Inside ESP’s effort to provide shelter and dignity to the unhoused

Volunteers at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Mount Kisco serving dinner to men in the Emergency Shelter Partnership (ESP) program. COURTESY OF NORTHERN WESTCHESTER HOSPITAL

By LAURA JOSEPH MOGIL 

Now that nights are getting colder, the Mount Kisco-based Emergency Shelter Partnership has kicked into high gear to provide shelter and food to the unhoused adult population in northern Westchester. Composed of a network of more than 35 houses of worship, ESP has offered their services for over two decades to the homeless during the winter months.

“This organization is necessary to keep people alive,” said ESP President JoAnne Hochstein, a lifelong resident of Mount Kisco and a congregant of St. Francis of Assisi Parish. ”The unhoused population that we serve makes do during the warmer months, but, once the temperature turns cold, people’s lives are at stake. Do we really want to be a community that isn’t sensitive to that?”

Hochstein said that the need for an emergency shelter program became apparent back in 2004, when a homeless man died of exposure in the woods of northern Westchester. This tragedy prompted a group of individuals to join forces with the Mount Kisco Drug and Alcohol Abuse Prevention Council, the Northern Westchester Interfaith Clergy Association, and the leadership of the Mount Kisco to address the problem.

ESP operates through two separate, but similar branches: Mount Kisco (east location) and Ossining (west location). Participating houses of worship in the east location include Armonk, Bedford, Chappaqua, Katonah and Mount Kisco, host about 20 individuals who are homeless seven days a week on a rotating basis. Congregations take turns hosting the shelter for one to two weeks. The program runs from the last week of October until the end of March. 

The partnership’s west location serving Briarcliff Manor, Croton-on-Hudson, Ossining, Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown started several years ago and has a similar program that begins in December and runs for 16 weeks.

For ESP’s east location, the unhoused participants (all men, except for one woman this year) gather at an appointed time each night behind the police station in Mount Kisco. There, they meet a paid, bilingual night supervisor and are transported by the partnership’s vans to the hosting location. The guests are given a hot meal, a place to sleep, a sleeping bag, breakfast the next morning and a lunch to take with them. A large percentage return night after night.

In addition to providing ESP with volunteer manpower, the houses of worship each make a monetary contribution to help pay for the supervisors’ salaries as well as transportation, insurance, sleeping bags, towels, toiletries and, at times, clothing.

Enid Linden has co-chaired the ESP program at Temple Shaaray Tefila in Bedford Corners for 13 years.

“For the upcoming winter season, Shaaray Tefila is looking forward to serving as an ESP shelter for the unhoused for the first week of March 2026,” she said. 

“Most of the guests we serve are immigrant day laborers and they are connected to us through a referral from an agency such as Neighbors Link.” 

The shelter participants arrive at about 8:45 p.m., and are served dinner in the temple’s social hall. After the meal, they go to an adjacent room where they can lay out the sleeping bags that they’ve been given and store their personal belongings in cubbies that were created by the temple for this program. Participants are welcome to keep their items at the temple if they are planning to return, so that they don’t have to take everything with them during the day.

“Along with food and a sleeping bag, we usually provide such items as toiletries, socks, and underwear,” Linden said. “Sometimes the last location where the men were staying will tell us what they need at the moment (like sweatshirts) and we will get them.”

Linden spoke proudly of the involvement of “our youth group at Shaaray Tefila, which is now called the Teen Center. Historically, the youth group would meet once a week and prepare dinner for the ESP volunteers to serve,” she said.

In recent years, teens have stayed to serve dinner and interact with the guests. Many of the students speak Spanish and have struck up conversations, she observed. 

“It’s not just ‘hello’ and “how are you?’ They are really sitting down and talking with them,” Linden said. 

ESP also has a large group of community supporters that provide a variety of services to shelter participants, ranging from COVID-19 and flu shots from Northern Westchester Hospital to nutritious food donated by The Pantry. 

Prior to COVID-19, guests could shower weekly at the Boys & Girls Club of Northern Westchester, now they shower at St. Francis of Assisi. In addition, the men are given tokens to help pay for their laundry needs.

According to Hochstein, while there are success stories of men moving out of homelessness, they are few and far between. “A few years ago a man showed up at St. Francis of Assisi and said he had heard about us and was in need of help. He was a former financial advisor who had lost his job, family and home,” she recalled. “We welcomed him for two seasons, and then he advised us that he had secured a job and a place to live. He thanked us for the warm place to sleep, the wonderful food and the kindness extended to him during his time of need.”

There are many ways individuals and local businesses can support the program, ESP officials said. Financial donations are highly appreciated, and ESP always welcomes the community’s support, from serving or providing meals to donating clothing and personal hygiene items. 

For more information, go to esp-ny.org or email info@esp-ny.org.