Originally Posted by MetroActive

The seeds of the Interfaith Satellite Shelter Program grew from a life-and-death situation, remembers co-founder Paul Lee. A UCSC professor and noted homeless activist, Lee says that he responded when a woman named Jane Imler vowed to fast to death unless shelter was provided to the homeless. Imler was on her 35th day when Lee and the late Page Smith opened a shelter on Cedar Street. It was during the winter of 1985, a year of horrendous storms, and the shelter quickly overflowed. Lee appealed to a friend, the Rev. Paul Pfotenhauer, to get his colleagues to open up their churches for overnight stays.