Let’s do the impossible: End the growing crisis of street homelessness—and build a national stewardship movement in the process.

Francis of Assisi—the name sake of San Francisco—famously challenged us to take action when facing seemingly insurmountable humanitarian issues: “First do what’s necessary, then do what’s possible, and soon you will be doing the impossible.”

Challenge accepted.

Founded in San Francisco in 2015, Saint Francis Challenge (SFC) emerged with a bold mission: To end the crisis conditions of street homelessness through informed action, mutual accountability, and scalable policy. Since day one, we’ve embraced Saint Francis’ simple yet powerful mandate to do necessary and possible work in pursuit of transformative change.

Do what’s necessary. Do what’s possible. Innovate for the greater good.

SFC started where the need was greatest—addressing the needs of people living in and impacted by unsanctioned street encampments—and partnered with encampment residents, neighbors, volunteers, service providers, SFPD, city departments, elected officials, and community leaders to pilot scalable solutions and shape local, regional, and state policy. Our innovative pilots and policy work supported the proliferation of cabin villages, safe outdoor shelter, and interim housing in San Francisco and throughout California and the country as actionable ways to end the crisis conditions of street homelessness.

B.E.S.T. Places, Resident Steward Pilots, and Resident Steward Corps

For more than a decade, SFC has worked to co-create places of Belonging, Essential Needs, Shared Agreements, and Teamwork—aka B.E.S.T. Places—through Resident Steward pilots in encampments, shelters, supported housing, and farming communities.

Headquartered in Northern New Mexico since mid-2020, SFC works with local and state government, housing and shelter providers and residents, service providers, and volunteers to conduct research and pilot programming that addresses needs and improves the experience of residents, providers, and neighbors of supported shelter and housing communities.

We are now doing the necessary and possible work to scale what we have developed through our Resident Steward pilots into America’s next service tradition: a Resident Steward Corps that connects the dots between supporting people stabilizing from the crisis of homelessness and strengthening the places and communities where they stabilize.

SFC’s Resident Steward Values

At Saint Francis Challenge, our values have evolved through real world practice. Since 2015—working with large encampments to city-sanctioned supported outdoor shelter—we’ve iterated, refined, and pressure-tested what works across residents, staff, neighbors, and stakeholders with differing motivations and strategies. Out of that lived experience, we organized our learning into a framework of 10 foundational values that guide how—and why—we do this work.

1. You Belong

2. Your Needs Matter

3. Be a Team Player

4. Consider Your Impact

5. Love your Neighbor—Even if You Don’t Like Them

6. Be Humble and Be Curious to Do What’s Right

7. Stand up for Truth, Safety, and Well-Being for Everyone—Yes Everyone!

8. There’s no Shame in Our Game—Shine a Light with Grace

9. Seek Win-Win Solutions

10. Critique when Necessary, Give Credit When Due, Work Together When Possible

We invite you to adopt these values as-is—or use them as a starting point for your own shared agreements—and join us in building safe communities grounded in mutual accountability for shared agreements.

Founder/Director: Amy Farah Weiss

Amy Farah Weiss is the Founder and Director of Saint Francis Challenge, a nonprofit she launched in 2015 with a mission to take on the challenge of ending street homelessness. AFW brings more than two decades of experience designing, implementing, managing, and evaluating social service programs, community initiatives, and housing-related interventions. She holds an undergraduate degree in sociology and a master’s degree in organizational development, and works as a practitioner-researcher focused on values, behavior, belonging, and community design.

Informed by formal study, fieldwork, and formative years of direct-service work in shelters, transitional housing, and behavioral health settings—as well as volunteering on organic farms and in healing communities—Weiss emphasizes the importance of identifying and practicing values to live by. Through Saint Francis Challenge, she advances Resident Stewardship as a new American pathway of interdependence: helping people belong, stabilize, and contribute to the places they call home.

• “Trump Wants People Off the Streets? Let’s Build Scalable Options that Work.” by AFW/SFC (2025)

• SF Chronicle: “With an extra $492 million to spend, S.F. needs a plan to end street homelessness” by AFW/SFC (2020)

• SF Examiner: “Addressing SF’s anticipated shelter service gaps with Safe Organized Spaces” by AFW/SFC (2019)

• SF Chronicle: "A better approach to homeless encampments" by AFW/SFC (2016)

Selected Collaborations, Partnerships and Funders

City of Santa Fe • City of Ojai • Intersection for the Arts • San Francisco Foundation • University of Tennessee, Knoxville • MIT’s J-PAL (Poverty Action Lab) • The Life Link • Consuelo’s Emergency Shelter • St. Elizabeth’s Shelter • Santa Fe Suites • SOS Arroyo Chamiso • DignityMoves • SOS Richmond • Vital Spaces • YWAM SF • Resolana Farms • Fibershed • Urban Alchemy • Mission Creek Merchants Association • Downtown Streets Team • Mission Housing • Asian Neighborhood Design • Lava Mae • Artists Building Communities • Dykes With Drills • Chico Housing Action Team • Moksha Designs • Tenderloin Community Benefit District • ImpactHUB SF