evidoria

← Back to browse

Good practice

ShelterConnect — Free WiFi Networks for San Francisco's Shelters and SROs

United States of America · San Francisco · See the United States of America profile

Founded by a formerly homeless welder, ShelterTech has installed free WiFi in 24 San Francisco shelters, SROs and supportive-housing sites and built a peer directory now used by roughly 16,000 people a month, funded via a $12,000-per-building, five-year model.

24
WiFi installations (2026)
~16,000
Monthly users (WiFi + service directory)
~150,000
Annual users (WiFi + service directory)
ShelterConnect — Free WiFi Networks for San Francisco's Shelters and SROs

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
ShelterTech
Period
2015–present
Keywords
digital inclusion, homelessness services, community wifi, nonprofit tech

Context

ShelterTech was founded in San Francisco in 2015 by Darcel Jackson; its ShelterConnect programme installs free WiFi in shelters, SRO hotels and supportive-housing buildings via ISP MonkeyBrains and Cisco hardware, coordinated with the City of San Francisco's Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development.

Results

As of 2026, ShelterTech reports 24 WiFi installations, sustained through a funding model of roughly USD 12,000 per building for five years of connectivity. Across the WiFi installations and its SF Service Guide directory (3,000+ services from 460+ organisations), ShelterTech reports roughly 16,000 monthly users and 150,000 users annually.

Conclusions

These figures come from ShelterTech's own reporting rather than an independent external evaluation, and combine WiFi and directory services rather than isolating ShelterConnect's impact alone.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

Similar practices you may find useful