The Stay Over Program is a located at Buena Vista Horace Mann Community School (BVHM) K-8 School in the Mission District. This first-of-a-kind program is a cross-sector collaboration between San Francisco Unified School District, City of San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) and Dolores Street Community Services. In 2017, sixty-four families whose children attend BVHM lacked safe or stable housing. In order to provide a safe place for these housing insecure BVHM families to sleep at night, the school leadership proposed piloting an overnight sleeping program for up to 20 BVHM families (with a maximum of 60 individuals) at a time, in the school’s gymnasium. The Stay Over Program was championed by District 9 Supervisor Hilary Ronen and her staff who successfully secured funding for the pilot program through the mayor’s office.
Dolores Street Community Services was selected as the provider of the innovative Stay Over Program which began operating the program on November 15, 2018. This program works to connect participating families with resources and services to help them secure a more stable housing situation. During the 2017-2018 school year, San Francisco Unified School District had approximately 1,915 students who were facing homelessness.