Human Options - Irvine, California

Chelsea S.

The staff does not keep the residents accountable regarding keeping the shared living environment clean. Some residents just leave disgusting messes everywhere, and the staff doesn't care. It's not hygienic for any children or adults to be living in. Residents just pile up their dishes in the sink, leave food thrown all around the living room, leave food that's been eaten off of in the microwave all day. The shared restrooms don't get cleaned and poop is smeared all over the toilet seats. The particular shelter I was placed in hadn't been cleaned by anyone for several days. I'm not sure what's going on with this shelter, but the staff needs to keep the residents accountable and hold them to their responsibilities. I guess the staff is just too lazy to care, but that won't help women improve themselves..... Please wake up people... It's not healthy for residents to be living in absolute filth for several days.... This is going to be reported to a higher authority, guaranteed. Photos of the disgusting filth is being taken and collected with a camera.

Amber E.

Great place when you need help. I see a lot of bad reviews here so I want to give my experience at Human Option's. The program I was in was the Emergency Shelter for DV. I literally just left yesterday after 3 weeks. This is a 45 day program, however I was offered a place at a transitional living program (with the assistance of my worker at Human Options) that had an available room and of course I couldn’t pass it up.

Human Options (or any other shelter) does not have a magic wand and will only work if you work the program and take control of your own success. They give you the tools, but you have to use the tools they give you. Be productive, be motivated, be willing to put in the work and you will see results. This is a great program because they let you decide how little or how much you participate in their meetings, and program events.

You get your own room and a shared communal space. If you are a single woman no kids then you share a bathroom with one other single woman. Then there are 3 rooms for a parent with children and they all have their own bathroom. All 5 of these rooms in one of the homes they provide (there are 2 homes for Emergency Shelter) You have daily chores (that as long as everyone picks up after themselves isn’t bad, but that’s not always the case). The woman who were in my home when I was there were always friendly and didn’t bother you when you were in your room. No phones on when you are on their property for safety reasons but that’s understandable. There is a curfew which is pretty reasonable, and you have to sign in and out when you leave the property but other than that you are free to live pretty normally without too many rules to hinder your progress in getting your life back together.

The staff was happy for me to get into a transitional housing and my case worker Donna always seemed like she really cared about my progress. I appreciate the short time i was able to spend here and it was well worth it. I can’t wait to see what my future holds for me, and this was one of my first major steps on putting the pieces back together.

If I have one suggestion for anyone staying here (or at any shelter) is to be involved in making your future. Don’t expect your case worker to waive a magic wand and make it all better. You got yourself here, be your own advocate. If your worker has sent your information to another organization to help you, get their phone number or ask to speak to someone at that organization so they see who YOU are and aren’t just reading your profile on a piece of paper. … you are more than your circumstances and if they are able to hear who you are, what your goals are, and your desire to fix your life you are more likely to stand out in their mind when they are looking to fill a spot.

Thank you again Human Options.

Black G. F. T.

They are racist. I had a back and pelvic injury from lifting a mop bucket there. They had me back on chores even though i wasnt completely healed. They dont offer African Americans extensions until they find transitional housing but has offered an extended stay for other races. They sent us to another emergency shelter with roaches and cold showers all the way in San Diego where there was no transitional housing openings and they knew it prior to me leaving. We get no help for transportation there and are now back in Orange County with a lack of funds for transitional housing. There are no black women employees and theres a very cold and mean hispanic employee that they have had multiple complaints about and its been ignored. They dont want you to say nothing about the staff there and if you do they want you out. They allowed a woman who had threatened to go on a killing spree stay there and she was in touch with her batterer and today is actively in touch with him at another transitional shelter. This place doesnt help african americans they get them out by any means necessary with no compassion for the children. Other races get to stay there and get the most help. There needs to be a discrimination lawsuit filed against Human Options.

Animate N. U.

So after I made the review on my opinion totally forgot to add they thought it would be a good idea to sabotage the court date which is very very illegal that proves that there guilty

Angel C.

The staff is awesome. On the other hand you have the heartless supervisor Ashley who's a liar and doesn't follow the current shelter policies. Terminated me and my children based on a new policy she plans to make in a future.

Jody S.

I relocated from another state away from my batterer.i have been in the state about 5 days. I stayed on the phone for 1 hr. I was told to call back and when I did first she couldn't find my info then when she found it she said my situation wasn't an emergency because I'm in a different state but no one had reviewed my intake yet so she made a 1 minute decision to say that I'm not in need of any emergency services.i have a teen and toddler with no money and was relocated by 2 domestic violence agencies and was turned away from a domestic violence shelter that provides services that help abuse victims.

Rosalba Z. (. E.

Human options is discriminating a woman with four small children born in the united states. They are sending her to the street she is desperate. She has no where to go. With her small kids. She is struggling to move forward. She has a child with austism and speech therapy. She's continued to ask for help to this association. Only to be given the cold shoulder and no compassion. They claim to be an association that helps those in need but they only commit these injustices. She is homeless and in need of help.

Kera W.

This place is very racist they don’t want to help me and my son because of the color of our skin. I feel afraid here they look at us like we don’t matter they helping everybody else to get housing and child care. When we first arrived the supervisor look at my us like he had something and also me they look at me like that I’m scare if the staff. Please everybody don’t go to human options they is very rude hung up in my face and racist they didn’t care about us.