Stop sending people to ghost beds.
Polaris is a voice & SMS navigator for people facing housing insecurity — no app, no data, no smartphone. It understands a person's situation, finds eligible shelters, then calls to confirm a real bed before sending anyone across town.
On a real phone, text +1 (408) 889-7563 — SMS/voice wired for Twilio.
“open” shelter listings are already full by the time someone arrives
a wasted bus trip across town can cost — and the bed elsewhere too
beds Polaris reports as open without re-confirming them live
How Polaris works
Three steps, entirely over text or a phone call.
Understand
Polaris reads a plain-language message — “somewhere to sleep tonight, my 2 kids, no car” — and extracts the real constraints: urgency, family size, accessibility, transportation, ZIP.
Verify
Instead of trusting a stale list, Polaris places a real call to the shelter and asks one keypad question: do you have space tonight? Confirmed in seconds — the Ghost Bed Radar.
Route
Only a confirmed bed gets sent — with the address, intake cutoff, and a transit ETA. “Confirmed 12 seconds ago.” Dignity is being told the truth.
Any phone, no app
Plain SMS or a voice call. Built for a $20 flip phone with no data plan — the people who need it most.
Bilingual by default
Responds in English or Spanish automatically, matching how someone reaches out.
Privacy by design
No legal name, no SSN. Identified only by phone; shown on the board as a star name. Crisis messages route to 988, not a bot.