San Francisco community organizers on Saturday teamed up with city volunteers to create a pop-up homeless shelter as part of "The Saint Francisco Homelessness Challenge."
The challenge is meant to improve the lives of homeless people and encourage community involvement in the crisis, while the prototypes are meant to show city officials how such micro-shelters could work to improve livability on the streets.
The Saturday showcase, which took place at SOMArts, featured workshops for people who wanted to learn "compassionate communication" and conflict management for dealing with issues that arise on the streets.
TEAM marketing group also assisted during the event. The authorized Budget Mobile dealer helped people in need apply for and receive cell phones.
RouteHomes, a company that specializes in micro structures that are made from wooden shipping containers, used materials donated from tech companies to build the so-called "sleep sanctuaries."
Former San Francisco mayoral candidate Amy Farah Weiss and Ken Fisher of RouteHomes urged city officials to use public land that could "benefit from sanctioned monitoring" and "beautification."
"It is not only necessary and possible for San Francisco to provide increased access to secure sleep, hygienic toileting, and healing and transitional services for our homeless population – it is also more cost-effective than the status quo of criminalizing homelessness," Weiss said.
