Covenant House California

Covenant House California is a great organization that really cares about the young people they serve and about doing the right thing.

The worst establishment I have ever stayed at in my entire life of being homeless. Once you see something, please, people, I implore you to take heed. This organization/shelter is the worst place in the Bay Area. This is going to be prolonged. I got here around 9/8/22. When I got here, I spoke with Brian, who was very helpful to the extent of his capabilities. Days went by, and I had no problem with this organization. Being a conscious individual, I was fully aware of previous reviews I had read online. The reviews that followed were "staff does not care about youth," "staff only
care about money," and "they will kick you out for absolutely zero reasons." I thought everyone was being dramatic and paid them no mind. A week went by, and I still had no problem with the staff or the residents, though I did notice myself checking off boxes in my head that I had read from reviews that matched my experience here. Before I go on, I would like to say people will smile on your face and be orchestrating and planning your demise. Ok, back to my review. More weeks go by, and now I am being threatened by a roommate/resident. I ignored them. The threats kept coming, so I texted the futile case manager. They responded and said I had to wait until they got in so I could check in with them. I waited until they came, and they handed me a grievance letter. You write out your complaints and sentiments on this piece sheet with this paper. The case manager did not bother to speak to me but just handed me a piece of paper after I told them I was being threatened with my life. First red flag. The second red flag was when I reported the incident; still, no action was taken. The resident said they were going to stab me with scissors. Mind you. I told them I thought weapons were not allowed and were against the policy. They neglected my concerns again. More weeks go by, and I'm still being threatened. I am a college student, so I had to study and could not do so due to the antagonist making hostile threats. I compensated by waking up early and heading to the library. Another week passed, and I saw we had new people joining our room. Everything was going fine and dandy until my stuff started coming up missing. My wallet was stolen right after they entered the room, which is weird because I have never encountered a thief before. I made another report, and the conflict between our current roommate (the one making threats toward me) and our new roommate had exploded by that time. They got into a huge dispute and were later asked to leave. By this time, my mental capacity to stay here was in the garbage. I have never in my life had to argue with other adults or had to keep my belonging in a locker due to thieves being present. When I first arrived, there was no mention of locks or safety precautions. They stated that they did not tolerate bullying, homophobia, or gossiping. Anyways after my stuff came up stolen, keep in mind my stuff started getting stolen once these new individuals arrived. Another week passed, and my debit card and $400 worth of headphones came up stolen. Due to my severe OCD, I made sure I kept everything around me because I was not going to allow the thief to steal from me again, but even then, the crafty thief was able to sneak into my bag while I was sleeping. I was pissed because I had just got a new debit card and replaced all my information. I told all the staff, and they were nonchalant. Going back to the reviews where the reviewers told me all staff did was sit on their asses. Which gave me even greater clarity and affirmation that they did not care about youth. I texted the futile case manager again, and they texted the vice president, and she told me she would like to meet with me Monday afternoon. I said fine. In my head, I was already thinking of leaving; I just wanted my headphones replaced or compensated. Also, I developed severe PTSD due to my stay here. And a mini ED due to stress and other pressures. So I am waiting for Monday to get here. It's hard for me to sleep due to all the hostility in the ambiance. I wake up out of the night and can fall back to sleep. I roam the building while carrying my backpack because I am scared it will come up missing if I leave anything else lying around. I wait and wait until Monday gets here. I was up around five and went to do laundry again. I already had it in my mind that this place was not for me. I waited for hours. The vice president finally arrived and said she could not help me with anything. Mind you. I waited hours for her to tell me this lackluster response. My head was pounding, and my heart was racing. I was so frustrated that they wasted my precious studying time and time, in general, to say, "yeah, there are thieves around, but what we can offer you is a lock"???!!! Do you mean to tell me after almost being here a month, you guys are just now offering me a locker????????? I took my things and told them I was leaving. I am filing a lawsuit for my stolen property and the negligence of care and concern. I would never recommend coming here. It is by far the worse shelter I have ever stayed at. I would rather sleep in a cardboard box than spend another night in this profit-seeking institution. Also, the micro-aggression is insane. I was called "aggressive" for expressing my feelings toward my stolen property and was not loud at all.

I worked for this company for nearly 4 years and saw abuse of the homeless population that I reported causing at least one employee to quit rather than face the music. They were given rotten food, bathrooms had standing water in them for months, and one of the managers had his back end hanging out. At least 3 employees had to be terminated for sexual relations with residents. Worst of it, running at about a hundred thousand dollars per bed per year most of your money goes to the CEO and very little to the homeless. Donate all you want, they'll have the same number of beds and treat the residents poorly.

This organization must have a demented sense of humor because they still are spamming the hell out of my mailbox and will not respect my wish to be removed from the mailing list even though I requested to be removed over a dozen times over the past year.

They care not about my preference and apparently care nothing about the environment as they continue to waste paper.

I am always moved by the compassion that Covenant House California shows to homeless children by giving them a safe place to live and people to care for them.