The Haven's goal is to get older adults into permanent housing in 90 days. Here's how it's going

In January, one of the first emergency shelters for seniors opened its doors. The goal was to get older clients settled into permanent housing within 90 days. Now that first group who moved in are approaching that 90-day mark.

Nathan Smith is the CEO of CASS, the state’s largest mass shelter. He also oversees The Haven, a temporary shelter for unhoused individuals 55 and older.

"And we know that, as an emergency shelter, our 90-day target is never going to be 90 days for every person. Some people are going to resolve, self-resolve within a week, maybe even a couple of days in many cases, and others are going to take much longer than that 90 days," Smith said.

And that’s what’s happening with their first cohort, he said.

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"So while they're continuing to improve their quality of life while staying with us, again, a very important target for us, we're having to scoot their target exit out a little bit to accommodate any number of things that are still lingering," Smith said.

That might include a dementia diagnosis or a serious mental illness.

"And so for us, the rule has always been, as long as a person's working their case plan and they're making efforts to get out of there, and to get to something better, then we're happy to extend them until they get to that point. And so with our first cohort of people who are at that 90-day mark, that's exactly what's happening," Smith said.

Smith said The Haven is not yet at capacity but expects rooms to be filled by summer.