Update for 2010-2011 Rotating Shelter

To learn about this year’s rotating shelter please contact

The Rev. Paul Gaffney, Director

Be safe, warm and dry!

Earthship to Green Village. . .Come In

New Homes in Haiti

Swimming for Shore

“Shelter Skelter” (Pacific Sun)

“I appreciate the article, Peter.  I would just add a current analogy:  a lake is full of drowning people splashing around for some stability, some footing–land; others stand on the shoreline watching, some throwing life-rings or ropes, a few wading in but not getting too close; some are paid big bucks to study the lake; and others–a safe, warm and dry distance away–spend years devising a plan to build a big expensive floating raft for the center of the lake. I think this hints at my personal disappointment after years of trying to swim with some of our weary and waterlogged neighbors.”

No More Shelters?

“What Happens Next Winter?”

(letter to the Marin Independent Journal)

The Emergency Continues

The Emergency Shelter is Closed as of Today, April 1, 2010.

And, the Daily Emergency of Homelessness continues.

To those who return to the streets, the search for a place to belong, and illegal sleeping:  Take Care.  You are not forgotten.

Green Village

Along with the Open Table and other relational ideas for continuing relationships, check out the new Green Village idea!

Lifeboat Lines

NEW!  Please Visit the Lifeboat Lines Page

with Listings of some Great People looking for

Work, Housing and Community!

Buskers for Change

I asked one of our staff guys what he was going to do when the shelter closes and he loses his job and shelter.  He answered, “I’ll be out buskering again.”  I smiled and so did he.  Almost funny.  Almost.

A busker:  “one who entertains in a public place for donations” (from Spanish, buscar: to look for).  Sounds like the 20 years I spent as a chaplain.  Seemed I was always out buskering for a buck.  Sounds like what every agency and congregation has to do to survive.  Doesn’t it?  We’re all looking for something–asking, begging.  Aren’t we?

So, my fellow buskers, let’s play a tune that will do something Our Community has never seen!  Let’s “entertain” some new ideas that will bring in the gifts of housing, jobs and acceptance that will forever change the public arena–the stage where we all perform.

Come on, buskers!  Grab your oars and make doors, or guitars!

The End of Shelter

This Emergency Shelter will end March 31.

As we all know, the Emergency of Homelessness will Not End March 31.

But what if the end of THIS shelter signals the End of Shelter?  What if this is the beginning of the end of this madness of temporary sheltering in any of the forms we have known? 

What if THIS is one answer?

Is THIS another?

What if we, people concerned about our neighbors living outside, acted to open doors and create new doors to supportive community based on respect, health, cooperation and practical assistance?  In other words, what if we took the Workable Model of the Emergency Shelter and created housing, jobs and integrated environments throughout our Homeworld:  Marin?

What ideas, plans and strategies do YOU have?

It’s time to vision and put visions into action!

See more ideas on the Voyagers in April page.

50 Days

Only fifty days left of sheltering.  Seven Weeks.

What to do with all the good relationships, all the time, all the money and worry and hope?

Where art thou shelter?

What’s next for you, your congregation, our guests, our staff?

Fruitful questions. . .

Pass the fruit!