A new partnership means homeless families won’t have to choose between assistance from a shelter and their pet.
Many overnight shelters don’t take people with dogs or cats.
To help, a PetSmart in Jefferson County is the first in metro Denver to support a national program to provide shelter for dogs and cats belonging to homeless families going through an assistance program.
to provide temporary shelter through affiliates such as schools or churches. But, oftentimes, it cannot accommodate a family’s pet.
“Now, through this program, families don’t have to make that choice,” Andy Izquierdo, PetSmart vice president of corporate affairs, said of the PetSmart Promise program.
Previously, homeless families were faced with a choice of giving up their pet, leaving it with a friend or not going into a shelter or a program.
The PetSmart at 8500 W. Crestline Ave. joined the program in the past few weeks, working with a local chapter of Family Promise. Sixteen PetSmarts across 13 states have recently joined the partnership that started in 2012 in Phoenix.
Families going through a Family Promise program can be in a shelter on average between 60 and 90 days, and sometimes longer. The participating PetSmarts offers free stays in their pet hotels, typically reserved for boarded animals while owners are on vacation.
Pets staying through the program receive the same care that boarded animals receive, including the interaction with other animals outdoors. The pets also receive wellness checks.
“The dog is treated like another member of the PetSmart family,” Izquierdo said.
Family Promise has 185 networks in 42 states across the country. Its network in Colorado Springs, for example, has been partnered with a local PetSmart for the past year. Prior to that, said executive director Michael Royal, the group would have to have some tough conversations with families who had pets.
“That’s a hard message to bring to a family,” Royal said. “Especially for kids, having to part with loved animal is way beyond painful.”
Royal recalled one family that was able to board their pet at a Pet-Smart pet hotel. A single mom and her two sons had been sleeping in a car because it was their best option to hold on to their dog. While living at a Family Promise shelter, the family would go to PetSmart on weekends to visit their dog and take it on hikes in the area.
In Jefferson County, the Human Services department gives out motel vouchers on cold nights, but only three take dogs, and only if it’s a service dog or a family with a dog.
Lynn Ann Huizingh, who runs the said people with pets can create an issue at a shelter. Severe Weather Shelter Network has several participating churches in the Littleton area.
“The challenge in hosting someone, or a family, with a pet is that we never know how other shelter guests will respond to the pet,” she said.
She added that she’s glad to see a service like this to serve people in the area.
“It gives them peace of mind to know their loved pet is being cared for and can be retrieved once their situation has stabilized,” she said.
Izquierdo said the Littleton PetSmart has not yet hosted a pet from a homeless family, but he expects that to change soon.
“For families going through a really tough time, to be able to keep family together, including the four-legged members, is more important than ever,” he said.
Joe Vaccarelli: 303-954-2396, jvaccarelli@denverpost.com
