At ReloShare, we understand the complex realities that social service providers face every day. That’s why we've assembled a team of industry experts—former shelter directors, nonprofit leaders, policy advocates, cybersecurity specialists, gender-based violence experts, and direct-service professionals—who have been exactly where Reloshare’s users are today.
In each installment of this series, you'll meet one of our team members, hear about their experiences, and learn actionable insights to enhance your community's emergency and transitional housing strategies. Best of all, Reloshare’s expertise is available to you free of charge as a Safe Stays or Grove customer.
Ready to rethink how your community approaches emergency housing?
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Megan Elbin— Senior Partnerships Account Executive, Safe Stays
Previous Experience: Front Line Advocate; Case Management Advocate; SOS Program Coordinator (24/7 hotline and hospital advocacy; Sexual Assault Response Team Coordinator
Previous Experience: See Megan's full background and connect with her on LinkedIn.
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Tell us briefly about your professional journey in social services. How did you get started, and what roles have you had?
My journey in social services began long before my professional career. Growing up in Florida, I witnessed firsthand the destruction caused by hurricanes. During middle and high school, my family and I volunteered with the Red Cross, distributing food, water, and essential supplies to those affected by storms and flooding. These early experiences sparked a lifelong commitment to serving vulnerable communities.
In college, I managed the Service Learning office, connecting students with local nonprofits and organizing our annual campus-wide day of service. That role gave me insight into the wide array of social service work being done and helped shape my vision for a career in the field.
I started volunteering at the local Family Justice Center (FJC), providing front desk and clerical support. I also trained to be a hotline and hospital advocate for the county’s SOS program, which was housed within the FJC. Near the end of my senior year, a new grant-funded position opened for a Front Line Advocate, and I was fortunate to be selected for the role. I became the first point of contact for survivors seeking help from the Family Justice Center, SVU detectives, prosecutors, and Adult Protective Services. Since the position was brand new, I had the opportunity to shape it from the ground up.
I quickly discovered that each office and agency had its own manual, paper-based processes. It was clear that technology could be better leveraged to reduce administrative work and free up more time for client care. Without a budget for custom tech solutions or formal training, I taught myself how to adapt our client management system. In January 2020, I led the transition from paper files to electronic case records across our team—a shift that proved invaluable when COVID-19 forced us to provide all services remotely just a few months later.
While serving as a Front Line Advocate, I also maintained a small client caseload. During the pandemic, that caseload grew, and I became the agency’s lead expert on stalking and sexual assault, offering legal advocacy and testifying in multiple trials. In 2021, I moved into a full-time Case Management Advocate role, providing wraparound services to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and trafficking. I remained focused on finding tech-driven solutions to streamline our work and enhance our services.
In early 2022, I stepped into the role of SOS and SART Coordinator. As an established hotline and hospital advocate, I had already built strong relationships with community partners, and this new position gave me the opportunity to strengthen our county’s response to sexual violence. A new grant offered the flexibility to explore tools based on effectiveness, not just affordability. That’s when I discovered ReloShare—and quickly implemented it as a key part of our toolkit.
By late 2023, I made the difficult decision to step away from direct service. My goal was to work for a tech company that builds innovative tools for the social services sector. Just a week later, I received a ReloShare newsletter that included a job posting, and I joined the Safe Stays team in October!
Describe how you first encountered ReloShare’s products. What problem were you looking to solve at that time?
I first encountered ReloShare when I received an email from their team (specifically from Mackenzie!) At the time, I had just stepped into a new role as my county’s Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) Coordinator. Our program had recently received a grant focused on leveraging technology to better serve survivors of sexual violence and increasing access to direct assistance, including housing, utilities, and other tangible needs.
Emergency housing was one of our biggest challenges. Our local shelter was only funded to house survivors if the offender lived in the home. But we knew that survivors often needed temporary shelter for safety and healing, even if their circumstances didn’t meet that narrow criterion. We were left wondering how we could provide safe, immediate housing for survivors of sexual violence who didn’t qualify for shelter beds.
We had tried using hotels in the past, but the process was cumbersome and unsustainable. It required middle-of-the-night calls to our Executive Director to access the agency credit card, lengthy phone calls to provide payment authorization, and informal agreements with local hotels that often fell apart when management changed. Like many in the nonprofit world, we found ways to make it work. That is, until the billing issues started. We were triple charged for a single stay, and then one of our clients was billed directly for the full amount. That was the breaking point. Our Executive Director decided we couldn’t continue placing clients in hotels without a reliable, streamlined process in place.
I believed deeply that hotel stays could be the most dignified and effective shelter solution for sexual assault survivors, but I didn’t know how to make it work safely or efficiently. So when I learned about Safe Stays, I was hopeful…but, truthfully, a bit skeptical. I had never heard of anything like it before and wondered what the catch might be.
After meeting with Mackenzie, seeing the platform in action, and learning that so many members of the Safe Stays team came from direct service roles themselves, I felt like I had struck gold. For the first time, it felt like someone had built a solution that truly understood–and solved–the real-world challenges we faced.
How did using ReloShare's products help you scale or launch your housing programs? Share specific outcomes or milestones.
ReloShare helped us launch a housing program we hadn't previously had the capacity to envision or implement on our own.
Although we initially planned to use Safe Stays exclusively for survivors of sexual assault, it quickly became clear that its benefits extended far beyond that. We expanded its use to support all survivors served by our center’s programs and community partners—including those experiencing domestic violence, stalking, and trafficking.
In just the first six months of our partnership with Safe Stays, we were able to provide emergency shelter to over 50 survivors who otherwise would not have had access to safe housing. It was a game-changer. Some of our most meaningful milestones included:
- Partnering with law enforcement on-scene to transport a survivor directly to a hotel instead of a shelter—something we had never been able to do before.
Providing emergency housing in rural parts of the state where no shelters existed, ensuring survivors didn’t have to choose between safety and staying in their community. - Supporting a mother and her children in fleeing the state, coordinating hotel stays across the country during their road trip to safely reunite with a supportive family member.
- Arranging hotel stays for multiple families after their children had experienced victimization—creating a more private, calm, and healing environment than a traditional shelter could offer.
Safe Stays didn’t just fill a gap, it helped us reimagine what emergency shelter could look like. It brought dignity, flexibility, and safety to our housing program in ways we hadn’t thought possible.
Why is it critical for social service agencies to develop robust emergency and transitional housing strategies today?
When I was in direct service, we accidentally developed a catchphrase: “Housing is always the biggest barrier.” Unfortunately, I have heard this repeated over and over by the agencies I get the opportunity to connect with at ReloShare.
There are housing crises in communities all across the country and the world. And the reality is that the tools and resources we rely on to respond to these crises cannot keep up with the demand. It is imperative, now more than ever, that agencies and communities as a whole develop innovative and collaborative housing solutions that align with the needs and existing resources of their communities. Some We know there is no, one-size-fits-all solution.
Additionally, Shelters may also be geographically unreachable or not inclusive of every population. Communal-living shelters often aren’t set up for LGBTQ individuals, men, multi-generational families, or people with pets. Historically, we’ve relied on brick-and-mortar shelters that require massive capital, ongoing maintenance, and staff resources, and they fill up quickly. So it’s crucial that agencies develop flexible, survivor-centered options like hotels to meet a wider variety of needs.
What’s one common challenge you see agencies facing when trying to improve their housing programs, and how do you typically advise them to address it?
One of the most common challenges I see is burnout leading to resistance to change. When individuals or teams are overwhelmed, it becomes incredibly difficult to maintain perspective or tap into creative problem-solving. In fact, decreased creativity is one of the most common (and overlooked) symptoms of burnout.
In that state of exhaustion, even positive or necessary changes can feel daunting. Big steps toward better systems often require upfront effort, and when people are already stretched thin, it’s natural to shy away from the unknown. Many agencies default to the same few well-known housing models, such as congregate shelters, transitional housing, and scattered-site support, because they’re familiar. There’s often fear around trying something new due to concerns about cost, uncertain outcomes, or the internal lift needed to launch something different.
When I speak with agencies facing these challenges, I encourage them to tap into their existing resources and relationships. Who in their community is already doing this work or having these conversations? How can they collaborate instead of building something from scratch? I also encourage them to seek out the voices of survivors and people with lived experience, who can offer fresh perspective and essential insight.
Finally, I remind them they don’t have to do it alone. Bringing in community partners, consultants, technical assistance providers, or innovative tech solutions can dramatically reduce the burden. These external collaborators often bring tried-and-true strategies and tools, helping teams move forward without having to reinvent the wheel.
Can you share a success story or memorable experience from your time working with an agency to improve their housing strategy using ReloShare’s products?
After joining the ReloShare team, I was eager to connect with agencies doing work similar to what I had done in my previous roles. One particularly meaningful experience was working with a victim service provider whose structure and mission closely mirrored the agency I came from. They were exploring ways to launch a hotel-based housing program in their community but weren’t quite sure where to begin.
I had the opportunity to meet not only with their internal team but also with members of their Coordinated Community Response (CCR) team to introduce Safe Stays and discuss how it could enhance their victim response efforts. We explored how the agency could use Safe Stays directly to meet urgent housing needs—and then we went a step further.
Drawing on my own background, I was able to offer insights into how Safe Stays could function as a community-wide solution, embedded within the broader CCR strategy. We discussed how law enforcement, healthcare partners, and other responders could use the platform to provide survivors with immediate, trauma-informed shelter options, without overburdening any one agency.
It was powerful to not only offer a practical tool but also to help envision how that tool could transform the way an entire community supports survivors. That experience reminded me exactly why I joined ReloShare: to help other agencies overcome the same barriers I once faced, and to reimagine what’s possible for survivor-centered housing.
What unique insights or strengths do you personally bring to the ReloShare team and the customers you support?
One of the most valuable insights I bring is the combination of firsthand experience in direct service and the broader perspective that comes from stepping outside of the day-to-day grind. I know what it feels like to juggle crisis response, paperwork, and client needs all at once, and I also understand how hard it can be to step back and imagine doing things differently when you're in the thick of it.
A core strength of mine is identifying areas of work that can be streamlined or reimagined for greater impact. I love digging into systems, spotting inefficiencies, and then developing and implementing tools or processes that make life easier for direct service providers. My goal is always the same: to reduce burnout, create breathing room, and help frontline teams spend more time doing what they do best: supporting survivors and vulnerable people.
If an agency is hesitant to explore new housing solutions or tools, what advice or encouragement would you offer them?
When I talk with agencies that are hesitant to explore new solutions, I encourage them to shift the question. Instead of asking, What might go wrong if we change? try asking, What might we be losing—or who might we be leaving behind—if we don’t?
Just because something has always been done a certain way doesn’t mean it’s the best way. In fact, it usually isn’t.
I also encourage agencies to connect with other providers who are testing new approaches or who have already found something that works. Hearing real stories, outcomes, and lessons learned can spark ideas, reduce uncertainty, and build the confidence needed to move forward. Collaboration often leads to innovation, and knowing you're not alone in the process makes all the difference.
Let’s Keep the Conversation Going
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