Shelters to expand hours for cold weather

Cold weather will remain in San Francisco through Friday and in response The City announced Wednesday that expanded services at homeless shelters that were implemented earlier this week would be maintained for at least two days longer.

City officials have directed all shelters to allow anyone who needs shelter to occupy any bed after 8 p.m., regardless of whether the person has a reservation, both tonight and Thursday night.

There are also additional shelters available. The Gene Friend Rec Center at 270 Sixth St. has room for 120 people on a 24-hour basis through Friday morning.

The Hummingbird Center at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, 887 Potrero Ave., has 20 spaces available on a 24-hour basis through Friday for people referred by the San Francisco Homeless Outreach Team.

There are also 100 spaces at the United Council on Human Services at 2111 Jennings St.

Other shelters are available at the MSC South Shelter at 525 Fifth St., the Next Door Shelter at 1001 Polk St. and at the First Unitarian Church at 1187 Franklin St.

Homeless outreach teams will be conducting street-level outreach to bring people into shelters, offering blankets and doing wellness checks.

A statement released by interim Mayor Mark Farrell said:

“Our efforts to bring people off the streets and into stable living conditions are even more critical when the City experiences such unusually cold weather.”

More cold weather safety tips are available at www.sfdem.org/cold-weather. To help someone in need of shelter, residents can call 311.