Welcome To Emergency Shelter Partnership

“Working Together to Meet Community Needs”


What is the Emergency Shelter Partnership?


The Emergency Shelter Partnership is an interfaith coalition of community and religious organizations working to find short term emergency shelter for those needing protection from the winter elements.


A Brief History:
In early December 2004, a group of concerned community leaders partnered with the Mount Kisco Drug and Alcohol Abuse Prevention Council, the Northern Westchester Interfaith Clergy Association, and the leadership of the Village of Mount Kisco, to address what it saw as a growing problem of homelessness in Northern Westchester County. Reports of homeless men suffering through severely cold winters and, in some cases, dying from exposure, mobilized the group to develop a program for a winter night emergency shelter. The core of the shelter concept consisted of a handful of churches and synagogues opening their doors to offer a safe place to sleep those in need of shelter.


The emergency shelter began operation on January 24, 2005 at the Bedford Presbyterian Church in Bedford Village, providing shelter for four men. Other local congregations agreed to participate; each providing at least two weeks of emergency shelter over the course of that winter.


Since then, this group effort, called the Emergency Shelter Partnership, has provided emergency shelter for the five coldest months of the year—November through March. More than a dozen religious organizations host the shelter, and many more community groups and individuals lend their support through donations of volunteers, meals, and funds.


This community effort has been a success: since the Emergency Shelter Partnership was established, there have been no reports of deaths from exposure to the winter cold.