History of SafeHouseReverend Glenda Hope is the Executive Director of San Francisco SafeHouse, a subsidiary of San Francisco Network Ministries. She is a Presbyterian Minister who has housed and served the people of the poorest neighborhoods of San Francisco for over 30 years. Her focus has always been to heal the poor and disenfranchised while calling on civic leaders to create safe and affordable housing. When these leaders fail to provide, Glenda takes matters into her own hands.
In the mid 1990s, a number of prostituted women were being severely assaulted and murdered in San Francisco. As Glenda spoke to the women who were still out there, the one thing she heard them saying, over and over again, was that they needed a safe place to live. This became SFNMs mission—to create a safe place for women to leave prostitution, to heal, and to transform their lives. In 1997, The Sisters of the Presentation, hearing about this vision, quickly joined in on the planning. A development committee was brought together, and a five year plan set in place; but in less than one year, a building had been secured, and a group of women leaders, including women who had survived prostitution, had moved the vision well beyond the planning stages. San Francisco SafeHouse became a program of SFNMHC, in collaboration with the Sisters of the Presentation, and was opened in January, 1998.
The Sisters of the Presentation have served the people of California since 1854 reaching out to all those in need, especially those who were most poor. In 1994, the Sisters embraced the following: “As women in the Church, we want to empower one another to minister to the poor, the needy, the marginalized, especially women, while working for structural change.” While this commitment statement has been refined over the years, it continues to serve as the lens through which decisions are made. When the opportunity to partner with San Francisco Network Ministries in the founding of SafeHouse presented itself, the Sisters responded enthusiastically, seeing it as the fulfillment of a dream (albeit more than 200 years later) of their foundress, Nano Nagle, who said that the next work she would take up was establishing “safe havens for boy and girl prostitutes”.
While SafeHouse was founded by two faith based organizations, no religious test or requirement is imposed and there is no intent or effort to proselytize.
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