Living on the streets, dogs can be an important form of protection, keeping guard and scaring off those who mean harm while providing companionship during a traumatic experience.

Those same dogs can be a barrier to getting off the streets, as only three percent of shelters in the U.S. allow pets, according to Feeding Pets of the Homeless. Father Joe’s Villages (FJV), San Diego’s largest homeless services provider, is advocating for that number to grow.

Since 2020, all of Father Joe’s shelter beds have allowed companion animals to stay with their humans.

“These are family members, and we want to be able to open doors to them,” said Jesse Casement, division director of client services at Father Joe’s Villages. She spoke at My Dog is My Home, a virtual national conference advocating for increased pet-inclusive emergency and permanent housing, on March 25. A month later on April 17, she will be in Las Vegas to speak at Animal Care Expo, hosted by Humane World for Animals (formerly known as The Humane Society of the United States).

To follow housing laws, service animals and emotional support pets were already accommodated at Father Joe’s, and those still make up the majority of animals at the shelters in East Village and elsewhere. Casement said it was not a huge leap to allow pets alongside legally mandated service animals.

According to internal data, from 2010 to 2025, at least 567 households with 751 animals entered and stayed at a Father Joe’s Villages shelter. Dogs far outnumber any other type of animal, but cats, turtles, birds and rodents — anything that fits in a cage, have found a place to stay. With no breed restrictions, even large dogs are accommodated.

For 44-year-old Gillian, bringing their 90-pound Husky, Pitbull, Shepherd mix dog Kaboose was a requirement for entering shelter. The pair were unhoused since 2020. Gillian did not look into shelter options for years, assuming Kaboose would not be welcome. “I know I wouldn’t have come in if he wasn’t allowed too,” they said. “He just keeps me safe in every aspect. So not being able to have that, the one thing that has been constant in my life, I would not have come.”

To accommodate his size, Father Joe’s added a special gate in front of their cubicle in the shelter since he would not fit in a crate. Other clients receive a crate they can take with them when moving to permanent housing. While at the shelter, clients are able to kennel their pets while going to appointments, working or doing job training. Kaboose has access to the other animal services Father Joe’s: veterinary care from the Helen Woodward Center and the Street Dog Coalition, training from San Diego Humane Society (SDHS), a Christmas present, plus pet supplies and food.

By the time Gillian and Kaboose entered a shelter a year ago, they had already lost so much.

From surviving a stalker, being laid off and evicted during the early days of the pandemic, then living in cars, to finally staying in a tent on the beach, Kaboose was with Gillian through everything. A growl or a bark would often be enough to send people trying to enter their tent away. Kaboose stops men from following them and always positioned himself to watch the doors in any space. “The number of times he’s literally saved my life… I’ve seen women and what’s happened to them when they don’t have that protection,” Gillian said.

Losing the companion who helped Gillian manage their anxiety and dissociative disorder, especially while entering an entirely new and frightening space, would have been too much. “When you don’t have anything else, I think that constant and just that love is so necessary and to be able to keep that and not have to lose something else that’s such a big part of your life,” they said.

Casement believes allowing pets in is part of being a client-oriented shelter since it means no one has to choose between their pet and their safety. “100% of the clients that we’ve served have said… having their animal with them helps them to work towards self sufficiency and ending their homelessness,” Casement said.

She continues to share policies and results as well as lessons learned with other service providers.

Now, SDHS offers training for FJV staff when Casement saw how uncomfortable some staff members were to interact with animals. “It’s different than working in an animal shelter with just the animals, or in [a] homeless shelter or environment where you’re working with just the people, when you’re working around an animal that feels protective of their human because of the trauma that they’ve been through,” she said.

Surprisingly, there does not tend to be issues between the animals at the shelter other than a bit of protectiveness or nervousness around new people.

During a phone call with sdnews.com, she observed a waiting room with three dogs in it during a veterinary visit. None were barking or lunging at each other, simply sitting quietly. Casement explained “Dogs specifically that have been living on the streets with their humans are so well socialized, as a general rule, I think they actually do a really good job of being around each other, because they’ve seen so much, heard so much.”

Like Casement, Gillian too advocates for pet-friendly shelters from a client’s perspective.

They gave a speech in October 2024 at an open house put on by My Dog is My Home where homeless service providers from around the nation visited FJV to see its co-sheltering program.

Gillian concluded their speech with this line: “I can’t say with certainty that I will ever be able to not have to turn and look every time a door opens behind me, but I know that because of Kaboose I can handle and survive whatever or whomever comes through it.”

Top photo: Gillian and Kaboose have been at a Father Joe’s Villages shelter for the past year. (Photo courtesy Father Joe’s Villages)