211 appears to be a governmental agency. It is in fact a non profit run by the United Way. Part of the intake for information is a survey of personal questions heavily focused on if you have children or are pregnant. Despite the fact that strangers are taking information from you, and we have no way of knowing if they are paid or volunteers, how truly confidential the information is, THEY DO HAVE ACCESS TO PUBLIC DATABASES SUCH AS CITY AND COUNTY LISTS OF KNOWN HOMELESS.
We called to help a senior citizen friend and played it that we had just met him. When asked his name the operator said he was "long term homeless" and so she could not send him to a shelter. (Considering that it takes a short 6 months to be considered a habitually homeless person what did she mean by long term?)
We explained that he was a senior, neat and clean, and appeared normal (not mentally ill). She said she would contact someone in social services for the county and the last we saw him it was late at night, hours had passed, and he was still waiting for a call back or a ride to the skid row shelters.
211 is, in the opinion of many homeless people, to be avoided.
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