Since 1987, the mission of First Church Shelter has been to serve 14 men experiencing homelessness. It offers a safe space, home-cooked meals, and coaching. While in Shelter care, our guests strive to find housing, work, health services, and any other qualities of a good life they may need to get back on their feet. The Shelter aims to provide guests with a safe, dignified, and home-like space, along with hospitality and support, as they make steps to rebuild their lives. Guests are admitted via referrals from qualified professionals, and must not be dependent upon alcohol or drugs at the time of admission.
Circumstances for our 14 guests have become more difficult in recent years as housing availability, benefits bureaucracies, and costs in the greater Boston area have become barriers ever more difficult to surmount. As a result, the average stay of our guests lengthened during 2019 to about 7 months, and has slowed down even more as a result of the pandemic.With help from Homestart, Shelter staff offer guests support in the face of the often intimidating, difficult, and frustrating processes of identifying, applying for, securing, and waiting for public benefits and subsidized housing.
During non-COVID times, the Shelter opens at 6:00 every evening, and guests depart by 7:00 in the morning. In March 2020, however, the Shelter rapidly transitioned to become a daytime as well as a nighttime refuge for guests. It remains open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Are you looking for shelter?
Here are some Frequently Asked Questions for prospective guests.
Who can stay in the First Church Shelter?
How do I get in?
How long can I stay?
What are Shelter Hours?
What are First Church Shelter facilities like?
Can I stop by and talk to someone about admission to the Shelter?
Looking to Help Out?
Work Projects
Cooking Opportunites
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
DONATE EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS
Christmas Gifts for First Church Shelter Guests
Each Christmas the Shelter Oversight Committee tries to make sure each shelter guest receives $50 in CVS gift cards. Providing guests with these cards allows them to decide what they need or want. With the cards, they can buy socks, health or hygiene products, food, beverage, snacks etc. If you want to contribute towards the purchase of these cards, contact Shelter Director Jim Stewart.
Celebrating Dennis Kaveney at the
2024 Doris Beauvais Luncheon & Mitch Snyder Awards
On Sunday, October 27, 2024, the Shelter Oversight Committee and members of the First Church community recognized 37 years of faithful service to our poor and unhoused by longtime Shelter staffer Dennis Kaveney. Cambridge Mayor Denise Simmons presented a resolution passed unanimously by the Cambridge City Council recognizing and commending Dennis’s decades of service. We are so happy to celebrate Dennis, and we’re even happier to have him continue as a per diem employee of the Shelter after his recent retirement.
