As winter storms line up over Marin, a coalition of local nonprofits is quietly building a backstop for people sleeping outside when the county’s official emergency system stays dark.
Led by Ritter Center and Marin VOAD, the group is preparing to launch short-term, inclement-weather shelter sites this season to plug what they see as dangerous gaps in coverage. The pop-ups would open during rainy, cold or heat events that do not meet the county’s severe-weather activation thresholds, and would offer beds, meals and on-site medical and behavioral health support.
Organizers describe the effort as a direct response to the mounting toll among people living outside; county health officials estimate that 47 unhoused residents died in Marin last year.
How Marin’s severe-weather shelter is triggered
Marin’s official Severe Weather Emergency Shelter (SWES) only kicks in when specific National Weather Service forecasts are met, a system designed to target the most dangerous conditions. According to Marin Health and Human Services, SWES now activates when forecasters call for three nights at or below 36°F, or two nights at or below 45°F paired with at least an inch of rain each night, or when hazardous conditions such as high-wind warnings are issued.
The county says those criteria were reviewed and updated in late 2024 to better spell out when overnight sheltering is necessary.
What the nonprofits are proposing
The planning team centered on Ritter Center and Marin VOAD says its inclement-weather sites are meant to “supplement, not replace” SWES by catching the smaller storms and cold snaps that are miserable if you are sleeping in a car or a campsite but do not trip the county’s triggers.
As reported by the Marin Independent Journal, the coalition includes St. Vincent de Paul Society of Marin, Community Action Marin and Bolinas Cavalry Presbyterian Church. Organizers have already tested the concept with a daytime pilot activation at a Novato church, bringing services directly into a community space.
Numbers and the human toll
Marin’s most recent point-in-time count found roughly 1,090 people experiencing homelessness on a single night, with about 788 entirely unsheltered. Those numbers give a blunt sense of how far existing beds and programs have to stretch.
Local News Matters and county updates indicate that service gaps persist even as providers work to cover as much ground as they can with limited staff and funding.
Funding, logistics and who’s running overnight operations now
So far, the county has leaned on community providers to operate SWES when it activates. A recent Board of Supervisors agenda and supporting documents outline a FY2025–26 agreement with a provider to run the severe-weather shelter and related services.
County meeting records describe how officials coordinate meals, transportation and overnight logistics with nonprofit partners. In presentations to the Board, staff have noted that recent activations covered a relatively small number of nights and served a few hundred duplicated clients, which helps explain why local groups are pushing for more flexible, community-led responses to everything that falls just short of “severe.”
How organizers plan to operate the pop-ups
The nonprofit inclement-weather program is designed as a short-term, evening-to-morning shelter model, with a twist: outreach, case management and health care would be built into the sites instead of treated as add-ons.
Ritter Center and Marin VOAD are leading the organizing work for the coalition and have applied for small grants to staff the effort, according to the groups. For more on the organizations and how they mobilize during storms, see the Ritter Center and Marin VOAD.
What’s next
Organizers say they plan additional pilot activations, continued grant-seeking for modest staffing support and close coordination with county officials whenever SWES thresholds are met.
Residents and service providers can monitor Marin Health and Human Services for official activation notices and shelter status updates. The coalition’s near-term goal is straightforward: create safe, warm options for people sleeping outside during the next run of dangerous weather and cut down on harm that, in their view, does not need to happen.
