For years, a group of local congregations have set up beds for homeless people during the winter.
The Interfaith Shelter Network of San Diego remains both a lifeline amid dropping temperatures and a way to bolster the region’s increasingly strained system of year-round facilities.
But after upheaval from the pandemic and a host of other pressures, only about half as many places remain available.
“Life has been very difficult for faith communities these days,” said the Very Rev. Penny Bridges, dean of St Paul’s Cathedral by Balboa Park in San Diego.
In 2018, nearly 70 congregations were each able to sleep around a dozen people during two-week rotations, and there were discussions about keeping the network online every month. COVID-19 halted that momentum, and during the shutdown the network pivoted by helping people stay in hotels.
When the Rotational Shelter Program fully came back last winter, there were only 28 facilities still available.
This season there will be around 30, according to Joe Zilvinskis, the network’s director of operations.
There are many reasons for the drop.
Attendance at religious services nationwide had been declining for years before The Pew Research Center tracked a further dip in COVID’s wake.
Lower membership can mean fewer volunteers to staff each site and less money to cover costs. Some churches have kept the lights on by taking space once used as a shelter and renting it to other organizations or turning a building into a business, like a day care, Zilvinskis said.
Other places shuttered completely. “COVID did a body blow to everybody,” he said, “and for congregations it was particularly hard.”
This also means the program has a shortened window. While the network used to open in October, this year it launched early January.
Two sites are opening simultaneously at the beginning, although future weeks will have more, Zilvinskis added.
Some churches have had to bow out, at least temporarily, for reasons unrelated to the pandemic.
La Mesa First United Methodist Church needs to complete building repairs before hosting again, according to Pastor Christian DeMent. But they’ve still sent volunteers to help at another site.
“Our hope is to return,” DeMent said.
St Paul’s Cathedral, the Episcopal congregation near Balboa Park, similarly wants to offer space down the line, perhaps through building a facility permanently devoted to homelessness services. Regardless, the church is invested in other ways, including by hosting Voices of Our City Choir, which is made up of people who are or were homeless.
Interfaith Shelter Network has worked with a variety of organizations, including the Church of Latter Day Saints and the San Diego Islamic Center, and offers additional supportive services like the El Nido transitional housing program for domestic violence survivors.
The nonprofit had $2.9 million in revenue in 2021, which more than covered expenses, according to the most recent tax records available.
