SF working to shelter homeless

SAN FRANCISCO

There are about 1200 beds available for the homeless in the City of San Francisco including 80 at the Trinity Episcopal Church on Bush and Gough.

The City is also prepared to open up more shelters if needed.

The Interfaith Winter Shelter Program has been going for about three weeks. It rotates through four different churches that contain 60 to 100 beds each. The men there are served dinner and breakfast.

The City is also sending out outreach patrols to convince the homeless to come to shelters when it gets extremely cold.

"As the weather gets colder we have a candid conversation with them with the fact that they're at risk being out there and we'd like them to come inside," said Dariush Kayhan the San Francisco Homeless Policy Director.

The outreach team said they already found one homeless man suffering from hypothermia and took him to the hospital.

The City has also put the Disaster Response Shelter Program on notice. It is normally used during natural disasters like an earthquake and can house hundreds and even thousands of people at city sites like recreation centers or schools.

That would go into effect if the demand increases past the normal capacity.

Saturday will be the last night the Interfaith Winter Shelter is held at the Trinity Episcopal Church. On Sunday it will move to Saint Mary's Cathedral on Geary and Gough.

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