# City Research Checklist Use this checklist to research and review every city page. It follows the full category structure used by the New York City page, but the services themselves must always be researched locally. Never copy a resource, telephone number, eligibility rule, or schedule from another city. The objective is not to fill sections with weak listings. The objective is to find as much useful, current, verifiable help as the city can support. A major city will normally need several resources in the most important categories. A smaller locality may need fewer resources or links to the nearest regional service. ## Research standard - Research every category below before deciding whether it belongs on the page. - Include all useful verified resources; there is no arbitrary maximum per category. - Prefer official government and organization pages. Use a reliable directory only to discover a service, then confirm it with the provider. - Record the exact date on which the information was checked. - Call or email the organization when its official information is unclear, if practical. - Distinguish a walk-in service from an appointment, registration, assessment, referral, or outreach service. - Distinguish an administrative office from the place where help is actually delivered. - Never promise a bed, meal, appointment, benefit, job, or approval. - Do not publish a time, fare, capacity, address, or access rule unless a source supports it. - A name and location with an honest service description can still be useful when current hours are unavailable. Say that the visitor should call first. - Do not publish confidential shelter addresses, particularly for domestic-violence services. - If a category has no verified local result, omit it from the public page and record `Not found` or `Not applicable` in the research log. ## Information to collect for each resource 1. Official organization and service name. 2. What the service actually provides. 3. Street address or honest description of an outreach area. 4. Telephone number and, when useful, another contact method. 5. Current hours or a clear statement that hours were not published. 6. Who can use it: age, gender, household, residency, income, documents, immigration status, or other eligibility. 7. How to access it: walk-in, call first, appointment, registration, interview, assessment, referral, or street outreach. 8. Any cost, capacity limit, deadline, documents, or safety caveat. 9. Religious identity and whether religious participation is required, when applicable. 10. Official source links and the verification date. ## Category-by-category research ### 1. Emergency shelters Find the first contact for someone who has nowhere safe to sleep tonight, intake or assessment locations, emergency and overnight shelters, seasonal responses, and transitional accommodation. Separate services for single adults, couples, families, young people, women, men, pets, substance use, or other specific needs. Explain whether access is walk-in or by referral and never guarantee a bed. ### 2. Free food Find free hot meals, soup kitchens, mobile meal routes, food banks, community kitchens, parish programs, and emergency grocery support. State the meal days and times only when verified. Explain registration, referral, identification, or catchment-area rules. ### 3. Churches and religious organizations Look for several practical options when they exist, including Cáritas or its local equivalent, parish groups, church missions, mosques, temples, gurdwaras, synagogues, ecumenical charities, and other faith-based services. Describe concrete help such as food, clothing, shelter, casework, or pastoral care. State the tradition and whether worship or religious participation is required. Do not assume that it is required when the source does not say so. ### 4. Showers and laundry Find free showers, public bathhouses, laundry, hygiene centres, day centres, and hygiene-product distribution. State whether towels, toiletries, booking, referral, or identification are needed. ### 5. Free clothing Find clothes banks, coats, underwear, socks, shoes, blankets, interview clothing, and seasonal distribution. Include size, frequency, referral, and identification rules when published. ### 6. Free or low-cost medical care Find primary care, mental health, dental care, prescriptions, nursing, sexual health, addiction treatment, harm reduction, and mobile clinics. Put emergency medical instructions first and explain any health-system registration requirements. ### 7. Public toilets Find free toilets in libraries, transport hubs, municipal buildings, parks, day centres, and other dependable locations. Record opening hours and accessibility when possible. ### 8. Phone charging and internet Find libraries, day centres, free Wi-Fi, public computers, charging points, printing, telephone access, and help creating an email account. Explain library-card or identification requirements. ### 9. Free or reduced transportation Find charity travel passes, reduced public-transport fares, shelter or outreach transport, medical travel, and emergency journey assistance. State eligibility and never imply that ordinary transit is free. ### 10. Government benefits Link the official applications and local offices for food, cash, health, housing, disability, unemployment, rent, energy, and emergency assistance. Explain the main eligibility conditions briefly and never guarantee approval. ### 11. Employment assistance Find public employment centres, job placement, vocational training, résumé and interview help, computers, work clothing, and programs for people facing homelessness. Add practical guidance for applying without a permanent address, telephone, computer, or complete documents. ### 12. Free legal aid Find free help with housing, eviction, benefits, debt, employment, immigration, identification, family matters, and discrimination. Explain intake hours, subject limits, and financial eligibility. ### 13. Documents and identification Explain how to obtain or replace identification, birth certificates, driving licences, tax or social-security documents, residence papers, and local equivalents. Find organizations that can help with fees or applications. ### 14. Mailing address Find authorized mail collection, care-of addresses, postal general delivery, and services that receive mail for active clients. Never advise someone to use an address without permission. ### 15. Storage services Find free or low-cost storage, day-centre lockers, and official rules for belongings in shelters or public spaces. Explain size, time, access, and identification rules. ### 16. Veterans or locally equivalent groups Find veteran housing, health care, benefits, employment, crisis, and legal services. Where the country has no direct equivalent, research other nationally recognized groups with dedicated support and label them accurately. ### 17. Domestic violence support Find confidential hotlines, safety planning, emergency housing, health care, legal help, and services for all relevant survivor groups. Never publish a confidential shelter address. ### 18. Help for people with pets Find pet-friendly accommodation, temporary fostering, food, veterinary care, vaccination, licensing, and service-animal rules. Tell the shelter or intake contact that the person has an animal before travel. ### 19. Airport transportation For cities with a major airport, document the cheapest practical official public route to the city and toward the main intake area. Include approximate fares only with an official source and a verification date. ### 20. Other useful resources Research street outreach, day centres, drinking water, warming and cooling centres, libraries, community centres, immigration support, disability support, youth services, and other practical local help that does not fit above. ## Reusable research log Copy this table into a working note while researching a city. The working note does not need to be published with the page. | Category | Status | Resources verified | Important gap or next check | | --- | --- | ---: | --- | | Emergency shelters | Not started | 0 | | | Free food | Not started | 0 | | | Churches and religious organizations | Not started | 0 | Check Cáritas or local equivalent | | Showers and laundry | Not started | 0 | | | Free clothing | Not started | 0 | | | Medical care | Not started | 0 | | | Public toilets | Not started | 0 | | | Charging and internet | Not started | 0 | | | Transportation | Not started | 0 | | | Government benefits | Not started | 0 | | | Employment | Not started | 0 | | | Legal aid | Not started | 0 | | | Documents | Not started | 0 | | | Mailing address | Not started | 0 | | | Storage | Not started | 0 | | | Veterans or equivalent | Not started | 0 | | | Domestic violence | Not started | 0 | | | Pets | Not started | 0 | | | Airport transportation | Not started | 0 | | | Other resources | Not started | 0 | | Use `Verified`, `Needs confirmation`, `Not found`, or `Not applicable` as the final status. Add the reason and the sources checked when a category is omitted. ## Final page review - Emergency instructions are visible before the contents list. - Major categories contain several options when the research found them. - The wording makes access conditions and uncertainty clear. - Official government benefits and emergency links are included. - Each resource has a source and verification date where practical. - Duplicate entries in different categories add useful category-specific information. - Every telephone link, internal anchor, breadcrumb, and source link has been checked. - The page contains no JavaScript, cookies, images, emojis, external fonts, embeds, or external dependencies. - The page remains readable on a narrow screen, with CSS disabled, when printed, and when saved offline.