Software for Homeless Shelters: Bed Boards, Referrals and Case Notes You Build Yourself

Mythex lets a homeless shelter build its own live bed board, a referral portal where outreach teams see free beds without phoning, secure guest records with key worker notes, and the occupancy reports funders ask for. You describe how your shelter runs in chat, check it in a live preview and publish it to a real address.

What a shelter needs from its systems

The busiest moment is the evening. Beds are allocated, sign-in sheets fill up, and the phone rings with outreach workers, hospital discharge teams and police asking whether there is anything left tonight. During the day key workers chase benefit claims, GP appointments and move-on housing, and their notes often sit in a funder's system nobody else can open. When the cold weather protocol starts, emergency beds and extra volunteers appear overnight. Good software here does three plain things: it shows the true bed count to the people who need it, it keeps sensitive support notes restricted, and it turns the nightly records into the numbers funders and councils want at renewal.

A bed board by type: men's, women's, emergency, held
Referrals logged with source and a decision
Case notes with author, date and restricted access
Night staff alerts without full case histories
Move-on outcomes recorded for every departure
Occupancy and turn-away figures for funders

What you can build for homeless shelters

A referral portal that ends the 11pm phone round

Outreach teams, hospitals and partner charities log in and see a count of free beds by type, nothing more. They submit a referral with the details your staff need to assess risk and fit, and each partner sees only its own referrals and what happened to them. Guest names and case information never reach the partner view.

Build a referral portal for our homeless shelter. Partner organisations log in and see tonight's free beds by type (men's, women's, emergency) as counts only. They submit referrals with the person's needs, risks and support already in place, and see the status of their own referrals. Staff accept or decline each referral with a reason.

Guest records that follow the person, not the shift

Each guest has a bed history, key worker, referral source and support plan goals. Notes carry an author and date and are visible only to staff who need them. Night staff get a short flag about a known risk or health need. When someone leaves, the move-on destination is recorded, even if it is unknown.

Create a guest records app for a shelter. Each guest has stays with bed and dates, a key worker, referral source, support plan goals and dated case notes. Night staff see only short risk and health flags; key workers and managers see full notes. Record a move-on outcome when a stay ends.

The numbers your next funding bid needs

Tonight's beds as occupied, empty or held. Referrals received and turned away, with the reason, including plain 'full'. Average length of stay and move-on outcomes per quarter. Each table exports to CSV so it can go straight into a monitoring return.

Build a dashboard for our shelter showing tonight's bed occupancy by type, referrals received and turned away by reason each month, average length of stay, and move-on outcomes per quarter. Let me export each table to CSV for funder reports.

A rota that will not leave a night shift short

Waking night, sleeping night and day shifts each have a minimum staffing level, and the rota flags any shift below it days ahead. Volunteers for meals and evening activities sit next to paid staff, and the rota checks that whoever is on has done the training the role requires.

Make a staff and volunteer rota for a homeless shelter with waking night, sleeping night and day shifts. Each shift has a minimum number of paid staff, volunteers fill meal and activity slots, and the rota warns when a shift is under minimum or someone lacks required training.

Donation stock that tells donors what to bring

Clothing by type and size, toiletries, bedding and sleeping bags counted as they go out, donated food with use-by dates so the kitchen uses the oldest first. Low counts feed a 'what we need this week' list you can publish, so donors stop bringing coats when you need socks.

Build a donations stock app for a shelter. Track clothing by type and size, toiletries, bedding and food batches with use-by dates. Mark items handed out, show what is running low, and publish a public 'what we need this week' list from the low items.

A help page that works on a cracked phone

The top of the site says how to get a bed tonight: the phone number, check-in time, referral routes and whether walk-ins are accepted. What guests can bring, such as a dog or a partner, comes next. Donors, volunteers and referrers each have their own section further down.

Build a website for our homeless shelter. The first screen shows our phone number, tonight's check-in time and how to get a referral, in short plain sentences. Add separate sections for referrers, donors with a weekly wish list, and volunteers with a sign-up form.

Guest data deserves more care than most

Shelter records describe vulnerable people: health, offending history, immigration status, the person they are hiding from. Build roles from the start, so partners see counts, night staff see flags and only key workers read notes. Ask for a log of who opened which record. If you serve people fleeing violence, keep the address off every public page. Check the data protection rules that apply where you operate and agree the setup with your safeguarding lead before go-live.

Partner view: bed counts and their own referrals only
Night view: short alerts, no history
Key worker view: full notes, logged access

From the bed board on the office wall to a live count

Start with one thing: the bed board. Enter your beds and their types, and have staff mark each one occupied, empty or held at evening allocation. Once that is reliable, open the count to partners. Case notes and reports come after, when staff trust the system. A shelter that tries to move everything in one month usually ends up back on paper.

Questions

Can outreach teams see free beds without calling us?

Yes. A partner login can show a live count of free beds by type and nothing else. Staff update the bed board at allocation, and the count changes for partners straight away.

Can we keep case notes private from volunteers?

Yes. Ask for roles when you build it. Volunteers can see the rota and meal numbers, night staff see short risk flags, and only key workers and managers open full notes.

Can it produce reports for our funders and council?

If the stays, referrals and outcomes are recorded, you can describe the report in chat and it is built as a view with a CSV export. Many shelters start with occupancy, turn-aways and move-on outcomes.

Do our staff need technical skills?

No. You describe what you want in plain language, try it in the live preview and change it by chatting. Staff use the published app in a normal browser.

Is there a free option for a small charity?

The Free plan needs no card and gives daily credits to build and publish. Pro is $25 a month and adds a custom domain, code editing, export and more credits.

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