“Humans are allergic to change. They love to say, ‘We’ve always done it this way.’ I try to fight that. That’s why I have a clock on my wall that runs counterclockwise.” –Adm. Grace Hopper, computer pioneer

It’s one thing for an engineer or an architect to design a building. But the humans who use it will tell you if it works if form follows function. Feedback is invaluable in every profession. It allows for continual product improvement. Those companies and corporations who understand this value feedback seek it out and use it to improve their services. Those who don’t tend to fall by the wayside because their products don’t improve and change with users’ changing needs.

When you want to know how to improve homeless shelters, it is a logical first step to ask those who live there. They can tell you down to the smallest detail about problems that need fixing: lights that come on too brightly and too early in the morning, faucets that keep running even after you’re done washing your hands, shower heads that only dispense water for ninety seconds at a time at such velocity that it feels like needles puncturing your skin, housing navigators who don’t notify clients of appointments in a timely manner, but after the fact.

But what do you do when the organization running the shelter claims to want feedback to improve services and then does nothing with it? What’s the point of having a grievance procedure if those grievances are not addressed?

Homeless shelters are not for profit and, therefore, are not as answerable to their clients as a standard business would be. Any criticism of services can be dismissed with a simple “This is the way we do things” or “You should be glad to have what you’ve got.” Suppose you’re a consumer, and you don’t like the way a company is doing business. In that case, you can refuse to buy the product and organize a boycott to let other people know that Corporation X is acting in a slipshod or unethical manner.

By writing this, am I biting the hands that feed me? Am I, as my mother would say, “cruising for a bruising?” You could say that. But that would be a simplistic way of looking at the situation. Much ado has been made of the phrase, “See something, say something.” Not “See something, ignore it,” or “See something, say nothing.” Services can only be improved if feedback is heard and acted on. And as any businessman will tell you, companies that welcome feedback and use it to improve services will succeed. The barometer of success for shelters is calibrated differently from, say, a restaurant, but the mechanism is the same.

(Do I repeat myself? Very well then, I repeat myself. I have always believed in the dictum, as expressed by the great French writer Andre Gide, that “Everything that can be said has been said, but we have to say it again because no one was listening.” Feedback, as requested, has been given. Time will show if it is acted on or not.)

Back to the original question. What would the ideal homeless shelter look like? It would look like a place where people live rather than being warehoused. It would have enough light and space so that its residents could spread out, thus cutting down on the transmission of disease. It would be energy-efficient, with systems in place (automatic or manual) to adjust light, heat, and airflow as needed. It would have rooms where a person could go if they are hypersensitive to loud noises or strong lighting. It would have rules of conduct that are administered fairly, not arbitrarily. It would have efficient state-of-the-art computers and a sufficiently strong WiFi signal to allow for maximum data speeds. It would have cooks capable of preparing nutritious, healthy food once a day.

Based on what I’ve seen, heard, and read, most shelters in Orange County do some but not all of these things. And even for those shelters that do almost all of them, there is always room for improvement. We’re not asking for perfection–just an indication that our voices are being heard and feedback is being put to use. No one wants to learn that the effort they’ve put into filing a grievance has gone to waste and that their work has ended up unread in the trash. (Or, one would hope, paper recycling.)

In closing, the shelters in our county are doing, overall, a pretty good job. There are criticisms that could be addressed specifically to individual shelters, but that would run afoul of libel laws. All we ask–again–is that our voices be heard, taken seriously, and, if warranted, result in positive actions. Further, deponent sayeth not.