located at the end of Drayton Street off of Railroad Avenue.What started as a volunteer effort to provide shelter during the winter months has blossomed into full-service agency providing a continuum of comprehensive support services that help individual and families transition out of homelessness.Bridge to Home provides a crossing point in many peoples’ lives. It is where hope meets home. It is where lives change. It is where the hungry, homeless and hurting of Santa Clarita Valley experience the compassion that abounds in this community.The Santa Clarita Shelter offers 127 nights of safe, warm, and welcoming shelter for homeless people in Santa Clarita.

The Bridge: Client Care Center, our case management center, offers year around support through a collaborative process to assess, plan, implement, coordinate, monitor, and evaluate the options and services required to meet the client’s health and service needs to transition out of homelessness.Bridge to Home’s goals include identifying a permanent shelter location and expanding services to provide comprehensive care. As one of the fastest-growing communities in the United States, the Santa Clarita Valley will continue to be challenged to fund the social services required by a rapidly developing society. With public funds increasingly scarce for social programs, Bridge to Home has taken a primary role in meeting the needs of the hungry and homeless in this community. Although the organization has made significant progress in providing shelter and services,

Bridge to Home will face countless new challenges in the months and years to come. The organization continues to need the community’s help to provide a permanent year around shelter. Community support, combined with a broader array of support from the private sector and increased grant funding from private foundations, will enable Bridge to Home to achieve its objectives.