Shelter Ships

Shelter Ships reimagines San Francisco’s dormant waterfront and decommissioned cruise ships as a bold response to homelessness. Moored along the city’s unused piers, these retired vessels are transformed into floating campuses of care: safe, dignified places where people can stabilize, rebuild, and grow.

Each ship functions not only as a shelter but as a transitional community. Residents have access to meals, healthcare, and counseling, while also participating in structured training programs that teach marketable skills from culinary arts and maintenance trades to maritime operations and hospitality. The goal is not simply to provide a bed, but to create real pathways toward employment, stability, and long-term housing.

By turning symbols of leisure into vessels of renewal, Shelter Ships offers a scalable, sustainable model for addressing homelessness. It is a vision of transforming idle infrastructure into platforms of opportunity; anchoring hope, dignity, and possibility at the edge of every port.