San Francisco’s winter homeless shelter program will begin on Sunday, allowing shelter guests to stay in one place for seven days and receive two meals each day.
However, those in need of shelter are required to collect a ticket at each active shelter site prior to being granted access.
Winter homeless shelter program spaces are reserved on a first come, first served basis each Sunday and will operate through February 27, 2016.
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said San Francisco is “a compassionate city” and applauded Episcopal Community Services and the San Francisco Interfaith Council, who worked in partnership with the Human Services Agency, as they have for 27 years, to “ensure those on our streets have refuge from the cold and wet weather expected this winter season.”
Michael Pappas, executive director of the San Francisco Interfaith Council said St. Boniface Church, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption and the First Unitarian Universalist Society of SF, will be opening their doors to house the homeless while forty congregations will be preparing and serving meals “during this cold and rainy season, to provide for the essential needs of our City’s most vulnerable residents.”
Women in need of shelter can go to a year-round location at Bethel A.M.E. Church at 916 Laguna St.
The first location in the Emergency Winter Shelter Program to host additional winter shelter beds for single men is St. Boniface Church at 133 Golden Gate Ave.
Those in need of a place to sleep can go to St. Boniface Church on Sunday, no earlier than 30 minutes prior to the doors opening, to receive a ticket. Outside lineup begins at 5:30 p.m.
These spaces are not reserved through the regular adult emergency shelter reservation system, CHANGES, according to city officials.
Beginning Dec. 12, those in need of a bed should go to St. Mark’s Lutheran Church located at 1031 Franklin St. through Dec. 15. Outside lineup begins 6 p.m.
Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption at 1111 Gough St. will be open from Dec. 16 through Jan. 16. Outside lineup begins at 6 p.m.
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church will reopen to house the homeless again on Jan. 17 through Feb. 6. Outside lineup begins at 6 p.m.
From Feb. 7 through Feb. 27, the First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco at 1187 Franklin St. will be open for those in need of shelter. Outside lineup begins at 6 p.m.
Each location can house between 60 and 100 men.
Shelter guests are not allowed to store belongings at the shelter but are invited to store some belongings at the city’s Homeless Storage Facility at 350 Jones St.
Hannah Albarazi, Bay City News
