Homeless Survey Template: Day Shelter

This survey template is designed for organizations that operate day shelters providing daytime services, safe space, and resources to individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness. Unlike overnight emergency shelters, day shelters offer a critical refuge during daytime hours, giving guests access to bathrooms, laundry, meals, case management, and a place to rest, recharge, and connect with services. Gathering guest feedback is essential to ensuring these environments are welcoming, safe, and effective at helping people move toward stability.

Day shelter guests are among the most visible and often most vulnerable members of the homeless community. Many are unsheltered, managing complex physical and mental health conditions without consistent care, and face significant barriers to accessing mainstream services. Day shelters often serve as a trusted bridge between street life and formal service systems. Understanding whether guests feel genuinely welcome, respected, and well-served is critical to maintaining that trust.

This template captures guest experiences across core service areas, including the physical environment and cleanliness of the space, the quality and accessibility of meals and hygiene facilities, the helpfulness and demeanor of staff and volunteers, access to case management and referrals to housing or health services, and whether guests feel safe and treated with dignity while at the shelter.

Regular analysis of survey responses allows day shelter managers to make operational improvements, address emerging safety concerns, and ensure services remain aligned with the needs of the population they serve. Feedback data can also be used to demonstrate program effectiveness to funders and local government partners, advocate for expanded resources, and inform the design of additional services that guests have identified as important to their path toward stability.