Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Anchor of Hope Homes is a veteran founded nonprofit organization providing transitional and long term shared housing across Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, California. In this policy, "Anchor of Hope Homes," "we," "us," and "our" refer to Anchor of Hope Homes. "You" refers to anyone who visits our website, submits a form, applies for housing, lives in one of our homes, donates, or partners with us.

This policy applies to anchorofhopehomes.org, any pages or forms we host under that domain, our digital business cards, and the phone, text, and email communications we exchange with you. It does not apply to websites operated by other organizations, even when we link to them.

2. Information we collect

We only ask for information we actually need. What we collect depends on how you interact with us.

Information you give us directly

• Contact and inquiry forms. Your name, email address, phone number, the organization you represent if any, the reason you are reaching out, and whatever you choose to write in the message field.
• Housing applications. Information needed to determine eligibility and to place you safely and appropriately. This is described in section 3.
• Partner, referral, and donor forms. Your name, organization, role, contact details, and the details of your inquiry or referral.
• Donations. Your name, contact details, and the amount and date of your gift. Payment card numbers and bank details are entered directly into our payment processor and are never stored on our systems.
• Direct communication. Anything you tell us by phone, text, email, website chat, or in person.

Information we collect automatically

• Basic technical data when you visit the site, such as IP address, browser type, device type, referring page, pages viewed, and time on page.
• Whether an email we sent to you was opened or a link inside it was clicked.

Information we receive from others

• Referrals from case managers, veteran service organizations, reentry programs, recovery programs, hospitals, shelters, family members, and other community partners.
• Verification information from references, prior housing providers, or employers when you have authorized us to contact them.

3. Sensitive information in housing applications

To place someone into a shared home safely, we have to ask questions that are personal. Depending on your situation, a housing application may ask about military service and discharge status, income and benefits, employment, identification documents, emergency contacts, criminal or reentry history, recovery status and sobriety, physical or mental health needs that affect housing, and accessibility accommodations.

Anchor of Hope Homes is a housing provider. We are not a licensed medical, clinical, or treatment facility, and we do not provide medical care. If you choose to share health related details with us, we treat them as confidential and limit access to staff who need them for housing purposes.

4. How we use your information

• To respond to your question, call, text, or form submission.
• To review housing applications, determine eligibility, and make placement decisions.
• To manage residency, including agreements, payments, maintenance requests, and house communication.
• To coordinate care and support with the case manager, program, or referring partner you have authorized us to work with.
• To process, acknowledge, and receipt donations, and to keep the financial records a nonprofit is required to keep.
• To send updates, newsletters, and program news to people who asked to receive them.
• To report aggregate, de identified outcomes to funders, grantmakers, and the community. These reports never identify an individual.
• To improve our website, our programs, and our services.
• To meet legal, tax, insurance, audit, and grant obligations, and to protect the safety of residents, staff, and property.

5. Text messaging and calls

When you give us your mobile number through a form, by texting us, or by telling a staff member, you agree that we may contact you at that number by call and by text about your inquiry, your application, and your residency.

• Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply.
• Reply STOP to any text to opt out of further messages. Reply HELP for help.
• Opting out of texts does not remove you from our records and does not affect your housing application. We will contact you by phone or email instead.
• Consent to receive texts is never a condition of applying for housing or receiving services.

6. How we share information

We share personal information only in the situations below.

• With your permission. For example, when you ask us to coordinate with your case manager, a referring program, a family member, or a veteran service officer.
• With service providers who operate our systems on our behalf, under contracts that require them to protect the information and use it only for us. See section 8.
• With housing and support partners when it is necessary to place you, verify eligibility, or deliver a service you requested.
• With funders and auditors in the form of aggregate, de identified reporting. Where a specific grant requires individual level reporting, we will tell you before you enroll in that program.
• When the law requires it, including a valid subpoena, court order, or lawful request from a government authority.
• To protect people. When we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to prevent imminent harm to you or someone else, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of residents, staff, or the organization.
• In an organizational change, such as a merger with another nonprofit or a transfer of programs, in which case the receiving organization is bound by this policy.

7. We do not sell your information

We do not sell, rent, trade, or lease personal information to anyone. We do not share your information with advertisers or data brokers. We do not share donor lists with other organizations.

8. Service providers we rely on

Like most organizations, we use outside technology to operate. The categories are:

• Customer relationship and communication software that stores contacts and sends our email and text messages.
• Website hosting, form processing, and secure database storage.
• Email delivery services.
• Payment processing for donations and resident payments.
• Website analytics.
• Document storage and electronic signature tools.

These providers are permitted to use your information only to deliver their service to us. If you would like to know which specific vendors we use, email us at [email protected] and we will tell you.

9. Cookies and website analytics

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies to keep the site working correctly, remember your preferences, and understand which pages people find useful. Most browsers let you refuse or delete cookies through their settings. Blocking cookies may cause parts of the site, such as forms and chat, to stop working properly.

We do not currently use cookies to build advertising profiles or to target you with ads on other websites. If that ever changes, we will update this policy first.

10. How long we keep information

We keep personal information only as long as we need it for the purpose it was collected, and then for the period required by law, by our insurers, by our auditors, or by grant agreements.

• Website inquiries that do not become applications: generally up to two years.
• Housing applications that are not approved: generally up to three years, so we can show our eligibility decisions were consistent and fair.
• Resident records: for the length of residency and for the period afterward required by law and by our insurance and grant obligations.
• Donation records: for the period required by tax and nonprofit recordkeeping rules.

When a retention period ends, we delete the information or remove the details that identify you.

11. How we protect information

We use access controls, encrypted connections, encrypted storage, and staff training to protect personal information. Only staff and authorized partners who need information to do their job are given access to it.

No system is perfectly secure. We cannot guarantee that information sent to us over the internet, by email, or by text is completely protected in transit. Please do not send sensitive documents such as identification, medical records, or financial statements by unsecured email or text. Contact us and we will give you a secure way to send them.

12. Your choices and your rights

You may ask us to:

• Tell you what personal information we hold about you.
• Give you a copy of it.
• Correct information that is wrong or out of date.
• Delete information, where we are not required to keep it by law, contract, or a grant obligation.
• Stop sending you marketing emails or text messages.
• Withdraw a permission you previously gave us to share information with a partner.

To make a request, email [email protected] or call us. We will confirm your identity before acting, and we will respond within 45 days. There is no cost to make a request, and exercising these rights will never affect your housing application, your residency, or the services you receive.

You can unsubscribe from any marketing email using the link at the bottom of that email, and you can stop texts by replying STOP. We will still contact you about your application, your residency, or a safety matter.

13. California residents

We are a California nonprofit serving California residents. California's consumer privacy laws, including the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended, apply to for profit businesses and generally do not apply to nonprofit organizations like ours. We have chosen to extend the core protections anyway: we tell you what we collect and why, we do not sell or share your personal information, and we honor requests to access, correct, and delete as described in section 12.

California's Shine the Light law gives residents the right to ask whether a business shared personal information with third parties for those parties' direct marketing. We do not do this.

14. Children and minors

Our housing programs serve adults, and our website is not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18 through this website. If a minor is part of a household we serve, we collect information about that minor only from the responsible adult and only as needed to provide housing. If you believe a child has given us information through the website, contact us and we will delete it.

15. Links to other websites

Our site may link to partner organizations, veteran resources, crisis lines, and donation platforms. Those organizations have their own privacy practices, and we are not responsible for them. Please read their policies before giving them your information.

16. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as our programs and systems change. When we do, we will change the effective date at the top of this page. If a change materially affects how we use information you already gave us, we will make a reasonable effort to notify you directly by email or text before the change takes effect.

17. How to reach us

If you have a question about this policy, want to make a request about your information, or want to raise a concern about how your information was handled, contact us. A real person will respond.