About Us

The Emergency Shelter Network (ESN) consists of 41 respite bed sites, located in all 5 boroughs of New York City. During the winter months, the capacity of the network exceeds 400 beds. The Emergency Shelter Network is not a governmental agency. Our network is an alternative to the City-operated shelters for homeless adult individuals. It is the ESN’s belief that the personal attention, intimate setting (member shelters can typically accommodate between 10 and 20 guests), and most importantly respect, give our guests a firm foundation to move out of homelessness, ESN’s ultimate goal. ESN is a subsidiary organization of New York Disaster Interfaith Services (NYDIS).

OUR HISTORY

In January of 1983, then Mayor Ed Koch, in a speech given at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, implored the faith-based community to help with the problem of the growing numbers of homeless in the city. Several congregations responded and a network of volunteer-run shelters was born.

In 2008, this network of shelters formalized their common cause and became known as the Emergency Shelter Network (ESN-NYC). In 2013, after thirty years of providing shelter and assistance to the homeless, the ESN was established as a 501(c)(3) organization devoted to serving its members and their mission to provide shelter, assistance, and support to their homeless guests.

OUR MISSION

The ESN-NYC’s organizational mission encompasses four main areas:

SERVICE: Aids and supports member shelters with operational issues.
REPRESENTATION: Represents all of the member shelters in the network.
FUNDRAISING: Provides funding to offset member shelter expenditures.
ADVOCACY: Advocates on issues specific to its members as well as on behalf of the homeless guests served by the network.

There are over 10,000 churches, synagogues, mosques, and other community organizations in New York City. Many of these organizations operate shelters or participate in hunger and homelessness issues in other ways. One of the major challenges for both providers and for the homeless is the high degree of provider fragmentation, lack of coordination, and poor information resources. In the future, E.S.N. will look to share information we have aggregated on non-member faith-based and community organizations that also provide shelter.

OUR PROGRAMS & SERVICES

The Emergency Shelter Network’s organizational mission encompasses four main areas:

ADVOCACY: Advocates on issues specific to its members as well as on behalf of the homeless guests served by the network.
DEVELOPMENT: Provides funding to support member shelters & shelter innovation projects as well as trainings.
SERVICES:
REPRESENTATION: Represents all of the member shelters in the network.

There are over 10,000 churches, synagogues, mosques, and other community organizations in New York City. Many of these organizations operate shelters, or participate in hunger and homelessness issues in other ways. One of the major challenges for both providers and for the homeless is the high degree of provider fragmentation, lack of coordination, and poor information resources. In the future, ESN will look to share information we have aggregated on non-member faith-based and community organizations that also provide shelter.

Privacy Statement and Terms of Use

Data Collection

The Emergency Shelter Network (ESN) is committed to respecting the privacy and the confidentiality of information provided to it or which it collects.

ESN collects and manages several types of personal information:

1. Donor Data
	a.	Information that individuals provide to ESN through online donations or mail

2. HOWCALM®
	a.	Information that organizations provide to ESN when they register at the HOWCALM® data-collecting website;
	b.	Information that individuals provide to ESN through the HOWCALM® website or by e-mail; and
	c.	Information that the HOWCALM® website mechanically collects when the site is accessed by secure users.
3. ESN
	a.	Information that individuals provide or that ESN collects; email and contact information on all subscribers

	b.	We collect cookies
4. Unmet Needs Roundtable Clients
	a.	Information collected at meetings

Privacy Statement

With regard to individuals, if you choose to provide us with personal information about yourself, either through a form on one of our websites or by e-mail, we may collect and use that information (and have it updated when necessary) to contact you or to send you additional information. By registering or participating in any one of the above, you are subscribing to our e-mail communications – ESN. Users may unsubscribe at any time. By providing us the information, you are authorizing us to use it to achieve the purposes of our programs.

In an effort to make these websites more “user friendly” and useful, we track a small amount of information regarding site access and use. This includes what pages on our sites are accessed and when they are accessed. Such tracking does not determine or identify by name the individual using the website (the system only maintains the user information that users choose to provide). We utilize “cookies” as part of this effort. Cookies are a small file containing a string of characters which are written onto your computer’s hard drive through your browser that uniquely identifies your browser. We use cookies to improve the quality of our service by storing user preferences and tracking user trends. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies, but you can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, some features and services on this site may not function properly if your cookies are disabled.

We do not sell, rent, trade, or otherwise transfer any personally identifiable information (such as social security numbers) provided by our visitors or others to any unrelated third party or for commercial gain or profit, and as a matter of practice do not share it with governmental entities, law enforcement, or investigators. However, we may share it with related entities such as the New York City Office of Emergency Management or as may be required under applicable laws or by order of competent authorities.

We will use the information provided to collaborate with the New York City government to fulfill the purposes of HOWCALM®. This is limited to publicly available information such as facility addresses and phone numbers and does not include individual information. The exception is with regard to homebound congregational members so that evacuation/rescue information can be provided to emergency personnel, with such personnel then having the responsibility to perform such evacuation/rescue if necessary and appropriate. (ESN cannot guarantee that such personnel will in fact perform such evacuation/rescue services.) Participants can choose to not participate at any time.

Although on this restricted user access website we use password protection and other technical security and organizational measures that we believe to be appropriate to protect the limited personal and/or confidential identifying information disclosed to us on our websites or otherwise, we do not guarantee that our security precautions will protect against, and we expressly disclaim any liability for, any loss, misuse, or alteration of your information or from your access to or use of our information.

Bear in mind that links provided from our websites may be to sites not under the control of ESN and which may have a different privacy policies. This privacy statement applies solely to personal information that is provided to or collected by ESN, so we urge you to be careful when you provide any personal information to others or on other websites. ESN accepts no responsibility or liability for misuse of personal information by any other entity or website.

Your use of ESN websites constitutes your acceptance of the terms of this privacy statement as indicated. ESN reserves the right to modify this privacy statement if deemed necessary. Your subsequent continued use of this website constitutes your acceptance of such revised terms.

ESN will retain information provided or obtained for as long as is necessary to achieve the purposes of NYC disaster readiness, response, and recovery, as well as to comply with applicable laws or orders of competent authorities.

If you do not want ESN to further use (beyond the legal requirements noted above and beyond the information that is publicly available) information previously given to us by you including on or through our websites to contact you, or if you wish to correct such information, please contact us at the address provided.

Terms of Use

Please read this disclaimer carefully before using this website. By accessing the website, you further agree to be bound by the terms and conditions below.

ESN presents the information on our websites as a service to the public and to participants in faith-based emergency management. We make no warranty or guarantee concerning the accuracy or reliability of the content at this site or other sites to which we link. No representations whatsoever are made herein. Our websites and the information and other material available on or accessible from our websites are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of title, non-infringement, or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. ESN does not warrant that the websites’ services will be uninterrupted or error free or that any information, software or other material available on or accessible through the website is free of viruses, worms, trojan horses or other harmful components.

Under no circumstances shall ESN be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, punitive or consequential damages that result in any way from your use of or inability to use the website or your reliance on or use of information or materials provided on or through the website, or that result from mistakes, omissions, interruptions, deletion of files, errors, defects, delays in operation, or transmission, or any failure of performance, or the acts or omissions of third parties.

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold ESN harmless from any and all liabilities, costs and expenses, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, related to any violation of these terms and conditions by you.

Links from our websites to external sites are provided as a courtesy and are not an endorsement or approval of the content or viewpoints of such external sites.

All trademarks of others as may appear on this website are trademarks of their respective owners. All copyrighted materials of others as may appear on this website are the copyrights of their owners. Any unauthorized downloading and distribution of any copyrighted material from this site or sites to which we link, without the copyright owner’s permission, is strictly prohibited.

Corporate Transparency

As a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit, NYDIS embraces the values of accountability and transparency as a matter of ethical leadership, as well as legal compliance. On this page, NYDIS provides seven years of financial documentation.

About Us

OUR HISTORY

OUR MISSION

The ESN-NYC’s organizational mission encompasses four main areas:

OUR PROGRAMS & SERVICES

The Emergency Shelter Network’s organizational mission encompasses four main areas:

Privacy Statement and Terms of Use

Data Collection

Data Collection

Privacy Statement

Terms of Use

Corporate Transparency

Annual Impact Statistics

Audits & Tax Returns

Tax Exempt Documents

Governance Documents