Our Client Services Program includes the wide variety of assistance available to our clients including:

Client Services functions as the gateway to all other Samaritan House programs. Each month case workers provide 1 to 1 counseling to 400 clients in person and to another 50 by telephone.

Program Process
Clients have their initial meeting with a case worker who provides counseling, crisis intervention, and referrals based on an evaluation of their needs and qualifications for assistance. Case workers function as client advocates helping to wade through governmental assistance paperwork and information. The Client Services Program is located at 4031 Pacific Boulevard in San Mateo and serves residents of San Mateo County.

Case Management
Case Management, the process of evaluating the financial, health, educational and job needs of our clients, is the main activity of our Client Services Program. Case workers assess the needs of each family through a comprehensive Family Evaluation Model developed by social researchers at California State University-Monterey Bay. This model quantitatively evaluates the level of family functioning across a number of relevant indicators such as: Finances, Transportation, Health and Safety, Housing, Education, and many others. This evaluation technique helps the case worker understand both the needs of the family and the circumstances that have led the family to need assistance in the first place.

The case worker can then provide assistance through one of Samaritan House’s programs or create a referral to another agency in the community. Case workers also act as client advocates helping them translate, understand, and complete government paperwork with support throughout the assistance process.

Using the family evaluation model, case workers can reassess client families at a later time to gauge progress. By comparing scores from one evaluation to the next, progress can be tracked over time. This is important because it allows Samaritan House to evaluate its own services and determine if the explicit goal of helping clients increase their level of self-sufficiency is achieved.

Samaritan House also provides access to an on-site mental health specialist. This licensed counselor is funded by the San Mateo County Human Service Agency and provides individual family and group counseling sessions to Samaritan House clients. This position also oversees the women's support groups which primarily address issues of low self-esteem.

Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing (HPRP)
The goals of HPRP are (1) to provide short and medium-term rental assistance to people in need who would otherwise become homeless and (2) to rapidly re-house those who are already homeless. It is part of a federal economic stimulus program funded through the American Recovery and Re-Investment Act.

HPRP services include:

• Financial assistance: short-term or medium-term rental assistance, back rent, utilities and deposits.
• Housing relocation and stabilization services: housing placement and legal assistance (mediation/outreach with landlords, credit repair.).
• Moving cost assistance, storage fees.

San Mateo County Partner Agencies include:

• Coastside Hope, El Granada
• Community Legal Services, East Palo Alto
• Community overcoming Relationship Abuse (CORA), San Mateo
• El Concilio of San Mateo County, East Palo Alto
• Fair Oaks Community Center, Redwood City
• HIP Housing, San Mateo
• Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County, San Mateo
• North Peninsula Neighborhood Services Center, South San Francisco
• Pacifica Resource Center, Pacifica
• Puente de la Costa Sur, Pescadero
• Samaritan House, San Mateo
• Shelter Network, Burlingame

If you are at risk of becoming homeless, click here.
(En Español)

To learn more about the HPRP program in San Mateo County, click here.

Budgeting Classes
Budgeting Classes are taught in English and Spanish to help families meet their financial obligations and teach savings techniques. Complex issues such as debt consolidation and reduction are also tackled in the class.

Spanish Literacy Classes
Through experience, we have found that many clients struggled because they were not literate in their native language of Spanish. To address this, Samaritan House developed a Spanish Literacy Class to help Spanish speaking clients become literate in their own native tongue. Clients take pride in their Spanish literacy and build the confidence necessary to learn the English language.

Parenting Classes
Samaritan House offers a series of Parenting Classes during the school year. These classes discuss such topics as Proper Child Discipline, Health and Safety, Socialization, Stages of Child Development, and many others. The goal of these classes is to create the best possible environment for children in our community to grow and develop into healthy, happy, educated, and productive adults.

Lending Library
The Samaritan House Lending library was made possible through a generous grant from the Bring Me A Book Foundation™ and lends books to clients to take home and read to their children.

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