How We Built Instant Shelter Booking Platform for US Social Services
We partnered with ReloShare to build the nation's first real-time shelter availability platform that transforms how social service agencies find emergency housing for vulnerable populations. The platform provides live, nationwide bed inventory with a search-once-see-everywhere approach, enabling agencies to instantly find appropriate shelter placements. With de-identified referrals protecting client privacy and streamlined reporting for compliance, the platform has dramatically reduced the time it takes to place individuals in crisis from days to minutes.
20,000+
shelter beds managed
95%
reduction in placement time
700+
agencies connected
“They cared about the work we were doing, and we considered them part of our team.”
John Moats
CTO, ReloShare
MTechZilla provides UI/UX design and custom software development services for ReloShare. Our team has collaborated on multiple projects including the shelter availability platform, helping them build technology that makes a real difference for vulnerable populations.
Client Introduction
ReloShare is a Chicago-based technology company dedicated to revolutionising emergency housing access for vulnerable populations. Beyond their hotel booking platform, they identified a critical gap in the shelter ecosystem: agencies had no way to see real-time bed availability across shelters. Case managers spent hours calling shelters one by one, only to find beds had already been filled. The shelter availability platform was created to solve this coordination problem at a national scale.
- Industry: Social Services Technology
- Region: United States (Nationwide operations)
- Company Stage: Growth-stage startup
- Primary Users: Shelter administrators, case managers, social workers, victim advocates
What We Did
We built a comprehensive shelter coordination platform with two primary interfaces. For shelter providers, we created a simple dashboard where staff can update bed availability in real-time, specifying bed types, demographics served, and special requirements. For agencies, we built a powerful search interface that queries the entire network simultaneously—search once, see everywhere. The platform includes de-identified referral capabilities that protect client privacy while enabling shelter placements, plus robust reporting tools that streamline compliance and grant documentation.
How We Did It
Development began with extensive research into the shelter ecosystem, understanding the unique challenges shelters face with fluctuating capacity and the urgent needs of agencies trying to place clients. We designed an event-driven architecture that ensures bed availability updates propagate instantly across the network. The search functionality considers multiple factors including demographics, services offered, accessibility requirements, and geographic proximity. We implemented privacy-preserving referral workflows that share only essential information, and built analytics dashboards that help both shelters and agencies track outcomes and generate reports for funders.
Tech Stack & Integrations
Overcoming Challenges
- Real-time availability across thousands of shelters: We implemented an event-driven architecture with instant updates that ensures agencies always see current bed counts, not stale data from hours ago.
- Protecting client privacy during referrals: Built de-identified referral workflows that allow placements without exposing sensitive client information, crucial for domestic violence survivors and those fleeing dangerous situations.
- Diverse shelter requirements and demographics: Created flexible filtering that accounts for age restrictions, gender requirements, family configurations, accessibility needs, sobriety requirements, and other shelter-specific criteria.
- Encouraging shelter participation: Designed an intuitive interface that makes updating availability as simple as possible, reducing the administrative burden on already-stretched shelter staff.
- Compliance and grant reporting: Built comprehensive reporting tools that automatically generate the documentation agencies and shelters need for funders, HMIS reporting, and outcome tracking.
Result & Impact
The platform has fundamentally changed how agencies find shelter placements for clients in crisis. What previously required hours of phone calls to individual shelters—often resulting in dead ends as beds filled while agencies were still searching—now takes seconds through the platform. The real-time visibility has reduced placement time by 95%, meaning people in crisis get to safety faster.
Qualitative Wins
- First nationwide real-time shelter availability platform
- 12 months free access offered to expand adoption
- Eliminated the frustrating phone-call-by-phone-call search process
- Protected client privacy through de-identified referral system
- Streamlined compliance reporting for shelters and agencies
Frequently Asked Questions
How does the shelter platform differ from the hotel booking platform?
The hotel booking platform is for emergency hotel accommodations when shelter isn't available or appropriate. The shelter coordination platform provides real-time visibility into bed availability across the shelter network. Together, they give agencies comprehensive options for placing clients in crisis.
How do shelters update their availability?
Shelter staff access a simple dashboard where they can update bed counts, mark beds as available or occupied, and specify any requirements or restrictions. The interface is designed to take seconds, minimising the administrative burden on shelter staff who are already stretched thin.
How does the de-identified referral system work?
When an agency finds an appropriate shelter through the platform, they can initiate a referral that shares only essential information—bed requirements, timing, and basic demographics—without exposing the client's identity. This protects vulnerable populations, especially domestic violence survivors who need anonymity for safety.
Can the platform integrate with existing shelter management systems?
Yes, the platform is designed to complement existing systems. We built APIs that can sync with popular shelter management software, and the platform can feed data into HMIS (Homeless Management Information System) for compliance reporting.
What is the typical timeline for building a platform like this?
The shelter platform was developed as part of our ongoing partnership with the client, building on the architectural patterns established with the hotel booking platform. New shelter coordination features typically take 4-8 weeks from design to deployment, with continuous iteration based on user feedback from shelters and agencies.
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