Sure, resources exist, but anyone who relies on or works within social services knows that these resources are scarce and often demand a lot of work to access. For example, in my area, Saint Vincent De Paul emergency rental assistance can only be access after a tenant has received a 72-hour notice of lease termination due to unpaid rent. Then you better be available at 9:30am SHARP to get in their hold line. If you get through, you may simply be informed that funds are exhausted for the month or your specific situation does not qualify for use of their limited funds. The week before Christmas the hold queue had more than 100 people waiting by mid-morning. They were trying to get overdue rent covered—no support for next month becomes available until evictions are already being processed so it is impossible to get ahead of impending eviction proceedings, you are forced to play catch up. I worked in social services for a while and it became a running “joke” (not funny, just a sad coping mechanism) to ask a coworker: “and what should we tell them to do now? Call 211?” Because calling 211 is rarely an effective course of action when trying to prevent an impending eviction or other event that could result in someone losing their housing. Yes, calling 211 (or using their surprisingly functional mobile app) can help people learn about local resources but that’s just the first tiny baby step toward qualifying for, applying for, and receiving any form of rent or utility assistance. My goal in sharing this info is not rain on anyone’s parade, I just get exhausted when well-meaning people share these resources as if they are a miracle cure for housing insecurity. These support systems are designed to be ineffectual and it can take someone a lifetime of effort and pure luck to get anything out of them. People are not unhoused simply bc they don’t know these resources they exist.