Family Emergency Shelter Coalition (FESCO)

Family Emergency Shelter Coalition’s mission is to support homeless families as they move from crisis to stability, end their homelessness, and find a place called home. In the execution of its mission, FESCO is motivated by the following values and beliefs:

• Communities have a responsibility to ensure that every child has a safe and decent place to live and sufficient nutrition to thrive.

• Self-reliance creates self-respect, which strengthens families, individuals, and communities.

• All people, regardless of their circumstances, deserve to be treated with respect, fairness, dignity.

• Accountability is fundamental to the success of the people we serve and our organization.

Family Emergency Shelter Coalition (FESCO) was founded in 1986 by a coalition of area churches/ community members to address their concerns about the growing number of families falling into homelessness in Mid-Alameda County. In its founding documents, special emphasis was placed on keeping families together during their period of homelessness. Thus, in addition to serving single mothers with children, we serve single fathers/two-parent families with children, and families that include a teenage boy. We are the only shelter agency in Mid-Alameda County that serves fathers.

Today, FESCO is comprised of 22 churches and community leaders in Mid-Alameda County. FESCO serves low and extremely low-income homeless families with food, emergency, transitional, and permanent housing, and supportive services in furtherance of its mission to move these families toward self-sufficiency and permanent housing.